Galleria Malvagio

Retuen to Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: Galleria Malvagio
GM: Jacqui Smith
Session: Summer 810 WK

Party:

• Phaeton - Male human solar celestial healer.
• Grendel - Male human mind/water mage.
• Vanderhan - Male human non-mage warrior.

Scribe Notes

3rd Heat 810 WK

I had sometimes wondered why all of our employers always seem to turn up at the beginning of each quarter. Tradition I suppose, and it's well known that this is the best time to obtain Guild Adventurers. However, sometimes, some prospective employers can't wait until the next quarter and this was one of these times. Unfortunately, they usually then have to take pot-luck on who they get or they find out who is available and then make specific requests.

I suspect the latter was in play as I received a summons to appear at the Guild. Seemed rather irregular but the messenger was definitely legit, with all the proper identity magics etc. I wasn't planning on going anywhere for a while, as I really wanted to get some spells mastered up as far as possible before going out again - unless it was a healing emergency, or a summons from the Church of Diancecht or the God Himself. Still, a summons from Guild Security ranked nearly as high and, it's not really good form to ignore them. Especially when it's in the small print of the membership agreement.

Fortunately, since I was in Seagate at the time, checking on the healing centre, I didn't have far to go. When I got there, I found Vanderhan waiting. Half an hour later, Grendel turned up. Looked like that was going to be it.

There wasn't really much that Guild Security could tell us. A camel had mysteriously appeared in the new stable extension and there was a message attached to it. The message read ...

Greetings and Salutations! I hope this missive finds you and good health and amenable to a mutually profitable business arrangement between us. Please come to my townhouse at 11 Vermillion Way in the Ivy District upon receipt of this message and I will endeavor to discuss the details with you further. Until then, farewell! - Asheron Coyl.

Investigation had determined that the back wall of that particular stall had become an inter-planar portal. From what they were saying, it was obvious that the Law of Contagion may have something to do with it, i.e. that the back wall of both stables were so identical that they became one, forming a portal.

Guild Security knew about it and a preliminary expedition had been sent through. The stable on the other side was connected to an inn called the Bright Hart in the city of Absalom. It was located on the plane of Golarion. The principle language was related to Tuscany but there was an accented Common.

We formalised and did the relevant paperwork to formalise us as a party which resulted in Grendel being both the party leader and military scientist and I was the scribe. Next, I obtained a Lesser. We then went down to Slippery Rock to get some restoratives. I got two rank tens to go with the collection of sixes I had at 1000sp each.

That night, I did my Reading the Night Sky Ritual to find out what we were letting ourselves in for and got this.

Murder most foul, as in the best it is But this most foul, strange and unnatural.

4th Heat WK

About mid morning the next day, we headed through. We needed directions to the address we were supposed to go to but Grendel decided we weren't going to walk straight into the inn. Instead, we headed out of the stable gates and into the street.

Grendel believed that our first priority was to get our currency changed to the local equivalent, especially since they used the gold standard instead of the silver standard as we did. So we found our way to the large open air market. I was curious to see what was there but not so the others. Instead we made our way to one of the buildings surrounding the market area, the one that was guarded. There, we converted our gold trade bars into local currency. Currently the conversion was 1000 Alusian to 950 local. The difference was most likely tax and fees.

We had lunch in a café that served food very similar to Seagate cuisine then, finally, asked for directions to the place we were supposed to go. Once we had those, we headed off to the required district. A few more enquiries later and we finally found the address.

However, it looked like we were too late. By the time we got there, we could see that the door had been forced open, hanging on one hinge with blood on it. Clearly, villainy was afoot.

We advanced cautiously. Grendel could detect minds inside, most of them in fear. I could hear whimpering coming from the direction of a nearby tree. I wanted to check it out but I knew that splitting the party up in a potentially hostile situation was a very stupid move. It was emphasised when Grendel reported a mind had vanished.

We prepped up spells - Armours of Earths, Witchsights, and even a Sword of Light. I wasn't keen on coruscades as they can make someone a target and we may be requiring all the stealth we can get. Vanderhan was in first, followed by Grendel while I took up the rear. Over the mind link, Vanderhan told us he had encountered a couple of tentacled monstrosities and a body. My initial thought was it was some sort of horror from the Lower Planes and thus I wanted to let fly with a Sunray, however reason prevailed and I decided to DA it first.

