Festival on Ice (Sarenith [June]-Lamashan[October] 4708 AR)

The tunnel leading into the next chamber made a sharp ninety-degree turn to the north before opening into a twenty-foot-high, thirty-five-foot-long cavern filled with a shallow lake that glittered with a faint greenish light from algae on the ceiling.

This used to be the main room for worship for the cultists - they knelt in the cold, 2-feet-deep water before a polished granite altar at the east side of the room (not visible from the beginning of the lake). The heroes noticed a handful of half-melted skeletons in the "water" that seemed to be still in the process of dissolving. When Mrunk managed to make it to the altar, he saw that it had the symbol of Zyphus carved on the front and was covered with rotting organs and other offerings to the Grim Harvestman. A small brazier atop the altar gave off a strong musky odor as it burned - the heroes could smell this as soon as they headed down the tunnel. Mrunk, in order to avoid stepping into the acid pool, climbed along the walls and reached the altar. The north wall was smooth and slippery and quite difficult to climb but the south wall was jagged and unfinished and relatively easy to traverse.

Mrunk and Wrack found a small metal rod on the ground in front of the pool. This acid did not give off noxious fumes like a normal pool of acid would.

Mrunk, Seoni and Wrack had to destroy the altar. The altar was constructed of masonry, and after hours of chipping at it, Mrunk managed to destroy it.

The last room once served as the bath house of the cult. Two sputtering torches still burned here, casting most of the room in shadowy illumination. Most of the pool was slush - with several frigid and wet bodies in it. The tunnel and frozen bath house had 20-foot-long ceilings.

There was a simple snare trap in the tunnel leading to the bath house - it caught a cultist. He still hung from the snare 10 feet up, his head distorted and purple from the weight of all the blood in his body. A small pool of blood marred the chamber floor beneath him.

Defeating Baillaset and the remaining of Oppara's Zyphus cultists did what the Society hoped it would - it rid Oppara of a cult that tricked and murdered an esteemed Pathfinder, and it sent a message to other cults not to trifle with the Society. After spending the summer in Oppara, the heroes heeded the request of their homesick protege, Savram, to return to Falcon's Hollow. Aranthor decided to follow them.

Strange winds blew down from Droskar's Crag, bringing on an early winter. The ground crunched underfoot with thick frost, and autumn surrendered without a fight. Days grew shorter and stars held court in the darkness reigning above. An unnatural cold permeated the town, and the Foam River's jubilant voice was frozen under the ice. Birds abandoned their nests for warmer climes, their songs silenced by winter's grim embrace. But the frozen riverbank now held a shimmering respite from the gloomy cold in the form of garish tents, joyful shouts, and sumptuous smells. Quinn's carnival had come to town.

Some of the heroes got to Quinn's Carnival for the simple opportunity for some fun. Especially after returning from Taldor, some jumped at the chance to relax for a while and have a good time. Sheriff Baleson sent the heroes an invitation with a specific reason to head to the fair, to meet him in the strong ale tent. Some of the heroes wanted to take the rescued children to the carnival, plus their parents demanded to treat the party to a night of revels as a meager token of gratitude. Wrack also saw an opportunity for business, trying to meet with the Carnival's master, Namdrin Quinn, in order to sell his brews.

Namdrin was a sinewy half-elf of corded muscle and bone, with a long face. His sunken eyes did not fix on any who attempted to speak with him, instead staring off. When Wrack spoke to him before going to the carnival, Namdrin was curt in reply to any inquiries, responding to questions with a strained cordialness that was barely human, but eventually Wrack procured a permit to sell his wares at the fair.

Adjacent pairs of rickety podiums tacked together from pieces of apple crates formed raggedy ticket booths that marked various entrances to the carnival. Eager-faced fairgoers crammed about them, gleaning wonderment from the faded posters promising stilt-walkers, terrifying rides, and all manner of freaks. Tirelessly working the booths, baggy-eyed carnies busily hawked tickets to various events and did their best to direct the stream of excited townsfolk. A crowd of unwashed beggars shielded from the winter's harsh kiss by nothing more than tattered rags huddled by the entrance to the carnival, pleading with passersby for a few meager coppers or a bit of food to see them through. Many were children or old men and women fallen on hard times. A good number were maimed from lumbering accidents or crippled by a horrible bout with plague or pneumonia. Rich merchants turned a blind eye to the haggard indigents, pretending not to see or hear them at all, and lumberjacks snarled, guffawed, or even kicked at the dirty beggars as they strolled into the carnival to spend their coin on games, shows, and other frivolities.

Tiny fair tents erected on the perimeter of the fair grounds allowed fairgoers to purchase basic entry as well as provided tickets for special events and contests. Most of the events only cost a few coppers.

Twenty-two beggars in all gathered at the ticket booths, although they had no luck with any of the townsfolk. Aranthor gave alms to the beggars huddled at the carnival's entrance.

