Renwick Caradoon pauses briefly, available to answer any lingering questions, before excusing himself from the adventuresome guests loitering in his phylactery for an hour now.
Simon disguises himself as the Lich of Sacred Stone Monastery, once Renwick leaves of course, and the six investigators depart the green zone into the cultist section of the shared building. Theren enthusiastically throws open the first door he comes to and introduces himself to the four occupants nursing wounds in the cult dojo. From the giant crossbow he’s excitedly leveling at them, these stone masked sparrers recognize immediately that Theren doesn’t belong here. Theren answers their objections with a couple of well-placed crossbow bolts and Purple Monk and Orange Monk experience their final realizations: even the finest unarmed martial artistry is no match for soulless modern technology. Lich Simon excuses the two remaining monks but in their haste to escape the crossbower they blunder into Theridan outside the other door. Theridan gives them room to exit and for this consideration Blue Monk punches him in the dome. A shillelagh magically appears in Theridan’s rapidly approaching fist to mortally smash the insolent monk with an assist from his Watchful Knight. Theren comforts trapped Pink Monk with the promise to end his misery, but Pink protests that he likes his misery as Theren’s crossbow bolt sprouts from his neck ending Pink’s misery.
Meega, unable to squeeze into the adventurer-clogged dojo, wanders further down the corridor to find her own brand of trouble. A demonic stone mask peeks out from a nearby door, momentarily assesses the quarter Orc and her two Helmed Horrors, and quickly retreats back inside, audibly barring the door. Meega can’t quite figure out another way into the locked room, nor can she improvise her hand axe into a lockpick so she paces around glumly to await the inevitable consequence.
Theridan pokes around the corridor listening at doors for activity or alarms while Lich Simon takes up an imposingly visible position should any arriving cultists require discouragement. Theren closely studies the door of the masked peeker and positions himself carefully adjacent to the hinges.
Back in the dojo, Haerelben and Allana don cultist duds. Haerelben stacks the recently deceased in a corner under the sparring mat where they would be found by nobody with fewer than one or two senses. Allana checks out the familiar logo of Black Earth engraved into one wall and, with a bit of searching, locates an alluring missive: Do you like Jurth? Yes, or No? She selects Yes and replaces the card under the mat.
Meega’s waiting ends when six stoned-plated guards come dodging around the corner right up to Lich Simon. Haerelben, adjusting his stone mask, rebukes the guards for threatening their honored guest. Lich Simon warns them that his experiment has gone dangerously awry and stone masked Allana arrives just then to critically declare the experiment has been contained and the soldiers should withdraw. As long as Allana speaks for Hellenrae, the guard detail is delighted to depart.
With the time Simon and Allana purchase, Theren uses the lockpicking lady gloves to pick the lock into the denied room. Inside, Allana locates and loots a chest recovering over 65 pp and 12 leather-wrapped thunderstones.
Across the hall, Theren picks open another room, this one the monastic brandy distillery. His investigation leads him to the conclusion that these are potions of archery, which is lucky for Meega because she is particularly fond of potions of archery when made from 100% brandy. Theren retrieves 20, drops half, and hands over 10 bottles to Meega but then invents the prohibition of brandy and sets about elaborately destroying the 23 remaining bottles.
Theridan explores down some stairs and peeks in to find a basement water well. He doesn’t see much else but much else sees him.
Simon locates a room equipped for the composition and distribution of religious tracts. Among the spiritual advocacy Simon finds the journals of one Marlos Urnrayle which reveal his recovery of a relic called Ironfang, the Holy Implement of Earth Power, from Fane of the Eye. More reading reveals the location of the Temple of Black Earth beneath the Sacred Stone Monastery, precisely the sort of intelligence needed for the war on elemental evil. A reference to the Black Geode promises the ever-growing mountain will remake these lands into his image. As a nice bonus, Simon finds scrolls of Dust Devil and Erupting Earth. Theridan returns from the well room to assist Simon and finds an especially entertaining flipbook.
Three Orcs follow Theridan up from the basement. The leader, Jurth, demands the sign of authentication from masked Allana. Having studied the logo in the dojo she forms a triangle with her hands that perfectly satisfies Jurth. He turns to masked Haerelben and likewise demands the sign. Allana mimes the gesture to Haerelben until he imitates her. Jurth’s attention now turns to quarter Orc Meega, his new boss according to Talent Acquisition. That doesn’t sound right to Jurth so he compares metrics, whether his attendants, Drool and Slob, are superior to Meega’s Watchful Knights, for example. Meega concedes the contest and hands Jurth one of her ten rescued bottles of monastic brandy. He bites the top of the bottle off and his cadre returns to the basement to celebrate Jurth’s boardroom victory.
Undoubtedly fed up of guards returning convinced by tales of a Lich experiment gone awry, Hellenrae shows up personally, flanked by a pair of guards. Lich Simon, masked Allana, and masked Haerelben reprise their performance, this time with Meega delivering the good news /bad news that the experiment is contained within the distillery. The sound of a shelf of brandy crashing to the ground as Theren removes its final screw fills Hellenrae’s ears and she orders Meega out immediately. Allana attempts to diffuse the situation with some sweet talk, but Hellenrae has none of it and commands her to penance in the slave pen. Haerelben “arrests” Meega and “marches” her to the “slave pen” and the adventurers, Hellenrae in close observance, proceed toward Renwick’s phylactery in what they hope is also the correct direction for the slave pens. Theridan inconspicuously leaves the document room in rat form attended by his Watchful Knight.
As the procession passes the distillery, Haerelben attempts to rouse bonkers Theren therein so he won’t become trapped and alone, but Theren is celebrating the completion of his brandy cleansing task with a dry packet of gravy upon which he begins choking. He falls to the floor on the field of broken glass and crawls to the distillery door. If any upside could be found, it’s that the scene must surely appear to Hellerae like an authentically escaped necromantic experiment gone horribly wrong.
Haerelben, unfamiliar with how monks inflict injury, throws a silence spell into the corridor as the adventurers are routed and then receives a quiet master’s class on martial injury from Hellenrae and her morningstar henchmen. In a moment of lucidity, Theren punctures Hellenrae with some crossbow action while Meega works out some pent up violence on her.
Theridan lights up Guard Red and Guard Blue with some lovely faerie fire making them easier to assail despite which, or maybe because of, Theren is unable to parlay several packets of gravy into any measurable effect. Allana’s critical eldritch blast, Haerelben’s sacred flame, and Simon’s lethal witchbolt slay Guard Blue. Meega’s axe strikes at Guard Red over and over and Theridan concludes he isn’t as fiery as he could be already, so he throws in some addition flame production on Guard Red.
Whether Hellenrae wants backup forces or perhaps feels she has accomplished enough by chasing the adventurers away, she and Guard Red withdraw down the well room stairs. The adventuring party, having gathered some good information on the Black Earth, are not disposed to press their disadvantage further and retire to the Lich’s area to regroup.