It was just as well I did. Its aura told me it was some sort of non-sentient animated construct made out of some sort of oily multi-coloured substance. GTN was Painted Construct. There were puce coloured splatterings on the walls from Vanderhan's sword which was coated in it. My first neutral grey bolt had a definite effect on it but it must have resisted all the others. Meanwhile the other one was crawling around to attack, which meant Vanderhan and Grendel had to face one each.

It didn't take me long to realise that these constructs were actually made out of oil paint and, after the third bolt fizzled, was very seriously considering throwing a vial of linseed oil at it to see what would happen. However, as I was thinking that, the first one collapsed in a pile of pigment. The second one soon followed.

The body had been torn apart but fortunately, there were no pieces missing. As for where the paint golems had come from, we noticed a large painting of a ship at sea with two bare patches. The shapes indicated that they were octopi.

The victim was Acheron Coyl, the owner of the house, and our employer. In order to cover up the death, Grendel teleported the remains to the master bedroom where I started putting the bits together before doing the resurrection. Meanwhile the rest of the staff were being told that their master had been gravely injured and was being treated by the party healer.

Vanderhan questioned the servants, once they were all rounded up. None of them had been injured but they had been hiding in fear, including the gardener's lad who was up the tree. The butler told him that a well dressed gentleman and his servant had arrived, bearing a painting claiming it was a gift from a fellow art enthusiast. Just after they left, Acheron had hung it in the drawing room and had just stepped back to admire it when all hell broke loose. Something definitely sinister was afoot.

The butler remembered that there was more than one canvas in the cart so we were suspicious that we were dealing with a serial killer.

Meanwhile I had completed the repairs on Acheron and had succeeded in the resurrection. He remembered the delivery person as a courier and the painting had been sent to him to be assessed, since he is a well known art critic. I wisely decided to hold my comments on critics. He also remembered the attack. He had originally asked us here in order to help him sort out some antiques. Turns out one of the 'Men in Black', i.e. Mr Smith, had referred him to us. Somehow, I think Mr Smith is going to be spoken to.

I then went over the painting. There was trace of Binder magic on it but there was no artist's signature. I didn't really expect one as I didn't think that the artist of a murder weapon would be so arrogant to sign it, but one never knows. There were also no recognisable clues in either the pigment mixes or the brush strokes that were recognisable to Archeron. He had no idea who sent it either or even the name of the courier.

We were told that there were 300,000 people in this city. Their equivalent to silver pennies are called silver weights. There are also copper farthings, silver crowns, and platinum sphinxes. Servants can be hired at the Servants Hall.

That was our next stop. Once we had described who we were looking for, we discovered that the servant's name was Herbert and the well dressed gentleman was known as "The Gent". He was always hiring others to do his work, preferring to be a man of leisure. Herbert's address was on record so that was where we went next.

Herbert was home and was a wealth of information, especially when coin was handed over. Four paintings had been delivered that day, 20 Peacock Court, 11 Vermillion Way, 3 Blue Sapphire Avenue and finally, 5 Scarlet Street. He couldn't tell us much about the Gent except that he usually goes drinking, usually slumming in the Coins District. He had met the Gent in the park, halfway along the park road, and he already had the paintings with him. He also told us that the gentleman at Peacock Court was very excited about receiving the painting. Something to do with a great unveiling at a large party that night.

There was a lot of discussion about what we should do next. Not wanting to annoy the local authorities, we decided to report this affair and seek their co-operation. Hopefully we would still be in time to prevent any bloodbath.

First we spoke to the desk sergeant who passed us on to the captain. The captain listened to our story before summoning their magic expert, a Namer. Most of the force were busy but he was able to assign us a dwarven female guard, Corporal Matilde Sturmhaamer. I pulled out a Crystal of Vision and and scried the addresses in question. Nothing obvious was visible. Since I had two crystals, I was able to monitor the two remaining addresses, with the help of the corporal, while we headed to the party on Grendel's rhino. We had been given guard passes which should help get us in without too many objectives.