Gaiety and laughter cut through the cold wind, and even the sky-shy sun peeked its face from around the gathering winter clouds. Children squealed with delight and gasped in awe of the sights, sounds, and smells of Quinn's Carnival. The titan's wheel creaked and groaned as a burly lumberjack tested his might with a hefty spin, a family rushed giggling into the sprawling ice maze to the north, and dozens of happy skaters flitted about the rinks atop the frozen river. Carnival dolls were handed to wide-eyed townsfolk as prizes and a menagerie of freakish creatures and glowing lanterns beckoned the curious. Garish skirts and scanty veils called others to a different breed of voyeurism altogether. Treats and wonders abounded for young and old to enjoy, and for a time the early winter was forgotten in joyful revelry. The heroes wandered the fairgrounds as they pleased, taking in the myriad diversions.

A small cove of wagons and tents curled around a rickety three-foot-high stage cobbled from a wooden platform precariously balanced on stacks of unmortared bricks. The stage planks creaked and moaned in time to the prancing and posturing of a dozen or so freakish humanoids as they performed their comically grotesque displays. A dough faced huckster preached to the crowd and flailed about a cane to pontificate the show's details.

The stage played host to several different performances who rotated throughout the day. In addition to these, several more sideshows were located within the various tents adjacent to the stage.

Chained to a stool, a dog-faced little girl in a charming yellow and white flowered dress mournfully howled at passersby. The dog-faced girl was actually Jeva. The heroes took pity on her, and Wrack created some chaos on the stage to facilitate her running away from the carnies with Mrunk. Jeva couldn't revert to her humanoid form and thus couldn't speak, but used pantomiming to warn the heroes of some grave danger. She handed them a needle and thread with a knowing nod towards the ice maze.

Into the Pit (Sarenith [June] 4708 AR, day 2)

The next room contained a row of nine open coffins stretching from east to west across the north wall. Each coffin was made from a dark wood, painted black, and polished to a mirror finish. The inside of each coffin was lined with green fabric and held a ratty blanket and musty pillow. Boxes, crates, and barrels lined the south wall on either side of the simple wooden door the heroes entered from.

This barracks was the morbid sleeping quarters for the most respected members of the cult - most of whom are now dead. Seoni examined the boxes, crates, and barrels remotely using magic, which contained a variety of food supplies, such as flour, sugar, dried meat, grains, and so on. The entire room smelled sickly sweet, vaguely like a mixture of rotting vegetables and sweet taffy.

The furthest coffin on the east side of the room had a male elf in it. Seoni determined he was killed by poisoning. The body of a male human lay crumpled in front of the barrels on the southeast side of the room - Wrack determined he also died by poisoning.

Mrunk found several items of value on the body of the elf. He found a scroll of lesser restoration, a magic short sword and a gray small magic sack that appeared empty. When Mrunk reached into it he felt a small, fuzzy ball.

The next area was just part of the larger tunnel complex beyond. The tunnels were 5 feet wide and 10 feet tall. This area was separated from the larger tunnel complex by a heavy black canvas that was nailed into the ceiling and draped across the tunnel 10 feet from the door in the west wall which the heroes entered from.

The black canvas was put up to hide a rock fall trap beyond. The heroes triggered the rock trap remotely, but it warned the cultists in the tunnels of their approach.

These tunnels were carved out by hand and braced with thick planks of wood. The carved ceilings stretched to 10 feet in height and around five feet in width. The walls and floor were damp, and the sound of dripping water could be heard throughout.

Water constantly dripped from the ceiling, and a thin trickle of water run along the side of the tunnels, emptying down the sinkhole further south. The water here had no impact on combat.

A group of cultists had found themselves trapped here. After the heroes set off the rock trap, the cultists were ready and waiting for them. The cultists moved out of sight of the single torch in the northeast corner of the tunnels and waited to ambush the heroes in the northeast corner and in the south where the two tunnels reconnected. The cultists were not strategic fighters - they picked the nearest foe, got close, and attacked furiously. With no other options left to them, the cultists fought to the death.

Wrack determined that the men were starving and likely hadn't eaten in a few days. One of the cultists carried a note in his pocket:

"Baillaset,
Trusted ally, go to Oppara, find that miserable stink hole our brethren call a temple to our lord Zyphus, and instill some fear and carnage in their ranks for Bustrani's miserable failure. Tell them all that you have been sent by Zyphus, They're fools, they'll believe it. And then tell them that Zyphus wants them to trap the temple and lure their fellow cultists into accidental death. Tell them the final cultist will replace Bustrani and rebuild the temple. (The last part is true, so don't dispatch all of them.) Then spend your time watching them destroy one another, feasting on their corpses, and keeping them afraid. Use the Zyphus-granted power I instilled in you to curse every single one of them. That should make things more interesting.

Your Master,

Harvestman Quint"

The same cultist who carried the note also carried a pouch full of coins. The pouch contained 170 pp.

The tunnel ended south; a small stream of water flowed from it to the center of a chamber, where it plunged through a shadowy sinkhole. Glowing green algae coated the chamber's walls and ceilings, painting the entire room in an eerie light.

