Session 27

Heroes: Meghera, Serghor, Zark, Vaako, Sai

The Heroes enter the workshop area of the hill-house, and find several operating tables spattered with blood, where humanoids are surgically and magically grafted modron parts. The evil mind behind all this is Valran, an eccentric and barmy wizard with strong ties to the Tacharim (see session 10).

He tries to parley with the Heroes to avoid violence, explaining how important his "work" is, and how the modron do not really feel any pain. He only wants to make humans and other intelligent races "better" by merging them with modrons. The Heroes are too enraged to listen, and they slay Valran on the spot.

Realizing the potential of the compound, the Heroes take their time to search every room, and understand every secret of the house, and Zark decides to use the place has his own home and laboratory. The Heroes spend the next few weeks between their new kip in Sylvania and Sigil.

* * *

The Heroes are approached by a finely-dressed gentleman introducing himself as Gallus; he's interested in aquiring their services for a one day job to the Prime Material Plane. He and his associates are about to embark on a diplomatic mission, and they require protection for a single night while they discuss important matters with their opposed "faction". The job looks easy, and the gentleman pays in platinum, thus the Heroes accept. 

When Gallus leave, the Heroes discover that the coins they were paid with carry some sort of curse to ensure that they will respect their end of the deal. Even though the matter is worrying, they trust they can avoid the curse by simply doing what they were hired for. 

The following evening, Gallus meets them again to bring them to the plane of Oerth, emerging from a portal in an alley of a small town. Gallus tells them they must be at a specific place (an old abandoned church out of town) not later than midnight on the following day. How they spend their time up to that moment is up to them.

Trying to avoid trouble, the Heroes decide to leave town, and camp near the old church. But while they're leaving, they're spotted by a young, beautiful, and very bored woman named Riza. She's the daughter of a rich merchant, and she's looking for new and interesting people to spend her time with. The Heroes politely decline her offer to party around town, and leave her behind.

When they reach the church, the Heroes soon realize that a malign influence still takes hold of the temple. They then inspect the adjacent cemetery, and Zark decides to animate a few scores of undead, to use the night after in case something goes wrong. He keeps the undead underground, ready to raise at his command. 

The day after, while Meghera keeps an eye on the church, and the others remain in their camp, Sai decides to pay another visit to the town and to Riza. He finds her in a tavern, sad and bored. He approaches her, but after a short meeting he once again declines to spend the day with her. Before leaving, Sai tries to pick the pockets of one of Riza's bodyguards. Maybe due to the amount of wine already imbibed so early in the day, Sai botches the attempt, inviting the angry stares of the two burly bodyguards.