The Utah Saints

June 25th, Legis Day, Albanus 1

Marius explained the omens he drew from the bull's liver.  No one was quite sure what to make of them, though Leyna suggested that perhaps it was a sign that something unclean had been done to Count Arius' body...

Once the sacrifices were complete, the barge ferried the band across the river, to the foot of Altus Heights.  Cassius and uncle Larentius remained behind on the boat, with the horses.  They climbed the dry, wind-swept bluff overlooking the Rogatus River.  At the top they found a crude shrine to Dulcea and a sleeping hut.  The shrine was almost orthodox, with a small well and curse stones scattered about.  However dried placenta and umbilical cords hung from its rafters.  (Normally such things are taken to the temple of Askelius and burned in thanks for a healthy delivery.)  The sleeping hut, used to seek prophetic dreams, was run of the mill.  But when Titus pulled up the flea-infested straw mattresses, one of the sleeping platforms flipped up to reveal stone steps descending into the depths of the hill.

Corvina cast a light spell, and the band headed down.  Severus spotted a couple traps on the way down and disarmed them (eventually...) without getting anyone killed.  The steps ended in an ante-chamber that had a door and two closets for vestaments, cheap burlap cloaks dyed black.  Marius spotted an alarm spell covering the door;  after some mulling and experimentation, Leyna remembered that Cantorius, the old hermit at the hunting lodge, had said his mother was taught a secret phrase, "I have seen her face."  When they repeated that, the alarm faded and allowed them to pass.

Inside they found a gore spattered altar swarming with fiendish dire rats.  Above it hung the corpses of several strangled animals, and one tiny infant with a strip of parchment around its ankle.  Titus, Leyna, Severus and Fluffy charged the rats... and found that they were amazingly adept at nipping people savagely in the knees.  Gaius, meanwhile, stood back with his bow and methodically pinned rats to the walls.  Eventually the rats all went down, leaving everyone a bit chewed up.  Corvina examined the wounds, which looked unpleasant, and wrapped an herbal poultice on Leyna and Severus' knees to prevent their wounds from festering.  Fluffy, meanwhile, had fun savaging a rat that had nipped him sharply on the nose.

In a side room, the troop found a crude silver platter, a silver chalice with "fangs" on its edges, and a garrotte with obsidian bangles at its ends.  They took the infant's dried body down and found that the parchment was a shaky inscription:  "That my other children may thrive."

There were two passages out of the altar room.  One led past an odd curtain of hair to a water-filled room.  The passage appeared to go down a flight of steps into the water, disappear, and re-appear on the other side.  Titus spotted several swarms of nefas "froth", little blots of blood-red scum.  As the party pondered how to get beyond this, several people noticed that the "door" on the far-side of the water was fake -- a painting, nothing else.  The room was an elaborate dead end, and so they returned to the altar and tried the second passage.

This one was narrow, dug out of dirt, splitting and re-splitting into a warren of twisty passages.  From the darkness, they heard the chittering of more rats.  However Gaius noticed tracks in the dirt -- and the tracks always hugged the left wall.  The party did likewise and threaded its way along until the tracks suddenly turned towards the wall and in a none-too-subtle manner, vanished.  A moment's search revealed that the wall was illusionary here.  Severus stuck his head through and saw a faint glow:  a lamp's light, shining under a door.

After Marius cast silence upon a stone, the party walked boldly up to the door and kicked it in.  There was a man inside, in plate mail, burning various scrolls and parchments.  People charged.  Leyna dealt him a solid blow and other people swarmed around, stabbing and slashing.  Then, a sudden worry gripped the party:  was this guy evil?  Or were they dismembering some innocent person, like a local official sent to clean out the temple?  Fortunately at that point the man caught sight of Titus, and his face twisted into a mask of rage.  The party decided that anyone who looked at a paladin like that probably deserved to die.

Alas, the cleric had other ideas.  Reaching out, he touched Titus lightly on the chest... and the paladin dropped.  Unfortunately, this required him to turn his back on Severus.  The young count then neatly inserted his dagger in the man's armpit and twisted.  Blood gurgling out of the priest's mouth and he, too, crumbled to the floor.  Marius discovered that Titus was not actually breathing.  With spells and "the breath of life", he was able to revive him.  But even after he could stand, Titus felt cold and achey.

At this point, Fluffy began to growl at one of the room's side doors.  Listening, the party heard a distressing gabble of sighes, gurgles, and little cries of pleasure.  Opening it, they saw two bloated imps pressing themselves against a door at the far end of the room, clearly in ecstasy.

Leyna charged -- and discovered that when she got within ten feet of the door, something sickening happened.  A presence touched her mind, cold and reptilian.  She could feel "her" jaws working, chewing on something's intestines while it writhed and squirmed under "her" claws.  The bloody taste, the slithery feel of guts sliding across "her" tongue, filled her with ecstasy.  Fortunately she managed to keep her stomach under control and slash one imp.  As the rest of the band closed, the imps vanished.  Most people could endure the hideous sending, but Corvina began to vomit.  Marius helped her back and the sensation faded.

Not having any spells to dismiss the imps' invisibility, the party turned to other means of "sight".  Titus threw his cloak over one.  Leyna managed to grab the other and get a hold on its neck and feet.  Its spike tail whipped around menacingly, however Severus stabbed it to death while Leyna held it.  Seeing how well that worked, Leyna grabbed the second imp and Severus obligingly sawed it in half, too.

But what caused the horrible sending, and the faint sobs they could hear from the next door?  Opening it, they saw a six-foot long lizard-like creature, a vaath demon.  The vaath was attached to the stomach of a sailor who lay helpless on the fllor.  As the door opened the vaath released him, and the sickening "pleasures" disappeared from their minds.  Titus and Leyna held the door as it charged, then drew it back into the room.  Fortunately its claws and fangs clattered harmlessly off Titus' armor.  A flurry of blows weakened it, Severus managed to slip behind its back and pith it.  At this point, all of Severus' relatives made a mental note never to turn their backs on him when he was upset.