"Look, I don't care what's at stake! I'm going over to gloat!" - Akeelas
The session began with the group (players and PCs) reading an article in the Courier about the near-death experience of two members of a rival adventuring group. Apparently, the Morro brothers of Ptolus' Light had been in the North Market when a group of men leading two trolls with strange black markings on their bodies had abducted two youngsters.
Anatar and Dalrian Morro had tried fighting off the monsters, but with no armor, they had been soundly defeated and taken to the temple of Isdun, Goddess of Love, where they were still recuperating as the article went to press.
So the gang went to Terrock Road, where they not only saw the marble-fronted temple of isdun, but also a ugly and filthy-looking Temple of the Ebon Hand, which was right across the road. Noting the neighbours, the group entered the temple where a service was in progress - and what a service! Apparently, the clergy took its role as ministers for the Goddess of Love seriously, because... noises came out from a room just off the nave, and glancing through an indecently open doorway, the group could see a priestess in full intercourse with a man. The noises of the act were used as part of a litany performed by three other priests.
The Temple of the Ebon Hand The temple itself was a very open affair. There were quite a few chambers, but none but a few had doors because as a priest told them, "Love is about sharing". They were taken to a more private - and sound-proof! - chamber, where they were told that Dalrian Morro was still bedridden while his half-brother, Anathar was being cured again. And they were taken to the half-elf to talk to him.
The half-elf couldn't tell them much: Two trolls and eight humans had attacked two youngsters and abducted them. The brothers had tried stopping the abduction, but they had been mauled by the trolls and had been taken to the Temple of Isdun in the nick of time. The only thing they could tell the group was that the trolls had had a disgusting, half-tranlucent complexion with black markings on them. Markings not unlike a black hand...
Armed with that information, the group decided to go ahead with their own project and went back down to the lair of the chaos cultists.
After handily disposing of yet another nest of ratmen, they arrived without incident to the site of their latest battle. All the corpses lay as the group had left them, so they carefully ventured forward. Beyond the door from where Iladras the fire priestess and the chaositech gun-wielding, plate armour-wearing medusa had come was a large empty chamber with a nasty magical trap. Beyond the trapped room was some living quarters with quite a few nice riches.
l-r: Grabbed by a trap! Entering a sumptuous room.
After that, the group moved on, with Veilas - as the best sneaker among them - taking point. They soon arrived at another open area with an ancient building that seemed to have once been on the surface. It was not the first building of its kind the party had seen, but something about this one made Veilas approach it with greater caution. And rightfully so, as he was almost jumped by a rhodintor demon.
l-r: The DM's got monsters on the brain. Veilas and the rhodintor. And the rest stay at a comfortable distance
But how unlike their last meeting with such a demon! With not too many scratches on them, the party defeated the monster, and soon, Veilas could investigate further, down a staircase inside the building leading down.
There, Veilas found a locked door, and got to work on it. Soon, he had it opened, and he faced a short, wide corridor, 10 feet wide and 20 feet long, which ended in a door quite similar to the one he had just picked open. He carefully moved over while searching the floor until he arrived at the closed door. After looking it over as carefully as he could, he reached out and touched it.
And the other door slammed.
Gas started pouring out through vents in the room, and as he held his breath, Veilas felt the first whiffs of poison lacing his muscles with lead. He still managed to stagger across the corridor and with a speed born of desperation, he managed to pick the door and stagger out. Moving back to the trapped corridor, Tauge and Taric held the door open while Veilas disarmed the trap and got the group through.
Moving on, the party then came to the chaos cultists' prison.
l-r: A better setup: Flank the monster with the fighters, while the ranged specialists rain down doom on the fiend! Apparently they think documenting the crits will help... Entering the Chaos Cult prison - the jailer hung on to the wall.
In a large, empty chamber, a horrific jailer awaited. The creature looked like it had once been a woman, but extensive mutations had altered her - it - into an absolutely terrifying creature. With a jaws that could virtually unhinge as well as rows and rows of sharp teeth, the creature was a horrifying opponent, but a very well-placed arrow from Eloniel pretty much brought it down.
The prison had a few occupants, including a vicious-looking faen female who claimed to be a wolverine totem warrior. She somehow infected a few other members of the group with her bloodlust and thirst of vengeance, so in short order, they killed off an imprisoned troll and an ogre, who tried to run out after they had opened the door. The key to this, incidentally, was the jailer's hand, as the faen could tell them.
l-r: Taking down the horrible jailer. Releasing an ogre...
l-r: ...only to kill it. The cliffhanger: A minotaur fights two warriors while a third lies dyingThey moved on, and soon found a hallway which turned out to stretch forever. After a few hundred yards, they heard sounds of combat, and as Veilas carefully turned a corner, he saw a large minotaur battle 3 men, one of whom already lay very still in the small chamber where the fight was taking place.
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greatbuddah 's father-in-law had been loved by many, so many that the church was full, in fact, and the row of bouquets stretched from the coffin and down to the inner doors. He worked for the Danish Red Cross where he helped children and youngsters in the camps the Danish government has set up to hold the refugees while their requests for asylum are being processed. 
sad
happy
bouncy
