Beyond the Doomsday Door

News of Destruction

After several weeks of shopping and item creation, they finally remembered the shard mission and used the shard to locate the next. When Arkwright concentrated on his shard, he got a vision of an abbey and lighthouse, in ruins. With some effort, they identified it as Windsong Abbey, about a hundred miles up the coast. However, they knew the abbey as a working enclave and were shocked when Sheila told them that it had been attacked and now lay in ruins. She advised them to visit Sandpoint (and its famous pasty shop) on their way there, as a witness to the aftermath of the attack named Pilla was staying there at the Red Dragon.

Once they reached Sandpoint, they sought out Pilla who was happy to share her experience with them. She had been passing the abbey and, seeing it in ruins, had approached, finding a red cap on the ground before being driven off by rock throwing giants. The party identified the cap as that of a Redcap (an imaginatively named fey). While Magda smiled happily at the thought of giants, the others tried to work out where to get cold iron weapons. Having found a supplier, they purchased some and headed on to the abbey.
 
After an attack by a couple of Hill Giants during the night, they reached the abbey ruins, with a ruined village in front of it. Ismeina sallied forth to scout the village, returning to say she thought there was a sleeping giant in the nearest house. As they moved forward, it became apparent that there were rather more giants present than reports had advised, with a total of three Ettins and six Hill Giants coming at them in waves. Arkwright and Tristan used magic from distance for most of the fight and Ismeina joined combat when possible,although the giants found hitting her relatively easy. Magda, meanwhile, engaged the giants toe to toe, whistling happily and thoroughly enjoying herself. Eventually, the giants defeated, they prepared to move into the abbey.

Windsong Ruins

After Tristan had done some running repairs, they set off for the abbey. Ismeina cautiously crept in through the open front door to check it out but, having no light source with her (stealth being tricky when you imitate a lighthouse) she was unable to make out the large blocks of masonry suspended above her in the shadowy recesses of the ceiling. As Tristan and Magda joined her to check out the inner door, the blocks fell, badly injuring Magda and Ismeina – miraculously Tristan was unharmed. He lead them round to the left, moving clockwise round the courtyard. Finding a door, a paranoid (although justifiably so) Ismeina checked for traps before they opened it. Inside was a storeroom, filled with crates, barrels and sacks of food, with a trapdoor immediately to the right. Ismeina checked it for traps and, finding it was trapped, disabled it.

They moved on to an opening leading in to a desecrated cathedral. As they moved in, leaving Arkwright at the door, they briefly saw a nightmare of tentacles and teeth rise from the rubble before being engulfed in an acidic fog, separating them from Arkwright. As they rushed forward to escape the fog, they saw the hideous creature vanish before them. Meanwhile, Arkwright was having a bad day. Another of the creatures rose from the rubble near him and then a second one appeared.
Pausing only to identify them as Nyogoth Qlippoth, he used dimension door to get back to his comrades. As they waited for the fog to dissipate, they searched the ruined tower they were in, finding nothing. As it did, they set off back out of the room, only to be ambushed bofy the Qlippoth, who came close to killing several members of the party before being defeated. Feeling that things were not going as well as they would like, they teleported back to Sandpoint for a pasty and a night in a comfortable bed at the Rusty Dragon.

Fresh and healed the next morning, they teleported back to the ruins, to the courtyard, and entered the cathedral to explore the large door at one end. Opening the door, they discovered four Ettins. Tristan and Ismeina moved to the left to take on one there, while Magda moved right to have two to herself and Arkwright engaged the fourth. For a while, things looked decidedly dicey before the Ettins finally began to run out of hit points and fell, one by one, before the magic and might of the party.

The Undead in the Tower

After a little healing, they moved on through the double doors on the other side of the room, into a room with staircases leading up into the tower on either side. Over the bannister of one of the staircases was draped a crown with a veil, which Tristan identified as the headdress of the Masked Abbot of Windsong Abbey. As Tristan moved up the right hand stairs, Izzy moved to appraise the headdress. Unfortunately, Arkwright picked it up, setting off the magical trap upon it an causing a degree of sonic harm to himself and his companions. Sighing heavily, Tristan sorted this out and then lead the way up into a circular tower room, containing only an old armchair smelling of rotting meat. They searched the rooms across the seaward side of the tower, finding a poem written in the back of a book of poetry and three chairs with scraps of linen caught in snags.

