18th of Sun
Barbatos and I go to Maran’s Odd Sizes again. Do they have any other tall customers like me? My age? (It’s hard enough to meet men in this city without scaring them off with my freaky height.) Sadly, Maran has no suggestions for me.
Meanwhile, Charnoth buys some barding for his bear companion, Chrondar. The bear doesn’t seem to like wearing it too much.
Later, we meet at the Ghostly Minstrel with Aprata Nachov, an acquaintance of Mand’s. This elf woman has many ear piercings and a bronze headpiece. She explains that chaositech’s mechanics are powered by raw chaos — neither magic nor science, but it can accomplish impossible things. But chaositech betrays, she says, so she no longer serves chaos. She knows of the Shuul’s weapon: It’s called the Prajdall.
Apparently, “Prajdall” is an old Prustan word meaning “hunters of Order.” The project involves the Shuul taking dwarf volunteers and changing them somehow. These changed dwarves can sense chaos and chaositech and are very powerful — but not powerful enough for the Shuul. Now this Doctor Feegus is looking for some other race to use instead of dwarves. I guess that’s where the captured litorians from Charnoth’s tribe come in. These creatures are grotesque, Aprata says, but she thinks the process can be reversed, as long as one has the proper lab and chemicals. Feegus is guarded by Shuul knights (warriors in fancy plate armor wielding strange weapons with moving parts) and the Prajdall themselves, of course. She doesn’t think the project will work, however, as the Shuul are not powerful enough yet. She advises us to use certain weapons and items (magic ones, not chaositech) against them. We pay Aprata five hundred gold to reveal more about these weapons.
She tells us to go to a place called Pythoness House in Oldtown. Long ago, two women named Maquent and Radonna operated a brothel there. But it was more than that — Maquent was a prophetess and used sex to aid her divinations, it seems. The house was a front for the chaos cults three or so years ago, but it has been abandoned since the fall of the cults. Rumors say the cult stored a secret cache of weapons and magical devices there that would prove extra useful against the forces of law and order. It’s all still there, in a vault, Aprata says. These days, some say the place is haunted, but she gives us directions anyway.
19th of Sun
We stop in at the Records Office in the Administration Building to get the address for Nerlene, assistant to Doctor Feegus. It’s the Tower of Science — what a surprise. Next we investigate records on Pythoness House: It’s officially a ruin, no one local seems to own it. When we go take a look, we see a large grounds with an iron fence around it and broken gates leading inside. The place is very old and, according to the records, has been rebuilt over and over again a number of times in its history. We notice an old woman watching us as we go in. She said the old owners all killed themselves rather than be captured. Then she gives us a vial to drink.
“When do we drink it?” we ask.
“You’ll know,” she says.
How mysterious!
We enter the house, which seems more like a fortress, with its crumbling towers and imposing gatehouse. It seems colder inside than outside. We see chaos cult symbols in the courtyard. “Come to me…!” a voice whispers. We can’t see where it’s coming from.
Climbing up to a ledge, we fall under attack by skeletons! They all look like they once were women. “We were murdered here,” they cried, “and now you will be!” I manage to pull a couple two-headed dogs off Barbatos while the others combat the skeletal remains of the whores of Pythoness House.
“I must feed!” a man’s voice whispers in the breeze, which seems to be blowing a green mist toward us. From out of the mist, a ram-headed humanoid creature attacks me! I’ve never seen anything like him before! Charnoth makes a flying leap and pushes the ram-demon off the ledge; it disappears.
“Chaos is the key,” the man’s disembodied voice whispers as we gather ourselves after the fight. Maybe the place is haunted! And then we discover more bad news: a strange, invisible force field blocks off the entrance to the courtyard. We can’t leave!
We climb up to a nest made of greyish hair in one of the towers of Pythoness House. Maybe it belonged to that strange ram-headed demon that attacked me. We don’t think we have the weapons to really hurt this demon; it will soon be after us again.
After a while, the force field seems to disappear, and we can once again leave the house. We haven’t yet drunk the old woman’s potion, but as we leave, she’s nowhere to be seen. We head over to the Temple of Asche, where our friend Mand Scheben checks us out. It seems that the two-headed dogs managed to give Barbatos and me a nasty disease, and the ram-demon sapped our strength as well. He works his magic on us all and assures us we’ll be fine in a few days. Good. I can use a little rest.
20th of Sun
Today the broadsheets say that Empress Addares is beginning to gather an “Army of the Empire.” According to the reports, this army includes elf, orc, and litorian mercenaries. That’s never been done before. I guess she’s decided to cement her claim to the Lion-Guarded Throne with force, if necessary. How will the other two “emperors” respond, I wonder?
21st of Sun
Today I go to work at the Delver’s Guild. Pretty uneventful.
22nd of Sun
Back to Pythoness House today. The litorian brothers are arguing over which one of them is the hunt leader. As soon as we pass through the front door, we’re assailed by ratmen! Calista magically distracts one who’s trying to throw a bomb — he blows himself up instead.
Meanwhile, the male voice returns: “Chaos is the key,” it whispers. Where is that coming from?
Behind a purple curtain we meet more undead women. As Charnoth slices the unlife out of an incorporeal woman, she cries, “Find my journal and avenge me!”
We come upon a statue of a fat, naked chaos priest in a lower level of the house. It holds powerful magic, we’re certain, but we can’t get the panel on its belly to open up. Paintings throughout the house depict men and women with demonic features having sex. Not my cup of tea, artwise, but Barbatos pulls a couple of them off the walls to take back home.
When we hear the voice again, saying “Come to me!” we realize it’s coming from that magical statue. In a gruesome turn, when the statue once again says, “I must feed!,” Charnoth and Barbatos try to feed it blood. It takes the blood, but nothing else happens. We do manage to determine, however, that when the statue says, “Chaos is the key,” the force field across the entrance disappears. That’s good to know. After leaving Pythoness House, we go off to sell our loot, then call it a day.
