Fighting the Howling Hatred

Pharast 22, 4713, part 1

After a restful night spent in the Great Hall, the Coopers wake up and prepare a hearty breakfast. Now healed and ready for more adventure, they take the barricade apart and pursue their exploration of Tyar-Besil. They return to the marketplace, looking inside every doorway to make sure enemies are not waiting for them. Ruddy returns to one of the doors they haven't yet opened. He carefully listens, but hears nothing. Slowly, the gnome pushes the door open, revealing the forge. Rubble covers most of the floor, and all that remains are an anvil weighing over 800 pounds, and a set of large bellows broken beyond repair. In one of the corners, he spots Thorne covered in chains and gagged.

Having disappeared a few hours earlier, the rogue is bloodied and exhausted. After his long trip to the sacrificial stone where he last saw Dhukhean tied and left bleeding to death, Thorne was transported back to this room by several cultists who discussed among themselves Aerisi Kalinoth's plans to release an orb of destruction in Red Larch. Though the thugs were whispering among themselves, Thorne was fairly certain that this was all a performance directed at him.

Ruddy ungags the rogue. Thorne tells him about Aerisi Kalinoth's plans with the orb of destruction. The gnome is concerned, but, with Thorne's assessment, assumes the threat was made to get them to leave Tyar-Besil. Nevertheless, Ruddy shares this information with the rest of the Coopers. After a short conversation, the party decides to continue their exploration.

Entering a large room, they find that an enormous purple worm once chewed its way through the floor, but was felled by dwarves. The dead worm's skeleton remains lodged in the ground, providing access to a tunnel heading further underground. Earl and Naga climb down the tunnel, and walk for over six miles, slowly dropping deeper into the earth, until they make the decision to return back to Tyar-Besil.

Continuing their exploration, Daryle and Darelle come upon a djinni carving a stone pillar. He looks mightily displeased to be here, but appears to be performing an assigned task. He tells the sisters that finding the horn will grant him his freedom.

At the same time and pursuing by now a patented Cooper policy of exploring multiple areas with significant distances between them at once, Whalerider  heads towards a tunnel heading north, only to stumble upon a patrol of bugbears wearing the livery of the Black Earth. He makes an expeditious retreat, meets up with Ruddy, and the two of them quickly dispatch the bugbears. Returning from their exploration, Daryle suggests building a barricade in the tunnel to prevent access to Black Earth patrols. The Coopers quickly do so, and proceed to return near their original entry point into Tyar-Besil.

Carefully walking into a hallway heading east, they arrive near another door. Ruddy listens to the door, hears nothing. Whalerider listens and hears stone on stone grinding. The catfolk opens the door quietly, and takes a look. Inside are two large wheels being spun by eight Howling Hatred initiates, who in turn are being whipped by two Howling Hatred priests. A quick conference among the Coopers, and they determine not to enter. Daryle spikes the spinning door shut, and the party moves on.

Returning from their escapade in the tunnel, Naga and Earl come across the body of Whalerider's dead cat. It has been slain by several arrows, and Naga recognizes the fletching as being Daryle's. They track the Coopers down, and encounter them as they stand by a heavy iron door barred on their side. Whalerider listens to the door, but he hears nothing. He attempts to pick the locks, but fails miserably. Thorne steps up and uses his great tools, but he too fails and breaks his favorite lockpick. Ruddy smashes the locks, but notices that there are traps placed on the door. Earl goes through the door and doesn't trigger the trap. On the other side are several signs displaying warnings that this is Howling Hatred territories, but they have been angrily defaced. Earl returns to his side and reports what he saw. Naga angrily returns the arrows to Daryle. The ranger is confused as to how her arrows could have killed the cat.

Returning to the Great Hall, they are confronted by none other than Thurl Merosska and his Howling Hatred accomplices. The battle begins in earnest, with a similar strategy once encountered by the Coopers on the previous day when the Howling Hatred priests used walls of forces to effectively split the party apart. Can the Coopers survive such a concentrated assault?