Puzzled, they passed through another set of double doors into the Abbey council chamber, with a chair for each of the greater gods of Golarion arranged, each with its back to a wall partition. As Tristan moved forward, he came under attack from a Mummy hiding behind one of the partitions. As the others came to his aid, two more Mummies came into view, together with a hulking Bugbear Juju Zombie which went toe to toe with Magda. At first, the combat was a little overwhelming but, with magical support from Arkwright and Tristan, Magda and Izzy began to work their way through the Mummy ranks and finally managed to destroy the Zombie.

Finding little of interest in the room, they moved to the right, where they found two Vrocks, which had spent their time summoning two more. This time, the combat proved more tricky, as two of the Vrocks fought head-on with Magda and Izzy and the other two teleported to attack Tristan and Arkwright. With resources dwindling and damage mounting, the party were in trouble until the first of the enemy died, swiftly followed by the others. They paused in the empty room to recover.

The Courtyard Tower

After recovering a little after their battle with the Vrocks, they moved to the last door on this level which lead on to a fine bath room containing a Medusa, guarded by a Hill Giant and a Redcap. The Hill Giant and Redcap were felled relatively quickly but the Medusa proved a far more difficult opponent. Finally, she fell and they sighed a collective sigh of relief that none of them had been turned to stone. A quick search found a few things of interest, primarily a strange key and some stone salve. Magda used the salve on the one remaining status in the room, which turned out to be an old friend, Koriah Azmeren. She explained that she had come to the abbey to look for her father, who was visiting it when it was attacked and had set her a message via a spell – unfortunately she met the Medusa before she found him.

They moved round to the next door off the courtyard, which turned out to be a postern gate, where Tristan set off a nasty glyph of warding, doing himself considerable harm. As they returned to the courtyard, Koriah told them her father was in the tower at the courtyards centre and was prepared to let them in if they wanted a rest. Gratefully they headed in to the tower and had an exchange of information with him. He told them that the attack was lead by Ardathanatus, a fallen cleric of Aroden who intends to bring a catastrophic mass of demons to the material plane. He also told them which building he had last seen Ardathanatus go in to and that one of the gate towers contained redcaps, as did the dormitory.
They moved on to the kitchen, where little of interest was found apart from a trap which summoned a Qlippoth. Magda found this fight hard, as the others held back to use their magical abilities, using her as a shield to engage the tentacled monstrosity. Finally, they battled through and considered their next move.

Redcaps and Skull Locks

They moved on to investigate the next room, a ruined barracks. As they moved in, they came under attack from Dust Mephits which proved an irritant more than a threat. However, as the battle raged (well, more muttered angrily under  its breath) several members of the party became aware that someone else was present, using magic against them. Once the Mephits fell, Tristan searched the ruined building using Detect Magic and found a Redcap hiding behind some brickwork. They closed in, finding the Redcap a much more dangerous opponent than the Mephits, with both Ismeina and Magda suffering serious wounds before it tried to flee – it nearly made it but was cut down trying to climb the outer wall of the ruined building.

They moved on to the guard tower, finding the door locked – this proved little obstacle to Ismeina and they searched the three floors of the tower, finding little of interest. As they searched the third floor, they heard the door at the base close and lock. Finishing their search, they made to leave and were ambushed by a group of Redcaps, who proved less of a threat than the one they had previously dealt with, mostly thanks to the Elemental Wall ability that Arkwright had just discovered he had.

The final room at ground level contained a door, with a skull like lock with the lock placed in the skulls jaws. Ismeina tried to pick the lock but as she did so, the jaws snapped shut, nearly breaking her lock picks. Tristan remembered the key found on the Medusa and tried it – the jaws stayed open this time but the lock remained locked. We leave them for now, standing in front of the door scratching their collective heads...

Down to Doomsday

They finally remembered the rhyme in the book of poetry they had found upstairs and used the key following it as a set of instructions, which opened the door with no ill effects. Beyond, stairs lead down into darkness. Lead by Magda and Tristan, they moved down into a large storage room, filled with barrels and crates. As their eyes adjusted to the gloom of light spells and pathfinder compasses, they came under fire from a band of Skulks. As they prepared for combat, Ismeina noticed another Skulk sneak out of the room via a passage opposite. The combat started, with the Skulks holding their own until, after several seconds, a grinding noise was heard from down the corridor the Skulk had gone down and a Clockwork Golem lumbered into the room, attacking Magda. The Skulks manoeuvred out of its way, leaving Magda and Ismeina practising the classic ‘you hit it and I’ll heal you’ routine. For some moments, things looked grim for the company, as Magda was repeatedly knocked unconscious by the Golem, only for Ismeina and Tristan to bring her back round again. After some time, the Skulks finally began to fall and the party managed to prevail. Low on spells, hit points and enthusiasm, they returned to Sandpoint to recover.