This was a grand reminder of why I dislike social gatherings. Too many people, inane conversation and the consumption of too much alcohol. Usually, the only upside is the food. Fortunately it was a costume party which meant our apparel wasn't too much out of place.

Getting into the place wasn't a problem. Getting through the crowd in the ballroom was. Vanderhan had to do the 'excuse me' waltz with some ladies in order to get past and Grendel had to ignore a bombastic drunk who had opinions on everything and wanted to pass them on to anyone who would listen. Speaking of drunks, I had to sidestep a couple that had collapsed on the floor. Let the local healers deal with them .. especially since their condition was self-inflicted.

The painting was on a dais at the other end of the room and was covered with a cloth. We suspected that all hell was going to break loose when the cover was removed. I angled around to the side and could see the edge of the frame under the cover ... and that was all Grendel needed to teleport the painting into the nearest steel foundry furnace. He then had to explain to the rather surprised noble where his painting went.

The crystal of visions were still not showing anything obvious as we headed to the next address, the residence of Enrich Archerous, an artist. Vanderhan banged on the door, which was answered by a servant. He told us that the master was last seen taking a painting up to his studio at the top of the tower and had not come down for dinner. So we charged up the stairs.

Vanderhan applied a size 12 boot to the door which sprung open. Inside, was a cluttered art studio and no sign of the artist. A 4 x 6 oil on wood painting was on the stand. It showed a hellish scene of greys and browns and contained a depiction of three devils, probably imps, torturing a tied down individual. As we watched, the depiction seemed to change as if time was flowing slowly inside.

Unfortunately, I only got one question, which was College of Magic in effect and got the expected answer of Binder. So we asked the corporal to go get the Namer to perform a divination. I tried casting a Binder Special Counter on the painting but nothing happened.

The Namer arrived and did his own analysis. Basically a pocket dimension had been formed and the painting was acting as a portal, showing us what was happening. It seemed to be some sort of variant on the illusionist Deep Pockets spell.

To get into the painting, all we had to do was touch it. Presumably to get back, all we had to do was to touch the planar interface on the other side. Just to be sure, we decided to take the Namer with us. He would free the prisoner while we held off the imps.

Grendel used TK rage to bounce them back to the limits of the pocket dimension but they charged right back at us. Battle ensured and it didn't take us long to beat them up. It was interesting though that they Daed as constructs rather than demonic entities.

The Namer had removed a rather battered and multiple cut Enrich from the altar. It looked like the imps had been employing the 'Death of a Thousand Cuts" technique. We could see a view of the studio so, we touched the interface and were transported back out.

We then hurried off to the last address. This proved to be a set of apartments on the edge of the Ivy District. There was a doorman at the address and told us we were looking for Apartment 3D.

So we went up there and discovered two creatures that looked like painted apes playing pattycake with an unconscious victim.

We tore into the apes and soon reduced them into two puddles of paint. It turned out the victim was 'the Gent'. Hm .. seems like someone is trying to 'remove' any witnesses. He told us that he had got the paintings from Imron Gaulfellow, an art collector and an artist, who lived in a manor in the Ivy District, specifically at 10 Sandalwood Lane.

We were there in fifteen minutes. It was a two story manor which was surrounded by a ten foot high wall with a large gate in it. We had the proper papers from the guard captain so decided to force an entry.

This was done by flying on to the roof. Didn't see any wards on it but it had a roof garden complete with a pagoda. The pagoda was not a magical construct. Just them we heard barking from the grounds and saw two dog like creatures in the grounds. Vanderhan and Grendel flew down to silence them.

Once that was done, it was decided not to go down either the trapdoor or the stained glass skylight as it was more likely that those would be warded or trapped. Instead Shatterer, Vanderhan's magical hammer, was going to be used to punch a hole. The spot chosen was right above where Grendel had detected a couple of minds.

It proved to be harder than we thought as the roof consisted of tiles with solid stone underneath. Once we punched through, we found ourselves in a dusty room. The minds were still below so we kept going, even though we were sure that they must have heard the noise we were making.