Of shops and cultists

Pharast 21, 4713, part 3

The Coopers enter the great hall and find no trace of the enemy they sought to surprise. Instead, they find carbon scoring on the ground and the outline of a toasted dwarf, but no trace of their dwarf friend Dhukhean or of the rogue Thorne can be found. Ruddy scoops up some of the ashes on the ground and bottles them with the hope that he can eventually return them to Dhukhean's dwarven clan. He then urinates on what' left of the ashes. Regrouping, the Coopers say a short prayer for the fallen dwarf, and after an appropriate moment of silence, they exit the great hall and continue their exploration of the Howling Hatred's underground lair.

Returning to the statue of Moradin where Ruddy and Darelle were attacked, the party take the opportunity to explore the area. They find themselves in what were previously shops, but now stand only as ruined spaces that have been thoroughly looted. The party splits up, and search various of the shops. Naga enters what once was a jewelry store and finds a large dwarven golden brooch the size of a fist with an inlaid sapphire the size of a large egg. Daryle enters the bakery and discovers a cast iron bread pan among the rubble. The pan is surprising light and appears to be in excellent condition despite the years since the collapse of Tyar-Besil. Ruddy opens the door to what was the tailor's shop. He is immediately surprised to see a cloaker rising from a fresh cadaver. The cloaker launches itself at the gnome and attempts to affect him with stupor, but Ruddy runs out of the room and takes position by the door, ready to ambush the creature as it comes out. More interested in feeding, however, the cloaker returns to his victim and continues to feed.

Heading west, Naga enters a large cavern with numerous above-ground stone graves, all of them inscribed with elaborate dwarven relief carvings showing scenes of daily life and heroic deeds. His arrival attracts the attention of seven very hungry ghouls and rush the tiefling. To defend himself, he casts fireball and incinerates all of them, leaving only ashes behind. Quickly searching the area, he finds the mostly devoured corpse of a Howling Hatred cultist.

Exiting the cemetery, Naga retraces his steps and finds Ruddy in a fighting stance. Ruddy explains what he found inside the tailor's shop, and it takes very little convincing for Naga to follow the gnome back inside, making quick work of the cloaker. Ruddy then examines the dead corpse, which is dressed like a pirate and not like any of the cultists they have encountered so far. He finds a finely crafted purple wood tobacco box, with very fine smelling tobacco inside of it. He pockets it. Then both he and Naga notice heavy purring coming from above.

Watching through a large hole in the upper wall, Surmont Whalerider and his cat observe the scene carefully. Whalerider and his acquaintance Paul, both of them sailors, found themselves in Red Larch when they ran into the Coopers at the Swinging Sword Inn. Recognizing the Cooper sisters from a previous trip they had taken aboard his ship, the Last Song a few years back in the River Kingdom, he decided to follow them around and see what they were up to. Tracking them to the Shrine of the Tender Oath, they sneaked inside the monastery a few minutes behind the Coopers, located the secret access point to the staircase descending to Tyar-Besil, managed to follow the Coopers through it before it closed and without any of them noticing, then down the stairs and through through the first battle with the featherbeaks, only splitting away when the wyvern and its rider came out to battle. Paul and Whalerider ran in the opposite direction, managed to avoid all of the cultists guarding the dungeon and the other members of the Coopers, and sneaked into the tailor's shop, only to be ambushed by a hungry cloaker. Paul was immediately stunned, but Whalerider and his cat managed to escape and climb up to the second floor of the leather goods shop next door. He'd been pondering what to do when Naga and Ruddy showed up. Now his cat has betrayed him by purring loudly.

In the hallway next to the leather goods shop, Daryle also hears the purring. The entire facade of this store has collapsed in a pile of rubble, revealing the interior. The ranger pulls out some jerky from her backpack and calls the cat to her. The kitty jumps from the second floor and comes to the ranger. It bats at the jerky once, before taking it in his mouth. Realizing that he is in a precarious position as Naga climbs the wall in the tailor's shop, Whalerider hides in a corner. Naga walks right by him and reaches the edge of the shop's second floor. Spotting Daryle, Naga comes down and pets the kitty. Ruddy also climbs the wall, but he is more perceptive than the tiefling and he spots a humanoid cloaked in darkness in the corner. He throws three daggers in the stranger's direction. Hiding his face behind a cloak, and with his eyes glowing, Whalerider performs a panache by blocking Ruddy's attack, and lands in the hallway a floor below. The Coopers pull their weapons out and assume a fighting stance.