The Giant in the Basement

They returned to the Abbey and through the Doomsday Door where they set off on a random path through the tunnels. Eventually, they found a room, a huge cistern which had obviously formed the Abbeys water supply. Moving past the cistern, they came under fire from some Skulks from behind a barricade, although they were little opposition without a Clockwork Golem. The next room contained a glowing sphere, with some stairs leading down – after doing a little magical investigation, they moved on finding a Taiga Giant. This proved a formidable opponent but was eventually defeated by Magda’s armour class. Finally, they cleared out a few more Skulks before heading off home for some well-earned rest after a hard hour or so.

Deeper Down

They returned after a nights rest and a pasty, to the courtyard. Making their way down to the dungeon again, they found a workshop which was obviously in use to make to golems more aggressive. Moving on they found a freezer room and decided to make it non-functional by beating up the four Ice Golems that kept it cold, at some cost to themselves. Finding little else of worth on this level, they headed down the stairs.

They found themselves in a long room, with double doors at the end and a corridor to the right. They headed down the corridor and turned immediately right again, before searching down a long corridor of several doors. As they did so, they came under attack from Werebears, who proved little more than an  inconvenience but did some damage – as the battle began to turn in their favour, they were appalled to see two Shoggti Qlippoths which proved resilient, until Arkwright and Tristan dismissed them.

After healing up, they moved on, through a Doomsday door and into a lit area, with a mural of a tall man spewing forth pieces of parchment at a crowd. They headed east, to a strange room with a rock in the middle of it. As they moved to investigate, the rock came to life – a Gongorinan. This caused them some problems, particularly when a second Gongorinan appeared and attacked   Arkwright, but they eventually prevailed.

The Forge Master

After spending the rest of the day in Sandpoint, and having a good nights rest, they returned to the dungeon. They decided to try the double doors that they had ignored on first going into the complex and opened them, revealing a butterfly winged statue in an airy, large room. They also revealed a Chernobue Qlippoth and battle was joined. They found it relatively easy to take down, with Magda in its face and the others casting spells. A quick search of the room revealed a hidden panel, with several useful cleric spells inside.

After a look round the remaining areas of the dungeon, revealing an old and unused Apothecarium, they decided to head downstairs, pausing only to kill the Gongorinan which guarded the way.

The stairs lead to a chamber decorated with images of sea creatures and lit by a continual flame within a blue box. After a considerable time spent examining the box, Tristan picked it up and they moved on. Down a short corridor was a room containing sacks and crates and a few jars containing mist. Arkwright recognised these as soul jars, so they ignored them and returned to the ocean room. Ismeina opened a set of double doors to the east and was met by a large fiery creature telling her to shut them to stop the heat escaping from the forge it was working on. She was so surprised that she did as it asked, and reported the conversation to the others. Tristan opened the doors and, confronted by a demonic looking figure, promptly attacked. A combination of spells from Arkwright dealt with the three Salamanders helping the forge master and two of the fire elementals that emerged from the braziers in the rooms corners, before something shut the door.

The Librarian

After a few seconds to  get into position Tristan opened the door and combat resumed. The remaining fire elementals did not prove too great a threat but the Efreeti caused a few problems before finally succumbing.  After searching the area, they followed the corridor for some distance until coming to a room decorated with woodland motifs. There were some stairs up to the right, a door opposite and a corridor to the left. Ismeina checked the  door for traps but was unable to disarm it, so they headed to the left.

Down the corridor was a door where Ismeina was surprised to be welcomed in by the Librarian – looking round she was surprised to find no-one present. They spent some time asking the Librarian for books about the dungeon, their enemies and pornography, to no avail – Arkwright checked and the books were concerned with the worship of Groetus and apocalypses.

Deciding it was a boring room, they moved on, into a nest of cultists. This gave Arkwright the chance to try out his new toy, Chain Lightning – it proved to be remarkably effective and the cultists fell quickly,

Shadows of Doom

After they had been to town for a rest (and a chance for Arkwright to get Chain Lightning back) they moved on, deciding to investigate a corridor to the left near were they had come in. It lead to a cell block, overseen by a Baregara. The huge ape-like creature caused them severe problems, grappling Magda and still able to fight, until magic and violence brought it down. The cells contained Nildus, a cleric of Erastil who told them Ardathanatus was refocusing the Doomsday Door to Sekatar-Seraktis, with a view to raising Yamasoth, a qlippoth lord. They dropped the elderly man off and continued on their way.