There were no traps here and nothing to challenge the heroes beyond climbing down the sinkhole. The heroes were incredibly paranoid by this point - and they should be. But this room contained no challenges other than a simple climb down the knotted rope, which Seoni botched.

The rope through the sinkhole descended 20 feet before entering a 10-foot-high chamber. This room was empty and dark, but the heroes heard voices coming from one of the three dark tunnels that exited the room to the north and west. The waterfall from the pit dropped into a small, shallow pool here and then trickled down the west and northwest tunnels.

The heroes followed the north tunnel, which wend from the bottom of the pit to the baptismal font. At several points throughout splashes of blood could easily be seen either as drag marks on the floor (Wrack determined they all headed north) or splatters on the wall.

A swinging axes trap was set here. When Aranthor activated this trap, its noise automatically warned the wight Baillaset in the baptismal font that the heroes were approaching.

Just before the baptismal font was a swinging scythe trap, as evidenced by the headless corpse beneath it. A second corpse was pinned to the east wall of the tunnel - the trap struck him, killed him, and then jammed on his body.

A stone trench about 3 feet high run the length of the west wall of the baptismal font room. Hanging above it were several human men, their chests flayed open, their blood dripping and pooling in the trench below. A thin stone tube then run from the middle of the gory container, funneling blood down toward a stone basin in the center of the room. Judging from the blood splashed around the outside of the basin, something recently crawled out of it.

This room used to be where Fel Bustrani baptized his new followers into the Zyphus faith - he used water to do so. The four cultists currently hanging above the trench were killed a while ago, so the blood was starting to thicken in the gory containers.

Baillaset, a wight, waited here. He was aware that the heroes were coming, and waited just west of the entrance to this room, ready to ambush Aranthor, who was the first through the door. Baillaset got in close and stayed there, preferring to target one hero at a time. Baillaset fought until destroyed - when destroyed, he evaporated in a bloody red mist.

Zyphus Tests (Sarenith [June] 4708 AR, days 1-2)

The heroes next found a stairwell that was the secret entrance to the deeper levels of the Zyphus cult's hideout. The entire landing at the top of the secret stairs was a camouflaged pit trap, which Wrack fell into.

The first room of the second level had a five-foot-wide, rickety rope bridge stretching from a small landing at the bottom of the secret stairwell on the south side across a twenty-foot deep pit to another small landing on the north side. The north landing had a solid wood door leading north and the south landing had the secret stairwell leading up to the west.

This room represented the first test for new Zyphus recruits. A new recruit had to cheat death by crossing the rope bridge before a poltergeist triggered the bridge collapse and either crushed the new recruit's skull with a rock or hurled him to death against one of the walls. Hustavan knew about this room (having once passed the test) but he believed the poltergeist was actually Zyphus himself. When asked how they normally got through this room, he said, "Once you figure it out, you just get through here as quickly as possible. Lots of cultists die here even after they're part of the cult."

The poltergeist here used its telekinesis ability with annoying results. The bridge was rigged to collapse - something the poltergeist knew how to rig but didn't get a chance to.

The poltergeist spent most of the combat flying above the bridge throwing 25-pound rocks at the heroes. When Mrunk crossed the bridge he was targeted with telekinesis as the poltergeist pushed him in the pit. Once Mrunk was in the pit, the poltergeist resumed throwing rocks at the heroes. The poltergeist's only accessible rocks heavy enough to do damage to the heroes were in a single pile near three corpses in the pit. The poltergeist had to swoop down to pick one up and the heroes could spot him picking up a rock. He fought until destroyed.

There were three dead cultists in the pit - 2 human males and a female half-elf. Mrunk examined the bodies and found that both males were killed by massive internal injuries, probably from falling. When he examined the half-elf he found dozens of tiny bites all across her body which suggested that she probably died of some kind of poison.  None of the cultists possessed anything of value.

The next room had four evenly spaced canvas walls in the middle, running parallel to each other in a row stretching from north to south. On both sides of each wall hung dozens of paintings, drawings, and sketches of a variety of violently-themed scenes. The heroes walked in through a solid wooden door in the middle of the south wall and a heavier, oaken door was in the middle of the north wall.

This gallery was where Fel Bustrani kept his collection of tragedy- and accident-themed art. The works each depicted some horrible event - the tragic death of a child hit by a wagon, a building collapse killing dozens of workers, and so on. The largest painting, on the far left canvas wall, depicted the interior of a large, elegantly appointed opera house where rotting undead fed on the living. Mrunk, Seoni and Wrack instantly recognized the opera house as the House of the Immortal Son.

A mechanical fire trap was set in the ceiling just above the north door. When Wrack stepped onto the square in front of the door he triggered the trap and it exploded toward the south side of the room in a 15-foot cone, setting the gallery on fire and almost killing Hustavan. The part of the gallery in the area of effect burned immediately; the fire then spread slowly until the heroes put it out. The oaken door in the north wall had been heavily treated with fire-resistant residue and did not burn during the fire.

