Tormented and Aforementioned: Gazing Into You

Commander of a legion of sinspawn, the powerful barghest Malfeshnekor was once.

He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.  ¹

Confining Nualia and Orik, the party completes the exploration of the final floor of Thistletop.

Going further south, they enter a very strange room: an L-shaped hallway ended at a pair of stone doors carved with the depiction of two skeletons; to the east the hallway narrowed to a circular carving of what was an immense stack of tens of thousands of gold coins. This pillar of gold rose from floor to ceiling and edges of the coins were carved with tiny and spiky runes.

After some investigation of the pillar, there was a realization that there were three slots: the party began to try inserting coins; this finally proved to be a success when three coins were placed into the pillar’s slots and it began to move downwards to reveal another room behind it. The pillar they found was merely an illusion; it was actually a door to a very real and very strange inner sanctum.

Entering a stone door right across from the pillar opening, they find a strange room filled with eccentricities.  Three low tables are covered with tools, knives, and objects that do not have a readily apparent purpose. A strange collection of bones is found to the south; too many are there for one skeleton. On the easternmost tale is an object that, upon closer examination, is not a tool at all: it was a silver-and-gold seven-pointed star with a thin curved handle on its backside.

The party took this device and came to the conclusion it must act as a key to another door they perceived as they entered the room behind the pillar: this particular door was made of stone and did not possess a handle; it merely possessed the carving of the seven-pointed star. Placing that in its respective location on the door, the door suddenly turned onyx, and then transitioned to pure gold, to platinum, and suddenly disappeared into an array of smaller doors revealing a room filled with eternal candles and a fire pit in its centre. The party began to enter; Merrix came in and went to the left of the door and Marco to the right. Nobody knew what to expect; this room was definitely different, but a detect magic cast provided very little information. Something was hiding this room from magic altogether.

Suddenly, a large creature appears out of thin air and gashes its claws straight into Merrix’s back, cleaving and spilling blood under her as she collapses to the floor dead.

The thing that killed her loomed to the ceiling and was readily identified as a greater barghest, most likely the creature known hereto as Malfeshnekor. It was under the effects of an invisibility sphere spell-like effect and quickly brought the Heroes to arm. This fight was not a trivial one and there almost happened to be more than just one mere death.

It quickly became apparent the creature was confined to the room; it seemed physically incapable of leaving. Clawing at Darius and Marco, the gashes this thing left seemed to sizzle and burn in pain. This was no ordinary creature, and this almost seemed incredibly overwhelming to the party had it not been bound to the room.

The beast fought with a magic-imbued and crazed hunger; it used abilities such as blink, mass bull’s strength, rage, crushing despair, and charm monster, controlling the battlefield around him and almost bringing everyone fighting it to its knees. It even eventually began to take on the appearance of a large, tall muscular goblin.

Eventually, the thing went down, pierced by a cold iron knife while invisible; Marco had the last hit.

Merrix’s body was investigated and, once her condition is discovered, taken mournfully away by Darius. The rest of the party loomed upon the room only to discover an impressive cache of treasure within the walls and upon a table to the north.

The following items were found:

• 60 eternal candles, each worth 25 gp.
• A ring of force shield where the shieldlike pane of force generated manifests as a seven-pointed star. The ring also contained inscriptions that appeared to have been placed there by Karzoug, indicating the creature that was just fought was bound there by him.
• A coffer filled with 1000 gp worth of diamond dust.
• A diamond seven-pointed star worth 1000 gp.
• A xorn robe.
• A jade amulet of natural armor +1.

Defeating this creature, a feat that is by no means trivial, awarded the party with 6000 XP. Furthermore, completing this module, Burnt Offerings, provided the party with another 6000 XP. This means that every party member received 2400 XP.