They moved down the corridor taking a couple of lefts and emerged to a room containing a pair of boulders. These revealed themselves to be Gongorinans but were quickly disposed of.  The next room was equipped as a torture chamber come lab for making Alchemical Golems but was otherwise empty apart from some stairs leading down.

Ignoring the stairs they next found a room with nightscapes on its walls and another set of stairs leading down. Again ignoring the stairs they crossed the passageway to a torture chamber containing a man strapped to a table, attended by a couple of Kytons (or so it seemed). However, as the Kytons attacked, it swiftly became clear that they were not as they appeared – they were actually Animate Dreams. As Magda and Ismeina were dreadfully damaged by them the magic of Arkwright and Tristan (particularly Death Ward) finally overcame them just as the cleric responsible for the torture appeared and cast a fireball. Unfortunately for him, Arkwright then showed him how it should be done and he legged it. They chased him but he disappeared and they were left with the badly wounded cleric on the table. He introduced himself as Gein Kafog but had little to tell them and they let him go to town.

They headed downstairs and into a large cave with an underwater opening to the sea. Here there were two drakes, who seemed to be under the impression that they had nice shiny things for them. Having realised that they didn’t, they attacked but were soon vanquished.
There being no exit from the cave, they went back upstairs ad down the other staircase into a room with numerous niches in the walls and a Doomsday Door. As Ismeina tried to unlock it she set off a trap, causing a greater sonic glyph to go off. As they recovered from this, a scream cut short caught their attention and Ismeina fell to the floor dead, as Greater Shadows came from behind the door. Although they defeated them, it was with  heavy hearts they returned to Sandpoint to break the news to the pasty shop.

A New Recruit

Back in Sandpoint, they arranged for the funeral with the pasty shop and saw off their friend. As luck would have it, a passing rogue/bard was in town and responded to their advert for a new party member. Having passed the entrance exam (she wasn’t dead), Gilfarin joined the motley crew and, after a couple of days, they again moved into the dungeon. Passing through the doomsday door, they moved through the chambers where the shadows had hung out and passed through a crypt with a rubble blocked tunnel to the south. The tunnel to the east was clear and they set off down it, only to set off a spiked wall trap which caused them to do much healing.

As they were doing so they came under attack from several will-o’-wisps, which proved annoying but ultimately fell before their magic and weapons. To the north was a chamber where bodies could be embalmed and to the east a doomsday door. They headed down a passageway to the south into a chamber with four sarcophagi in it. With a dread feeling they moved on, only for the sarcophagi to open, revealing mummies. As they took this in, they heard several other sarcophagi open and the mummies converged on them. Arkwright promptly cast fireball on the mummies, thinning their ranks, as Magda and Gilfarin attacked and Tristan brought down divine power upon them. After a brief but brutal combat, the mummies remains lay around the chamber and the party was victorious.

Undead of Thassilon

Moving on (after a brief sojourn back in Sandpoint) they passed into the next room, where a commanding voice told them to stop in Thassilonian. The speaker was a mummy who asked seven questions that only Arkwright could answer – although this did not stop Tristan trying. Arkwright did the best he could and for a second it looked as though his answers were up to snuff – then the mummy cast anti-life shell around him and summoned some shadows. As battle was joined Magda kept the summoned creatures busy as the others used magic and arrows to deal with the mummy. As the battle went on, it became clear that the anti-life shell was limiting his options and the mummy melded with stone while it went down. Unfortunately for him, this meant he came out into a whirlwind of fire and died the final death soon after.

The next room was more to Magda’s liking, containing two stone golems and, with Tristan’s healing keeping her upright, she killed them quickly with her scarab of golem bane.

Down to Doomsday

With some trepidation, they opened the final door to be met with a scene of deep worriment. In the room the immediate threat was four Sinspawn, who ran forward to block the door, backed up by two Gongorinans. Behind them was Zolerim, the cleric who had run away earlier and behind him, in front of a eldritch door was the man they had come for, Ardathanatus. As Magda and Gilfarin fought the Sinspawn, Tristan and Arkwright began a magical duel with the two clerics. As the battle continued, a figure stepped out of the gloom and attacked Arkwright,a Bogeyman called Ricle Peaks, also known as the librarian.

As the Sinspawn fell, the Gongorinans closed, only to be dismissed by Tristan. Arkwright meanwhile was having a difficult time with the Bogeyman until he cast interposing hand. A wall of fire blocked them from the main combat but they magically travelled to the other side to renew their efforts. Running low on spells (and allies) the Bogeyman decided to go and fled the scene as, finally, Ardathanatus was felled, and the shard was theirs.