Nine of the twelve paintings were lost in the fire. Aranthor needed to recover the painting of Panmagistros Taticus Petros the Spear-Bearer of Zimar intact and undamaged. The difficulty was that the painting was on the second canvas wall from the east and was hung directly in the path of the mechanical fire trap. When the trap was activated, the painting went up in flames.

The next room was split in half by a half-moon shaped cliff. The lower side, along the south wall, was twenty feet below the higher side on the north wall. The cliff was rather smooth, seemingly absent of handholds or any easy way to climb it. The heroes entered through a solid, oaken door to the south, and two simple wooden doors led out to the north and east. The room smelled vaguely like cooked meat.

This room represented the second test for new Zyphus recruits, a test of their persistence. The rock wall was incredibly difficult to climb and most recruits spent hours trying trying to scale the 20-foot-cliff, if only to avoid having to quit and walk back out through the first Zyphus test. Mrunk found a hidden set of handholds tucked back into a natural crease that run up the rock wall in the middle.

There was a nasty tripped trap, firing spikes from inside the hidden handholds in the natural crease. There were a dozen or so spikes embedded in the heavy oak door and the south wall as well as a dozen spikes imbedded in the corpse of a human female lying against the base of the cliff. There was also a tripped boiling oil trap that was the source of the room's smell. Two deformed and burned bodies lay against the eastern door in a puddle of congealed oil. None of the bodies possessed anything of value.

Crypt (Sarenith [June] 4708 AR, day 1)

Rain pattered down in sheets over the scorched skeleton of a once majestic building. Walls of thick, blackened masonry stand tall and abandoned, with gaping wounds revealing where stained glass windows once caught the morning sun. The roof has collapsed and most of its remnants are long gone. Only large, immovable remnants of the crumbling masonry remain in the rubble piles scattered throughout the ruin.

All that remains inside this ruin are rocks and chunks of wood either too worn out and ruined to be of use or too heavy to carry away. There are signs that this place has been used in the past for shelter, but it has since completely collapsed, and most of the residents of the vagabond camp seemed to give it wide berth. Two sets of ruined stairs in the temple's south wall lead to a once proud pulpit. At the back of the pulpit, an enormous stone lid, several hundred pounds in weight, has been pulled off a set of stairs leading down into darkness.

The former consul of Oppara, Magistros Sebastus Hustavan, was here, currently being menaced by a pack of wild dogs. Hustavan is well over 6 feet tall, shockingly thin, and quite old. His head is balding and fringed by frizzled gray hair. His chin and cheeks are covered in several weeks' worth of beard growth, the gray hairs standing out against his pale, leathery skin. He wears long white robes, muddy, torn, and ragged, and wears what looks to be a blue sash tied around his waist as a belt. The dogs were mangy, dirty things. When the heroes arrived, Hustavan stood on the pulpit. He was wielding a long piece of wet, rotting wood and was just barely keeping the dogs at bay. Once Aranthor entered the temple ruins, the dogs abandoned Hustavan to his perch and attacked. Sullen and depressed, Hustavan moped and complained a great deal. He fleed for safety, crying for the heroes to help him.

Once the heroes killed the dogs, Hustavan dropped to his knees and began sobbing. Hustavan is a broken shell of his once proud, arrogant self. He told the heroes that Fel Bustrani's Zyphus-blessed plan to uncover the ancient Zyphus Stone and turn all of Oppara's citizens into slobbering, horrid zombies failed. In a twist of irony, Hrol, Mrunk, Seoni and Wrack struck down Bustrani not long after he betrayed and murdered the Pathfinder who helped him in the acquisition of the Zyphus Stone in the first place. All of this came to pass inside the House of the Immortal Son, Oppara's most famous opera house and a frequent gathering spot of Oppara's wealthiest citizens. Pathfinders in Oppara are now held in even higher regard than before - especially by the upper class citizens - as many of them either had relatives that survived the incident at the House of the Immortal Son or actually survived it themselves.

Bustrani's ragtag band of cultists did not fare so well. Most of them were either killed when Hrol, Mrunk, Seoni and Wrack foiled their plans or were captured and quickly put to death by the Opparan constabulary. A few dozen managed to escape, however, and skulked back to their hideout beneath a burned-out church of Sarenrae in the rotting, tumbledown camp on the south bank of the Mighty Porthmos River known as the Grandbridge Vagabond Camp. There Bustrani's lot fumed and argued about how they might seek revenge on the meddlesome Pathfinders, or how they might steal the Zyphus Stone back from the Lodge and use it to finally fulfill the will of their deity of accidents, graveyards, and tragedy.

Unfortunately for the cultists, Zyphus sent one of his servants, a ragged dead thing with skin like blood and eyes like fire called Baillaset, to deal with the cult. Baillaset appeared in the Zyphus hideout in a nimbus of blood-red smoke and declared the cultists damned for all time if they didn't fulfill one final order: to choke the hideout with dozens of traps to capture and kill all but one cultist. The final cultist would replace Fel Bustrani, rebuild the Opparan cult, and again attempt the downfall of the city by Zyphus' will. The cultists didn't wait to ask questions - they began to build.