This hole revealed stairs going down, presumably to a cellar. Grendel peered down, just as the door next to us burst open. I was smacked by the golem while Vanderhan pulled Grendel up.

Vanderhan then swapped with me and, once the golem was dispatched, he went down the hole, finding two more golems wielding kitchen knives. After some to'ing and fro'ing, Grendel TKed them into goo. Meanwhile I swallowed a restorative followed by a healing potion.

Another hole was punched into the landing but we struck bedrock. The same thing happened into the nearby bathroom but the hole in the guest bedroom revealed the stairs, which had made a ninety degree turn before reaching the cellar door.

We really wanted to get this done as quickly as possible so we went down the stairs, checking for wards and traps all the way. The door opened into a room containing ten stone golems in alcoves, five per side. Vanderhan was in the front, and as soon as he passed the first pair, those two activated. So he moved to activate the first two pairs while I fended off the first pair to prevent them from getting behind Vanderhan. I got hit a few times - I can see the reasoning behind this tactic but, really, I'm not suited for this sort of thing - until Grendel was able to reduce three of them to rubble.

After the last one went down, Vanderhan moved to set off the remaining six. At the same time, solid stone blocks fell down blocking off both exits. Grendel was now cut off from us but we were able to keep him appraised of the situation via Mind Speech. Two of them moved to attack me and the best I could do to was to continually evade and hope it didn't take too long for Grendel's TK pulses to pulverise them before I got pulverised ... and also hope that the TK pulse didn't affect me.

Finally it did happen and Vanderhan smashed down the doors while I drank yet another healing potion.

The next room was a gallery and, of course, we were suspicious of the paintings. However those ones were harmless. Not so the one ahead of us in a stand. It was very old and something stepped out of it. It looked like a shadow and it's GTN was Umbral. I was quite sure it was a type of undead so I started preparing a Sunray. Unfortunately that failed so, while I prepped up another, Grendel launched a Phantasm while Vanderhan kept it occupied. My next attempt also failed and Grendel tried a Mental Attack, which, to his surprise, had no effect. Finally I let a Sunray loose. I thought I had done something wrong at first, but then the spell did hit the Umbral and dissipated it.

The next room looked like a junk room. Just then, Grendel detected the last remaining mind wink out. We searched the room and discovered the lever that opened the secret door, disguised as a broom.

Beyond was a simple dressed stone room, consisting of a large antique painting, a rolled up piece of parchment on the floor in front of it, and a ten foot tall statue. Predictably, as we entered, the statue animated and attacked. We rapidly retreated out of the room and closed the door.

When we opened the door again, we discovered it had reset to its original position. We also noted that it was made of a mixture of materials. So Vanderhan set up an arbalest and fired it while I fired a Bolt of Starfire. It slammed the door shut.

After we did it again, it decided to come out and attack us instead. Its attempt to hit Vanderhan failed, so he hit it again. More exchange of blows and a failed Starfire later, it struck Vanderhan in the hip, causing him to fall prone. However that didn't stop him from bringing it down shortly afterwards.

The painting was a really weird one, depicting impossible staircases and many doors. We could see figures in it and, every time we looked at it again, they had moved. It was obvious that the binder artist had gone in here but going after him was impractical for so many reasons. He could have gone anywhere, and it looked like it was so easy to get impossibly lost. Even Grendel had to see the logic in that.

There wasn't much else to do but to sort out the legalities of the loot. It was finally decided that since the nephew wasn't interested in items that could prove dangerous, (which included properties with portals in the basement) that the mansion would go into the Seagate Guild ownership, after suitable recompense was paid, to be used as a local base for Guild members, and probably a permanent representation. Somehow I got the feeling that "Mr Smith" was going to be posted here. We were allowed to take fixtures, but not the furnishings, much to Grendel's annoyance as he had been eyeing up some of it.

5th Heat 810 WK

It wasn't until the mid morning of the next day that we finally ended up at the Guild. I found a quiet corner in the Healers to catch up on lost sleep before we sorted out our shares of the loot.

Rolls

• Vanderhan - 27
• Phaeton - 54
• Grendel - 85