998 Rhaan 24th Fairhaven, Aundair

998 Rhaan 24th Fairhaven late afternoon

As we prepared to depart for our next assault on the sanitarium a tall comely dark haired human-like being approached us. It was a kalashtar by the name of Karshinar. He had read my add offering employment in our company and he said, though he was no scout, his psionic powers would be most useful in our quest. I have read about the legendary psionic powers of the kalashtar but have had no direct experience of them. Furthermore he asked for very little in terms of compensation, so we gladly accepted his services.

As we made the short journey from Fairhaven to Haverthold Sanitarium we vowed that this would be our last assault on the haunted mansion. We wished to put an end to the curse, not just for the poor damned souls trapped therein, but also to give meaning to the selfless sacrifice of our dear friend and comrade Vaegar. I swore before the Host that his death would not be in vain.

We entered the haunted mansion and ascended to the second floor. When we established for certain that the second floor contained no more clues to the completion of our quest, we turned our attention to the basement. We lowered ourselves to the sub-basement with Vaegar’s silk rope. Zed descended first and while we worked our own descent, he discovered a rib cage that animated and floated around him as if to ward him from unseen enemies. After we rallied in the subbasement, we began marching down the small exit tunnel. In the distance, we saw a door glowing crimson with eldritch blood magic. We thought it prudent to focus our investigations elsewhere. Our small company continued down the short tunnel to an ash-filled chamber with bones strewn about. Apparently this small chamber was actually some sort of a heating furnace. During Haverthold’s dark period, under Luec, it was employed to cremate victims of his cruelty. Suddenly the piles of scorched bones coalesced into a half dozen living skeletons. Although these creatures momentarily surprised us, Zed our warforged soldier scattered them like tenpins. The remainder of our party merely fended them off, secure in our confidence of Zed’s prowess. After continuing down the tunnel, we came upon a magically sealed door and we managed to open it.

Upon entering we immediately realized that this was the chamber of horrors wherein the horrific mutilations occurred, conveniently located near the furnace to facilitate disposal of human body parts. The room was a combination torture chamber and operating room if such a place is conceivable by the sane. The room was “L” shaped and just out of sight was a living corpse animated by the power of the dark necromantic energies of the mansion’s curse. As a preemptive strike, Elarin darted to the far side of the room and blasted the undead with his powerful firebolt spell. As the remainder of the party moved to engage the creature at close range, the undead leapt forward and cuffed Elarin with an emaciated hand sheathed in ebony death magic. Despite the debilitating weakness caused by the attack Elarin fought on desperately. While we did our best to distract the creature, Zed laid into it and hacked it to pieces.

At this point we rejoiced for we thought we had destroyed the evil twin Luec. And yet it all seemed far to easy. We had faced a far greater threat in the shadow ghost of Akim Voss. But as a henchman one would presume his undead manifestation to be a much weaker creature than his master Luec's. In any case, after searching the horrific operating room and confiscating an enchanted book, we returned to the first floor and headed for the main exit.

As we approached the narthex, the grandfather clock began to chime, sounding a death toll as it were. Then a creature of nightmare appeared hovering in the air before us. Luec had been transformed by the curse into some sort of a here-to-fore unknown type of undead. In appearance it was similar to a skeleton but there seemed to be some sort of a skin-like membrane pulled over the bones, tight as a drum. The most bizarre piece of undead anatomy was the terrifying scorpion’s tail extending from the creature’s hipbones in the buttock region, though the creature had no flesh for proper buttocks.

That is when it all came clear to me. The scorpion tail……. Luec’s cursed undead body was too much like unto that of an aspect of the servitors of the god of the dark six known as the Mockery to be just a coincidence. The drow refer to the Mockery as Vulkoor and he can take the form of a elf/scorpion centauric creature. Akim Vaas’ Succor Belath must have been simply a pseudonym for the Mockery, god of treacherous warriors.