Whalerider removes his cloak and reveals he's a catfolk, triggering Ruddy's cat allergy. Whalerider explains that he acquired his name because his family were fresh water fishermen. When he was old enough he joined a fishing crew, but he wanted to explore more than the region around their home. He joined a seawater fishing crew and headed out to sea. On one of those voyages, he spotted a whale, swam to it, and rode it by grabbing on to it with his catfolk claws, thus acquiring his name. The pirate explains that he and his friend Paul were following the party because they wanted to join them.

Reluctantly, the Coopers agree to let the swashbuckler join them in their exploration of the Howling Hatred's base. Looking into the remaining shops, Whalerider finds a magical loom which has clearly not been affected by the passage of time. Large piles of broken weapons and debris indicate that many have attempted to break it apart but have all failed.

Entering the Hall of Feasts, Naga is surprised to find five cultists and two priests, all wearing the distinctive clothes of the Howling Hatred. The priests had heard the commotion in the hallway, and had prepared an ambush. Naga is attacked, but he manages to alert the other Coopers. All of them enter the room from the many doors and engage the cultists. Darelle is paralyzed by a priest who manages to escape, but the remaining cultists are killed by the party. With the threat eliminated, the Coopers regroup and return to the Great Hall. They barricade the doors, and ready themselves to spend the rest of the night so they can recuperate..

The Coopers encounter their first Prophet

Pharast 21, 4713, part 2

As the distant chorus resumes its dreadful hymn, the Coopers continue their exploration of the Howling Hatred Temple. Turning a corner, they see the swiftly flowing river on their left a water fall dropping beyond view, with a roar almost covering the hymn. The path continues and meets two stone doors on the east side.

Dhukhean checks the stone doors for any dwarven markings, and he finds an antique dwarven script that indicates this room to be the great hall. Thorne steps to one of the door, oils the central pole, and quietly pushes it open. The great hall's ceiling is over twenty feet tall, and is supported by large stone pillars on both side. In the middle is a central pit from which blows a hurricane-force wind, moving upwards and disappearing in a similarly-sized opening in the ceiling. On the other side of the pit stand seven humans wearing Howling Hatred vestments. Four of them are cloaked in a light blue cape and wear feather masks covering most of their faces.

Howling Hatred Hurricanes

Two more individuals wear armor and stand behind the central figure, clearly a Howling Hatred priest. He faces the wind blowing from the pit, and thought the roars of the wind are so loud nothing else can be heard, he is clearly conducting some sort of religious service. Behind them are two stately stair cases, which climb past the great hall's ceiling.

Howling Hatred Priest

Thorne enters the room and stealthily hides behind a pillar. Daryle follows him and takes point on the other side, followed by Ruddy. Dhukhean assumes the rear but remains outside. Naga, Earl and Darelle, for their part, noticed the double stone doors behind the cultists on the other side of the great hall and decide to circle back on the path and take the enemy by surprise.

Ruddy shoots an arrow, hitting one of the initiates, quickly followed by Daryle. Thorne maneuvers himself and stabs another one of the initiates. Alerted to their presence, the cultists assume a combat position. Two of the initiates charge Thorne, while one of the Hurricanes casts a spell and creates a wall of force separating the room in two. The priest moves towards Thorne and casts hold person, paralyzing the rogue. The remaining cultists assume a fighting position next to the wall of force, ready to strike when the wall collapses.

Seeing this turn of events, Dhukhean opens the door with a flourish, hoping to attract the cult's attention, and walks to the wall of force, hitting it as hard as he can. It doesn't make a dent. Concentrating, the dwarf swings again, and this time he notices some of the magical energy is dissipated and the wall wobbles a bit. Encouraged, the dwarf continues to hit it, while the initiates on the other side make rude gestures at him strongly implying that his mother was nothing more than a lilly-livered slate-carving dung-eating pebble. In the back, both Hurricanes have been performing arcane motions, but Dhukhean is not able to decipher their meaning.

Sensing the futility of attempting to penetrate the wall, Daryle and Ruddy decide to follow the other group and round the great hall, use the back entrance and surprise the priest and his acolytes. They exit the great hall and turn right, heading north.