The newest addition to the ranks of the Zyphus cultists was a fallen consul of the empire named Magistros Sevastus Hustavan. Hustavan fell so far out of favor of the empire in the aftermath of the cult's assault on the Immortal Son (and his rescue by Hrol, Mrunk, Seoni and Wrack), that he eventually enlisted in the remnants of the Zyphus cult's faithful just to survive. When Baillaset arrived and set the cultists loose on one another, Hustavan turned to the Pathfinders for help. Because Hustavan hasn't entered the hideout for a week, he doesn't know the current state of affairs. He knows only that the cultists were building traps and killing one another when he fled, and that no one has come to the surface since. The fallen consul wants to accompany the heroes down into the hideout as a guide and refused to take no for an answer. Hustavan only knows the layout of the hideout - he doesn't know anything about the traps or current whereabouts of the denizens below.

The hideout was built beneath a burnt ruin of a temple of Sarenrae. The cult expanded the catacombs beneath the temple into a home and training ground for the faithful. The first level below ground is nothing more than an abandoned catacomb. A secret door there leads down to the testing areas and living quarters on the second level, while tunnels in the second level lead further down to the worship areas on the third level.

The catacombs and living areas are cold and damp, and the walls, floors, and ceilings are all carved from the bedrock, though the living areas have doors, chipped plaster and masonry for walls, and torch sconces at regular intervals. The ceilings are 10 feet high throughout the complex.

Hustavan is meek, broken, and depressed, and he latches on Aranthor, promising great riches for him should he survive his journey through the hideout. During combat, Hustavan moves to somewhere safe and periodically calls out things like "A well-timed blow, m'lord! Not as well timed as my downfall, but good enough!" or "Ooh, sorry about that trap there! I should've known that Croaker would build something like that! Sorry m'lord!" or "Please don't let these hellspawn kill me! I was important once! I was somebody! HELP!"

The heroes had interest in Hustavan. Mrunk, Seoni and Wrack convinced him that his years of service to Taldor served only evil purposes. Hustavan was initially indifferent to the idea that he did evil for Taldor and needed convincing before he accepted the idea.

At the bottom of the stairs that lead down from the surface is a small room. Two female statues stand in the middle of the room; their arms were broken off and are missing, and their facial features were long ago scraped away.

A small amount of light reaches this place from above, casting the entire room in shadowy illumination. Three tunnels lead away from here - a wide tunnel to the north and two smaller passages to the west and east. The tunnels are pitch black.

An arrow trap was set in front of the statues. Aranthor triggered the trap.

The crypts are all relatively intact. Dozens and dozens of delicately wrapped skeletons are stacked in the alcoves throughout. The crypts are devoid of any life.

The cultists left behind a surprise - a zombie who was once the guardian of the cult's baptismal font. The zombie stood in the northeast hallway of the crypt. Once it heard the heroes, it moved down the 10-foot hallway toward the entryway, but stopped at a pit. The heroes spotted the zombie, and it wandered north and came at the heroes from another angle. It attacked Aranthor and Mrunk and mindlessly tried to bite them. It fought until destroyed.

There was also a tripped swinging axe trap in the crypts. The corpse of a human male dressed in rags hangs from an enormous axe attached to a mechanism in the ceiling. Wrack revealed that he's been dead for at least a week. At his feet lies a bloody club. There was additionally a tripped rock fall trap. A small pile of rocky rubble lay here, all of which collapsed from the ceiling above. Two sets of pale, cold feet stuck out from the debris, and a coagulated rivulet of blood oozes forth from beneath it. When the heroes dug the bodies out, it took several minutes to move the debris enough to uncover the corpses. Seoni and Wrack found a scroll of lesser restoration and a ring of climbing on one of the bodies buried under the rock fall. The pit was a tripped spiked pit trap. The pit is 10 feet deep and lined with etched and crumbling metal spikes. A single body lays at the bottom, melted into an unrecognizable mess.

A secret door was located in the south wall near the stairs that lead back up to the surface. This door is a moving stone wall. The secret door leads to a stairwell.

Intermission (Neth [November] 4707 AR-Sarenith [June] 4708 AR)

The Zyphus Stone is a terrible artifact and the heroes, as future Pathfinders, immediately knew that its acquisition would be both a boon and a terrible burden to the Society. They were unable to destroy the stone, in order to rid the world of its potent necromantic magic, so they returned it to the Pathfinder Lodge in Oppara for safekeeping. While they were attempting to destroy it though, Hrol's corpse rose as a zombie, foiling any plans they had of bringing their friend back from the dead.

