With bizarre clues and references piling up, the party decides to check in with Ranme the Half-Insane Wizard.
[As DM] I say, "You do remember that you guys owe Ranme a test subject for his experiment, right?"
[OOC] K says, "Oh yeah..."
After cruising the dive bars and a couple successful Charisma rolls, they convince a poor sod to follow them to Ranme's hotel room with some vague promises and hand the unfortunate soul over to the way too eager semi-demented inventor.
As Ranme straps the nearly unconscious test subject into the Apparatus, the Half-Insane Wizard tells the PCs that the Fire of Asshurbanipal is an ancient magic artifact of terrible power, a wondrous red gem that belonged to a mighty king of long ago, whom the Ionians called Sardanapalus and the Semitic peoples named Asshurbanipal. The Fire of Asshurbanipal was last seen a millennia ago in a now lost city of unimaginable evil, the City of the Dead!
There are dark rumors that an ancient cult from Arabia Petraea called the Veiled Society has managed to find the City of the Dead, deep in the hazes of a haunted desert east of the Thamūd.
After the PCs regain their composure, they ask the semi-mad magician about the significance of the missing 16 year old girls. The Half-Insane Wizard says that the Fire of Asshurbanipal is used for ritual magic and that sacrificing 16 year old girls during a blood moon greatly enhances the powers of the eldritch jewel.
The next blood moon is only a few days off.
The PCs ask Ranme where Veiled Society might be hiding their temple, and he replies that the temple is probably at an intersection of ley lines. The party asks if the semi-mad magician can come up with a possible location and he agrees. As they step out of the hotel room, the strange Apparatus starts humming and an unearthly light pours forth.
[As Nausicaä] S says to Zakalwe, "Don't look back! Nothing bad happened!"
Exiting the hotel, the PCs watch a long column of Việt legionnaires heading out of the city. Accompanying them is an ecstatic Spymaster, who keeps exclaiming, "Now the Caped Crusader will finally pay!" The masked vigilante has freed the thousands of Cham wrongfully imprisoned at Terrible Injustice Prison. So, since Gouverneur Trần is still facing off against the Khmer, the Lieutenant Gouverneur is leading most of the remaining garrison at Buôn Ma Thuột to stop the prison break.
Next, the PCs check in with Mademoiselle Farahani for more information about the Veiled Society, but their Persian friend is uncharacteristically tight lipped.
Then, they decide to visiting the Suione Murder Machine at the insane asylum. Brock Samson says that he was walking past the orphanage on an errand when he blacked out. When he came to, he'd found that he'd murdered 50 people, but he doesn't know anything about the missing girls. Then he breaks down and starts crying.
[As Brock Samson] I say, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to kill those people!"
[As Nausicaä] S says, "It's okay, we know it's not your fault."
Brock Samson begins babbling about being visited by a purple bat. Zakalwe asks if it was a person or a bat, and Samson replies that he's not certain but it was on the ceiling of his room.
[OOC] K says, "No, I'm pretty certain it was this guy:"
As they leave the insane asylum, Zakalwe finds a note in his pocket to meet at a certain time at an abandoned factory not far from the asylum.
[OOC] K says, "Of course."
After they enter the factory, the PCs detect movement around them. They quickly deduce the trap and try to escape through a hole in the roof when Darkness, 15' Radius descends upon them!
A segment later, another magic-user hits the party with Sleep. Zakalwe fails his Save versus Magic!
Another segment later, yet another magic-user hits the party with another Sleep. Nausicaä fails her Save versus Magic!
When they wake up, the party finds that they have been taken captive by the Veiled Society!
[As DM] I say, "You do remember that you guys owe Ranme a test subject for his experiment, right?"
[OOC] K says, "Oh yeah..."
[OOC] S says, "We've got to find the most depressed sad sack in the city."
As Ranme straps the nearly unconscious test subject into the Apparatus, the Half-Insane Wizard tells the PCs that the Fire of Asshurbanipal is an ancient magic artifact of terrible power, a wondrous red gem that belonged to a mighty king of long ago, whom the Ionians called Sardanapalus and the Semitic peoples named Asshurbanipal. The Fire of Asshurbanipal was last seen a millennia ago in a now lost city of unimaginable evil, the City of the Dead!
There are dark rumors that an ancient cult from Arabia Petraea called the Veiled Society has managed to find the City of the Dead, deep in the hazes of a haunted desert east of the Thamūd.
After the PCs regain their composure, they ask the semi-mad magician about the significance of the missing 16 year old girls. The Half-Insane Wizard says that the Fire of Asshurbanipal is used for ritual magic and that sacrificing 16 year old girls during a blood moon greatly enhances the powers of the eldritch jewel.
The next blood moon is only a few days off.
The PCs ask Ranme where Veiled Society might be hiding their temple, and he replies that the temple is probably at an intersection of ley lines. The party asks if the semi-mad magician can come up with a possible location and he agrees. As they step out of the hotel room, the strange Apparatus starts humming and an unearthly light pours forth.
[As Nausicaä] S says to Zakalwe, "Don't look back! Nothing bad happened!"
Exiting the hotel, the PCs watch a long column of Việt legionnaires heading out of the city. Accompanying them is an ecstatic Spymaster, who keeps exclaiming, "Now the Caped Crusader will finally pay!" The masked vigilante has freed the thousands of Cham wrongfully imprisoned at Terrible Injustice Prison. So, since Gouverneur Trần is still facing off against the Khmer, the Lieutenant Gouverneur is leading most of the remaining garrison at Buôn Ma Thuột to stop the prison break.
Next, the PCs check in with Mademoiselle Farahani for more information about the Veiled Society, but their Persian friend is uncharacteristically tight lipped.
Then, they decide to visiting the Suione Murder Machine at the insane asylum. Brock Samson says that he was walking past the orphanage on an errand when he blacked out. When he came to, he'd found that he'd murdered 50 people, but he doesn't know anything about the missing girls. Then he breaks down and starts crying.
[As Brock Samson] I say, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to kill those people!"
[As Nausicaä] S says, "It's okay, we know it's not your fault."
[OOC] S asks K, "Do you think it was the Caped Crusader?"
[OOC] K says, "No, I'm pretty certain it was this guy:"
As they leave the insane asylum, Zakalwe finds a note in his pocket to meet at a certain time at an abandoned factory not far from the asylum.
[OOC] K says, "Of course."
A segment later, another magic-user hits the party with Sleep. Zakalwe fails his Save versus Magic!
Another segment later, yet another magic-user hits the party with another Sleep. Nausicaä fails her Save versus Magic!
When they wake up, the party finds that they have been taken captive by the Veiled Society!
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