In the great hall, Thorne is roughly grabbed by two initiates, and he is carried up the stairs, followed by the priest. The two Hurricanes move back, then as Dhukhean strikes the wall of force one more time, it shatters on impact. The dwarf barely has time to enjoy his success, however, before he is engulfed in two delayed blast fireballs and one fireball, all cast at the center of the room. A well-toasted Dhukhean, his beard singed, falls to the floor, unconscious.

Meanwhile, even before the confrontation in the great hall begun, Naga, Earl and Darelle traversed the bridge and headed east, rounding the corner and seeing the east doors of the great hall. Unfortunately, sitting on top of a pillar bridge stood a large purple wyvern and its rider, clad in metal garb. Darelle sends a tree token to inform her sister Daryle they are being attacked by a wyvern and therefore will be delayed.  

Naga is the first to react, and he casts phantasmal killer at the rider and the wyvern. The fear is too much for the rider, who falls to his death in the lake. The wyvern, however is unaffected and immediately swoops down from the pillar, striking the tiefling. Earl the monk, almost as if he was someone completely different during this encounter, suddenly lose his monk abilities and acquires sorcerous powers. He casts black tentacles on the wyvern, which gets entangled, while Darelle summons a griffon that attacks the wyvern, and launches her own strikes against it. The lizard manages to free itself, and the combat continues. Naga is thrown in the fast-moving waters, but flies out and lands on the path again, only to be struck by the wyvern. Earl becomes invisible, casts form of the dragon II on himself, and attacks the wyvern. Turning away from the tiefling, the wyvern strikes at Earl's dragon form, and the two become entangled. A few good hits finally finish the wyvern off, and it falls on the bridge. Naga emerges from his rage and drops to the floor, too winded to do much of anything else.

Emerging from the great hall, Daryle receives her sister's message. Turning the corner, she and Ruddy run into a patrol of two initiates, a Howling Hatred priest, and one of the bird men. They were already on the move, attracted by the sounds of battle on the other bridge. They instead divert their attention to the ranger and the gnome.

Howling Hatred Featherbeaks

Ruddy and Daryle fire their weapons and manage to knock the two acolytes into the river, and they are soon swallowed by the water fall. The Howling Hatred priest and the featherbeak, however, are not so easily dealt with. The priest casts plague storm but it has no effect on the gnome and the ranger, while the featherbeak charges the two of them. Violent combat continues for a few minutes, but eventually the Coopers are triumphant. Daryle loots the priest's body, while Ruddy searches the dead featherbeak. This accomplished, they pursue the path around the outside of the great hall. Daryle turns the corner and proudly holds up the priest's feather mask, only to see the dead wyren draped over the bridge, and her friends taking a well-deserved rest.

While most of the Coopers recover by the great hall, Thorne is carried to a large room. The floor of this room features an extensive map of the Sumber Hills, showing the location of Tyar-Besil as well as several other cities within the dwarven kingdom of Belsimer. Sitting on a marble throne at the end of the chamber is a beautiful winged elf maiden, holding a elegantly crafted spear in her right hand. The initiates slap heavy magical irons on the rogue's hands and legs, binding them. Releasing the hold person spell, she welcomes Thorne by name, and thanks him for bringing her the dwarf. She informs the rogue she sees great potential in a profitable relationship between him and her. Thorne thanks her, and inquires what that might be. She tells she she will show him. First, she asks her Howling Hatred Priest to secure Dhukhean. The priest walks over, and drops a small blue fluorite of slumber on the dwarf's chest. The initiates pick up the dwarf with difficulty, while the Hurricane guides the rogue down the stairs, into the pit where the wind has inexplicably changed directions, and through a system of caves.

Aerisi Kalinoth, Prophet of Elemental Air

Thus, a chained Thorne and an unconscious Dhukhean are brought to the altar of the Howling Hatred caves. While still in his bindings Thorne is chained to the floor about 30 feet away from the altar, while Dhukhean is laid on top of the altar. As Aerisi walks away, she whispers to the rogue that his contribution to the success of the Howling Hatred will be to assist her in opening the portal to release Yan-C-Bin from his elemental prison ...