The heroes extensively searched the House of the Immortal Son for Wuthers, and found his zombie corpse among the dead in the opera house. In his belt pouch was a draft of the final letter he wrote to Luna Aldred, wherein he detailed the final stages of the dig and the strange character of his companion - noted as "cleric of Irori" but clearly Bustrani. His pouch also contained a personal journal, a shorthand record of his many adventures as a Pathfinder.

Surprisingly, more than half of the theatergoers survived the zombie onslaught by gathering together and fighting off the undead menace. Because the heroes dealt with Quinn's roving band bent on stamping out resistance as well as defeating Bustrani himself, the wealthy socialites and nobility of Oppara now have several dinner parties' worth of sordid stories with which to frighten and awe their friends.

The heroes subsequently joined the Pathfinder Lodge in Oppara for training. They also had the opportunity to participate in a number of major and minor holidays in the region:

Neth 23rd. Seven Veils: Celebration of brotherhood between all civilized races, marked by interracial masquerade balls.

Second Week of Kuthona. Winter week: Traditional feast; time for courting and spending time with friends.

Kuthona 11th. Ascendance Day: Cayden's divine ascension.

Kuthona 31st. Night of the Pale: Night of morbid revelry, as people wait indoors for the ghosts of last year's dead to pass by their homes.

Abadius Full Moon. Longnight: Tradition in which the revelers defy the long winter nights by staying up all night to greet the dawn.

Calistril 2nd. Merrymead: Commemorates coming spring with the distribution of the last of the previous season's alcohol.

The late evening messengers pulled the heroes awake from their tasks and ordered them to appear before the steward Muesello by midnight. There they met a new companion, an elf called Aranthor. Muesello, ever presenting the appearance of the doddering, decrepit old man, met them behind the greasy bait and tackle shop that serves as the facade of the Oppara Lodge. Dressed only in tattered night clothes complete with a faded yellow sleeping cap, the youthful excitement in Muesello's eyes bellied his elderly appearance.

"We've found them!" he declared, the moment the heroes arrived in the Lodge. "Those pitiful bastards who murdered Pathfinder Boddrigan Wuthers in Oppara those many months ago - you know, the Zyphus-worshiping fools who tried to turn Oppara into a zombie-filled nightmare? After all this time, we finally tracked their remnants to a burned-out temple in the vagabond camp across the river from the capital. You will set out for there at once and meet a man named Sevastus Hustavan outside the burned-out temple. Once a man of great importance, he seems to have fallen on hard times - fallen so hard as to join those Zyphus fiends. But he's redeemed himself by telling us their location! Find Hustavan - it can't be hard, there's only one burned-out temple to Sarenrae in the vagabond camp - learn all you can about the cult's hideout, and then cleanse it of their presence. Cultists across Golarion must know they may not use the Society to fulfill their horrid glories - so too will they know that the Society will not stand by and watch its members murdered!"

Muesello cleared his throat then, his posture losing the sudden youthful fire and passion, his shoulders hunching once more, his face pinched and tired. "Of course, while you are there," he rasped, "do your duty as Pathfinders and seek anything they may have that the Society would need in the vaults."

So, after a hurried early morning rush to gather supplies, the heroes find themselves walking through a chilly, early morning rain storm and approach what the vagabond locals say is the location of the burned-out temple to Sarenrae.

Goodbye Hrol...? (Neth [November] 4707 AR)

While the heroes were on the main floor, they heard from nearby a voice cry out, "For Father Grim, for Fel Bustrani, consume them and multiply!"

When they investigated the voice above, they found a pack of theatergoers, backed into a room, frightened and pushing those at the front towards a Zyphus cleric and her pack of zombies. The room was tight, with the intended victims tightly packed and the zombies closing in.

When the heroes arrived, the cleric ordered the zombies to attack them instead, screaming, "Kill the usurpers, my minions, for the glory of Zyphus and the glory of Fel Bustrani!" Zyphus is an evil (but minor) god of accidental death and his followers keep to themselves, guarding forgotten graveyards and abandoned barrows.

One of the cowering opera aficionados was none other than Emperor Stavian III's consul for the Fourth District of Oppara Prefecture, Magistros Sebastus Hustavan. Hustavan is a tall, frighteningly thin man of advanced age. His short, gray hair stuck to his head as if it were bathed in cooking oil and his thick, white beard, meticulously trimmed and braided, positively glistened with wax. He wore the finery of his office, a blue silk shoulder sash over long white robes, and his fingers were encrusted with bejeweled rings. In short, Hustavan felt he had a lot to live for and begged incessantly during the battle for the heroes to save his life. He didn't get anywhere near the zombies or their insane cleric master, but he moved closer to the heroes when he could, shouting out such niceties as, "I outrank everyone in the room, your Emperor requires you to save me!" and "A glorious strike, peasant! The divine hand of Emperor Stavian has guided you here to save me!" and "For the glory of Taldor, you must free me from the bowels of Hell!"

The cleric of Zyphus used cause fear immediately to scare away Hrol, not knowing he was immune to fear. She preferred to keep the zombies between herself and the heroes and to fight with her heavy pick at close range. She used inflict light wounds to heal the zombies during the fight. A fierce and devoted loyalist, the cleric of Zyphus fought to the death.