The thing that used to be Luec used the dark necromancy under its command to summon a pair of shadow spirits from Dolurruh. Given that the curse-warped corpse was levitating some ten feet above the floor, we attacked the shadows first. The combination of Zed’s ghost hammer and our own now considerable experience fighting these shadow ghosts resulted in their speedy annihilation. I used my flaming sphere spell to good effect against the summoned shadow beings. Luec’s skeletal form was not so easily dealt with. When we saw that Zed had control of the situation Elarin and I turned our attention the undead Luec. Elarin and I began a furious spell barrage. But my force missiles, and Elarin’s new acid bolt, did not seem to have any appreciable effect. Karshinar used his uncanny psi powers to blast Luec with cold and this also had no effect. Dygoran called upon the power of the Silver Flame in order to cow the undead mastermind into submission. She might as well have been attempting to rebuke a doorknob for all the good it did. Luec retaliated by striking me with his tail but I was able to shake off the debilitating effects of the scorpion poison.

After Zed finshed off the last of the shadow ghosts, he drew his warsword and closed with the skeleton-scorpion. Between Zed’s great height and the reach provided by his huge sword, our war forged champion was just able to slice at the creature’s feet. In doing so Zed was taking a severe beating from Luec’s mighty scorpion tail but was able to stay in the fight thanks to his golem-like physiology and immunity to poisons. Karshinar tried another of his mysterious psionic powers and this time it actually seemed to bother the thing. The kalashtar seemed to be employing an energy that exploited Luec's vulnerabilities with this particular attack. Meanwhile Dygoran and Pazenga joined Zed in attacking Luec’s feet. I continued to ply my spells against Luec, to no effect, but Elarin realized the futility of spells and opted to climb the stairs so as to get close enough to strike Luec with his enchanted thrusting sword. Before Elarin could get into position he was struck by Luec’s deadly tail, the poison leaving behind an enervating lethargy. When Elarin staggered into position and struck at Luec, the combination of the poison’s enervation and Luec’s near invulnerability to magic changed what should have been a devastating blow into a mild flesh wound. Elarin was forced to flee for his life.

It was at this time that Luec employed his terror inducing magics and caused Dygoran and Zed to flee for their lives, dropping their weapons as they ran. Luec created an ice wall to prevent our escape. I moved my fire sphere spell forward to melt a hole in the ice wall and then Pazenga and I began to follow the others to the back door. I never had the opportunity to move my fire spell but at least it assured us of an exit though the front door, albeit by leaping through searing flame. As I moved my fire globe spell, Karshinar acted as rear guard and blasted Luec with his psi powers again and again. Luec counter attacked with his deadly scorpion tail and thus the kalashtar decided it was his turn to flee. Karshinar leapt through my fire spell and rolled into the atrium on the other side of the wall of ice. Unseen by the rest of us, Luec cornered him in the atrium.

When I saw Karshinar head for my flaming sphere “door” in the ice, continued my own flight to back door. Ironically Zed passed me going in as I was running out. He dashed back to the narthex to regain his beloved great sword. Dygoran abandoned reason and soon followed after him to rescue her flaming morning star. Meanwhile the trapped kalashtar drew upon the dregs of his waning psionic power and blasted Luec with every fiber of his Quori soul. Impossibly Luec was blown apart!

Immediately Haverthold Sanitarium began to shake. The delayed destruction now given free rein. I just managed to leap out the back door as the ceiling began to rain around us. By then Zed had reached his sword, scooped it up and began to run for the back door. His adamantine skin and golem physiology enabled his body to endure the impacts and fight on to the back door. Dygoran was not so fortunate. She managed to reach her ancestral morning star, but she had taken serious punishment from the plummeting debris. Hapless Dygoran must have decided that she had no chance of reaching the distant back door and set her hopes on the front via the hole my fire spell made in the ice wall. Poor Dygoran nearly made it, but only nearly. As the roof finally caved in, her arm emerged from the wreckage, still clutching the precious morning star.

Heart broken over the loss of a second comrade, we dug out her corpse and brought it back to the temple of the Silver Flame in Fairhaven. Our one consolation was that we were able to return Dygoran’s enchanted morning star to her family. After we said our goodbyes to the priestess, our new kalashtar friend Karshinar also bid us farewell. Karshinar said he had urgent business elsewhere and could not tarry. He is the true hero of the final battle against the evil of Haverthold. We had given up, thinking ourselves defeated, but he fought on and prevailed. Karshinar alone broke the curse by effecting Luec’s destruction.