Armed with what little knowledge they could gather about Pontylver and the madness that it inflicts upon any who enter, our heroes set off to find Nori. Only he can clear the allegations facing them from Councilman Irithan. Hopefully, they can find Nori and get back to Malwander before he can set whatever evil plans he has into motion. Deciding to go in during the daylight hours, when the undead infesting the city are less active, the group enters The City of Madness. Even now, with the sun at its highest point in the day, the streets are still filled with shambling corpses of all kinds. The group takes great care to avoid the packs of skeletons and zombies they see moving about the city. The eerie silence of the city is pierced every so often with the screams and rants of those adventurers who have succumbed to the city’s madness in the past.

The outer city is almost completely destroyed, with no standing structures of any kind, only piles of rubble where they once stood. As the party makes their way further toward the inner city, the structures are more intact, though it is still very obvious that nothing has lived here in a long time. As they reach further still into the center of the city, the group sees entire buildings with their doors and windows boarded and barricaded against the upcoming battle. Little good it did them for whatever evil fell upon the city, it did so completely, and no one was spared. Some of the windows and doors have long since been smashed and destroyed, revealing the chambers behind them. A shiver travels through the group as they see entire houses standing just as they were the day the battle started. Only a layer of dust indicates that no one has set foot in the homes in years.

As they near the heart of the city, they can see what appears to be a central plaza surrounded by undamaged buildings on all sides. In the center of the plaza, positioned upon a large, raised dais stands a huge statue of an angel. At 35 feet tall, and carved from black rock, with red coloration at the extremities, the sculpture is quite an imposing figure. Much of the detail the figure must have had at one time appears to have been worn away with the passage of time. The wings are smooth, with no distinct feathers visible, and the monolith is facing away from the group so they cannot see its face. Sensing that something is not quite right here, the group decides to be extremely careful in how they proceed.

As they position themselves behind cover overlooking the plaza, they begin to notice large stains here and there on the ground surrounding the statue. They appear to be blood stains, some quite old judging by their rusty copper color. They cover much of the plaza near the figure for some distance, but have an obvious boundary, which the group positions themselves outside of. Suddenly the silence is shattered by a yell. It’s Nori, yelling at the top of his lungs from the large building directly behind the statue. The group cannot make any sense of what Nori is screaming and figure the worst must have happened, Nori has succumbed to the madness of Pontylver. The building is a large five-story structure with two large doors in the front, at the top of a short staircase. Oddly, only the top two stories of the building have windows, and it is completely intact on the whole.

Not seeing any other means of entering the structure, the group decides that speed is their best bet for getting Nori out and away from the looming figure. Using his magic to aid him, Lirrim makes a break for the doorway leading into the building. As he moves past, the statue begins to move. As it turns, the group sees its face for the first time. Where its facial features would normally be found, only a smooth façade with a symbol carved into can be seen. The carving is oozing what appears to be blood. The group realizes that the symbol matches the amulet they have exactly. As Lirrim reaches the doorway, the figure turns toward him and issues a large blast of blood from the symbol in its face, barely missing him.

While Lirrim enters the structure and makes his way to the roof to save Nori, the group engages the abomination. Finding Nori sitting cross-legged, dealing cards out one by one in front of him, Lirrim is unaware that the battle below does not fare well for the group. By the time he’s able to reach the ground floor, everyone but Flain has been hit by the blood spray of the statue, in most cases instantly losing their sanity. The group is able to pull things together just long enough to escape with their lives. Luckily the figure only pursues them so far, stops, and then returns to its pedestal.

Now struggling with their insanity, the group manages to stumble into a temple. Beseeching Ashila, the party discovers that he cannot cure them, only slow the onset of the disease. He does however tell them that there may be a cure, in fact more than one. Apparently an herb that grows upon the Tilvanot peninsula is rumored to cure insanity, as does the venom of the Rainbow Viper, which can only be found on Serpent Isle, the southern most of the Sea Barons’ islands. However, Serpent Isle is also rumored to be cursed, with tales of all who attempt to go there never returning.

Since the Isle is closer, and may actually be less dangerous than facing the Scarlet Brotherhood, the group travels to Rel Astra to find ship’s passage to the Isle. They meet with some resistance, as most captains will not even discuss going near such a cursed place. They finally find one who points them toward an eccentric, old fisherman that lives on the edge of town. He apparently fishes near the island on a regular basis, the only person brave enough to get that close to the accursed place. The group talks the fisherman into taking them out to the island in exchange for some of the riches that will surely follow their return with such a valuable commodity. Acting as the captain’s crew, the group sets off for Serpent Isle, but not without misgivings. Sione recognizes the man as the captain from her vision. Informing the rest of the group of this, they warily set sail.

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Main - Back to main page/menu.

Chapters - Find out what's happened so far.

Chapter One – Shapeshifters in Our Midst

Chapter Two – A Prophecy Fulfilled?

Chapter Three – The City of Black Crystal

Chapter Four – Poachers? No, Murderers!

Chapter Five – The Vast Swamp

Chapter Six – Delivery for Quarion

Chapter Seven – Evil Afoot in the Menowood

Chapter Eight – An Item in Naerie

Chapter Nine – Back in Malwander…

Chapter Ten – A Journey Into Madness

Chapter Eleven - Serpent Isle

Chapter Twelve – The Return of Maj

Chapter Thirteen – The Hestmark Highlands

Chapter Fourteen – A Spy Among Us?

Chapter Fifteen – The Bonewood

Chapter Sixteen – Return to Rook's Roost