After the heroes managed to slay the cleric and her minions, they found a holy symbol of Zyphus and a letter from Fel Bustrani to all of his followers in the cleric's belt pouch:

"Loyalists of the Grim Harvestman, our time has come!

My plan to recover the stone, blessed by our beloved Harbinger of Unexpected Tragedy Himself, has succeeded beyond my wildest hopes. The fool Pathfinder I convinced to journey here has fed the strength of our Lord by encountering an unexpected tragedy of his own. His hard work for Grim was not in vain! Come to me at once, at the appointed hour and place, and we shall lay out a bounty for mighty Zyphus that He will not soon forget. When Pharasma, hated cretin, lies slain in the bowels of Hell and out mighty Harbinger rules the afterlife, He will reward His faithful few with everlasting life and power of unspeakable might! Come to me, brothers and sisters, come to me!

Fel"

Since Hustavan managed to survive the encounter, he latched onto the heroes like a lost puppy and he spent the rest of the day equally declaring them his saviors and reminding them that he is their superior. The rest of the theatergoers rushed off into other parts of the opera house, seeking an exit - or perhaps hoping to rid themselves of Hustavan's company.

The heroes continued their exploration of the main floor. On the marble floor lay the entwined bodies of multiple combatants. The hands of noble corpses gripped daggers, makeshift clubs, and even a gem-encrusted rapier. Mixed in were the twice dead bodies of zombies, their gray skin fetid and rotting.

Deanaris Quint, loyal follower of Zyphus, led a small band of warriors in a meandering circuit of the opera house, looking for anyone brave enough to put up a fight. The heroes heard Quint's band ahead of time.

Quint and her boys had already put down a couple of resistances and sought another to slay in the name of their grim lord. The heroes found slain bodies gripping makeshift weapons and torn by the puncture wounds of a heavy pick throughout the rest of the day. The heroes and Quint's band run into each other near an open door.

Deanaris Quint drank a potion on her first round of combat. Quint and her band worked well together and focused on one target at a time. Fierce and devoted loyalists, they fought to the death. All of the cultists carried a copy of the letter found previously.

As the heroes continued exploring the main floor, they found various parts of a dozen corpses lying strewn across the floor. Blood and gore stained everything, making the floor slick and filling the room with a metallic aroma. Bodies lay askew, mouths hanging open in silent screams, faces contorted in fear.

Immediately upon finding the scene described above, the heroes saw the human zombies among the carnage before they rose and acted as the zombies struggled to stand up. All of the zombies were freshly risen members of Taldor's nobility. Another humanoid zombie was not mixed into the carnage, but instead wandered in from another area during combat. The heroes defeated the zombies and moved on.

The heroes eventually descended to the basement on the opera house. Used primarily to store larger set pieces, this musty basement was now the home to a dig project that extended into the bedrock east of the room. This room was well lit by standing lamps.

Glistening with water, the slick walls and floor of the cavern were recently carved from the thick bedrock beneath Oppara. Well lit by standing lamps, the tunnels stretched into an adjacent chamber, seemingly carved form the bedrock as well. However, the adjacent chamber was made of smooth walls, covered in strange glyphs, and also lit by the same standing lamps. At the center of that chamber stood a tall stone dais. In the middle of the dais was a huge boulder which, by all appearances, fell a great distance before crashing here. The boulder glowed with an eerie green light.

In the room was a cleric of Zyphus and his giant zombie minion. Once the cleric saw the heroes, he immediately ordered his minion to attack anyone entering the room and positioned himself on the dais next to the stone. He fought to the death to protect it.

When the cleric saw the heroes coming, he cast desecrate to strengthen the giant zombie, drank his potion of invisibility, and cast divine favor on himself. He cast cause fear on Hrol, not knowing he was immune, and then waded into combat, breaking away and drinking potions as needed. Throughout combat, he was mindful of how hurt either himself or his giant were and used the appropriate spells to heal himself or the zombie. He fought to the death, but not before his zombie killed Hrol.

Dead Men Walking (Neth [November] 4707 AR)

The heroes decided to pay off the rest of Hrol's debt to Lady Cirthana in order to be free to adventure as they please. Before Hrol moved out of the temple, he received a letter addressed to him and his adventuring companions from Luna Aldred of Olfden. who wanted to meet them in a week's time at the Sitting Duck.

The heroes spent some time researching Luna Aldred before their meeting. Luna Aldred happened to be in Olfden during the Night of the Silver Blood, and in that night she single-handedly held back one whole flank of attacking werewolves just long enough for the town to defeat the rest of the lupine army. Although Luna fell in battle, the high priest of Sarenrae returned her to life the next day. After her death and resurrection, Luna established a Pathfinder Society safehouse in Olfden. A plaque dedicated to Luna at the site of her heroic stand and unfortunate fall commemorates the event.

