The characters have spent the night sheltering in the Gate House of the Eater's fortress, along with Kabak, their turgosk companion, and their four net-bearers from Trail. They have recently slain the Wisp and the Spined One, two of the Eater's creatures from the Second Plateau. They have already explored parts of the fortress, including the Intact Tower (where they killed the Collector sheltering there), the Gate Towers, and the Entry Hall (where they fought and defeated two adapoi skull-spirits)
The door to the Main Hall was trapped by another fireball trap, provided by the Warped Apprentice. Alcatraz, aided by the Mask of Pwir, detected the trap. It was discharged (relatively) harmlessly by poking a mallard taken from Kabak's food supply tied to a long pole into the door.
Inside the Main Hall, the characters found little opposition, but much devastation. They were fairly edgy about the Eater's body, but did remove a magical choker and two magical bracers from it. After finding the Homunculus Chest hidden under the Eater's throne, they also hacked the Eater's hand off to be able to open it. They also located a number of valuable objects, including:
The Homunculus Chest was found hidden under the Eater's Throne. It is a metal bound wooden chest with a demonic head in place of a clasp. The head is animate and intelligent, and equipped with an array of needle teeth that will inflict 3d impaling damage upon an appendage inside its mouth. The catch for the chest is down in the head's throat. It will allow only the Eater to open the clasp; any other who tries to open it will be bitten. It's bite is strong enough to break metal tools and weapons, and the catch is complicated enough to require a DEX roll to open, given the ability to manipulate it normally.
The characters used the Eater's dead hand to prevent the chest from biting down, then used a metal tool to open the catch.
The Homunculus Chest has DR 15, HT 30 and IQ 13.
While the characters were looting the Main Hall, they were discovered by two twisted adapoi who crawled down the walls from the upper reaches of the chamber. The twisted adapoi acted friendly, but the Mask of Pwir told of their hunger. Messerbad and Alcatraz worried that the adapoi might try and feed on the net-bearers if they got a chance. The characters listened to the adapoi tell about the horror beneath the fortress, and how it probably knew where the Lifestone was. By the end of the conversation, Pawnbroker became xenophobic and slew one of the twisted adapoi. The other accepted his offer of god's word plant.
The day after exploring the Main Hall, the characters returned to the Laboratory, taking the doorway in the Entry Hall and disarming two fireball traps along the way, using the mallard technique from before. They spent little time there, but did enter the Charnel House and meet with the Warped Apprentice and a number of animated body fragments. A rather confused fight ensued, in the course of which the Warped Apprentice was cast into the central pit of the Charnel House.
Before its death, the Warped Apprentice told the characters that the Lifestone was hidden beneath a pile of bodies in one of the Charnel House pits. This same pit had a disturbing habit of vomiting up animated fragments of corpses (human, animal and other) ever so often. Up until it attacked the characters and was killed, the Warped Apprentice destroyed these things as they emerged with bursts of magical Essential Flame. As a preliminary to retrieving the Lifestone, the characters dealt with the animated corpses (and most of the rest of the contents of the pit) by pouring pitch into it and setting it alight. The resulting flame burned for over six hours.
By the end of it, the horrific stench of the Charnel House had been combined with the wretched smell of burnt flesh and pitch. The contents of the pit had been rendered down into a thick, black liquid with the consistency of creosote. The characters used a set of cauldrons looted from the Laboratory to drain out the liquid until they were able to spot the Lifestone. Alcatraz then used the Mask of Pwir to catch it in a cauldron and pull it up.
The Mask's reaction to the Lifestone in close proximity was quick and dramatic. It howled to Alcatraz, "It's reaching for me!" Alcatraz responded by making a Will roll and removing the Mask.
Once they had the Lifestone, the characters became interested in finding a good way to dispose of it quickly. As a temporary measure, they returned to the Main Hall and re-opened the Homunculus Chest. They then sealed the Lifestone, still in the cauldron used to dredge it up, into the Chest.
While in the Entry Hall, three Stone Men lurking in the upper reaches confronted the characters. "Do you have the Lifestone?" queried the leader. The characters denied that they did, but told them that they thought it was down in the Charnel House. The Stone Men backed out of sight very slowly.
With that encounter, the characters headed back to Trail with all speed.
In Trail, the characters paid their net-bearers for five day's work (at two challock per day) and gave them an additional bonus: two of the silver ingots bearing the Veka Family mark (each worth 50 challock).
Their companion Kabak also took his leave. He wanted to go to the Duchy of Seitha, where he could get houga for a good price. From there, he intended to reunite the remaining members of his family and go somewhere far from Tazik to start again. He wanted to find a place far from the deyrey, where their hives did not litter the ground. The characters wished him luck, and he assured them that he would leave word with Constable Woodman of Trail as to where he went. His share of the loot consisted of:
The characters wished him well.
The group swiftly decided that the only safe way to destroy the Lifestone was to cast it into the Maelstrom. The quickest route there is through Paiden, then along the path the characters followed when they first entered Abbatine. For the first part of the trip, the group traveled with a caravan led by Agopo Faiai, a trader of the influential Faiai Family of Paiden. That lasted until one of the caravaneers was overcome by the power of the Lifestone and lost a hand (until it was healed back by Messerbad) trying to steal it out of the Homunculus Chest. After that, Agopo asked the characters to go on ahead.
They spent little time in Paiden, instead heading immediately out towards the Edge of the World. Along the route, they were warned by three Dellemoi adapoi that Collectors had been seen around the Council Hall in Paiden, and that a farmer had been killed outside Paiden. The lobrun slave with the farmer claimed that a stone rose up and clawed the youda to death. The characters interpreted this as news that the Stone Men were following them. They accepted a magical message pod from the adapoi (able to send a one-word message upon the death of it's parent plant) and went on their way with great haste.
The message they eventually got from the pod was "river." After that, they made towards the Paiden River, found a small oorthoi fishing settlement and hired a boat. The session ended with a moderately climactic encounter at the edge of the world between the characters and the three Stone Men, who died trying to prevent the Homunculus Chest from being thrown into the Maelstrom. In the end, they were unsuccessful and the characters destroyed the Lifestone and the Chest both.
For their troubles, the characters earned five experience each. Messerbad immediately spent his upon Partial Literacy, with the promise that he could gain full Literacy for an additional five points once the group had a chance to settle down for a while. The group is now returning to Paiden, were they know that the Spinners Peter and Jebben, once of Tazik, are waiting to meet them. They still have the two books they recovered from the Eater's Laboratory, even though Pawnbroker's first inclination was to cast them into the Maelstrom after the Lifestone.
ÿ