At the time of the meeting, the heroes were seated at the main hall of the Sitting Duck, waiting for the arrival of Olfden's Pathfinder, a tall, light-haired and fair-skinned woman named Luna Aldred. Renowned for her composure under pressure and as the Protector of Olfden, she appeared in the hall suddenly, wearing fine leather armor and holding an elaborate quarterstaff, and introduced herself before getting to the point.

"My greatest pupil, Pathfinder Bodriggan Wuthers, has gone missing. He followed a cleric contact back to Wuthers' home city of Oppara to work on a massive dig beneath the House of the Immortal Son, Oppara's famed opera house and once temple to the dead god, Aroden. That was a year ago. He sent monthly reports, hoping to see their publication in a chronicle, before all contact dried up a few months back. I'm worried something has gone wrong, and the Society has a vested interest in the artifact he was researching and seeking. I want you to travel to Oppara and find Wuthers. I'd like to know exactly what he was seeking, too, since he neglected to inform me through his monthly correspondence. He hinted only that the cleric of Irori he was working with told him the object was the world's greatest 'living' artifact - whatever that means."

The heroes accepted her mission for a reward plus their travel expenses. They spent their time in Falcon's Hollow gathering information about Irori, the god of knowledge, and Taldor, the nation whose capital Oppara is. The introspection and decadence of Taldor dooms its relationship with Andoran to a minor irritant, at best. The Taldan nobles spend their time plotting against each other, against Qadira, against Cheliax - in short, against nearly everyone on Golarion. They are in no danger of uniting to face Andoran, and until they do, the worst they can offer is a series of raids and border skirmishes, which the Andoren militia guards against with fervor and dedication. Andorens can trade in Taldor and travel freely, though of late more Andorens have been disappearing in the cities and villages of their ancient mother country. After preparing for their journey, the heroes accompanied by Seoni and Savram, escorted Luna to Olfden (4 days wagon ride south from Falcon's Hollow), where their paths split. Luna had a few more advice for them before they separated:

"I have a few tidbits of information to pass to you before you go: the House of the Immortal Son is nearly impossible to access. It took Wuthers months and countless bribes to get where he did. For you, I have a much simpler idea. Go to an opera, wait for an opportunity, and then exploit it to find Wuthers and his dig site."

"Be sure to wear something festive - the Taldan nobility are arrogant on their best days and if you arrive dressed like that," she waved her hands at them "they'll surely lose your tickets or regret to inform you that the opera house is oversold."

"Go and I will contact you in three weeks to learn what you find."

The heroes reached Oppara four days before Luna would contact them, and got to work gathering information about Bodriggan Wuthers and the House of the Immortal Son. They learned that Bodriggan Wuthers was an orphan of unknown ancestry, found 20 years ago on the doorstep of the Pathfinder Lodge of Taldor's capital, Oppara. He was raised in an orphanage, but the Taldan Pathfinders made it a point to look in on him from time to time, encouraging the boy's curiosity and pushing him towards the life of the vagabond scholar. They got what they desired. When Wuthers turned 16, he left the orphanage behind and traveled to Abalom to join the Pathfinder Society. After a few years of training and following Luna Aldred, Wuthers settled easily into his routine, travelling Avistan and Garund seeking greater glory for himself and the Society through treasure hunting. He quickly made a name for himself, battling through a host of demon-possessed apes in the Screaming Jungle at age 18 to recover the Garls Harp, an Azlanti musical instrument thought lost to time and memory. His tale of that finding saw his first of many reports appear in the Pathfinder Chronicles and his fame as a Pathfinder was sewn into the fabric of the Society. They also learn of the history and inaccessibility of the opera house.

Once a temple to Aroden, the House of the Immortal Son has, since his death, been Taldor's most opulent and expensive opera house. It is a large, windowless, cylindrical building made of polished marble and granite and surrounded by thick, finely-carved pillars. Built in the earliest traditional styles of Aroden temples, the opera house lacks windows and its roof is a complicated piece of stone statuary that replicates the complicated symbol of Aroden, a steady winged eye gazing forever toward the heavens.

Though the House of the Immortal Son has a reputation for opulence and excess, it didn't turn away the heroes when they displayed an obvious amount of money. Mrunk and Seoni dressed in courtier's outfits and jewelry, while Hrol and Wrack were equipped as their guards. Savram stayed behind at their inn.

Among the Living, the title of the Opera the heroes attend, debuted the night they visit the House of the Immortal Son. It's an epic tale of a lone Ulfen warrior named Victory who sails to the end of Golarion, crashes off the edge of the world, and finds himself in a gothic paradise where he falls in love with the undead queen of a jungle kingdom.

The interior of the House of the Immortal Son is full of expensive carpets, excessive gilding, and ridiculously large candelabras and chandeliers. The other atendees present an excess of wealth and an unparalleled level of opulence has gone into their outfits, wigs, hair styles, and jewelry.

The heroes entered from the Green Entrance, a rather plain, marbled hallway filled with simple granite pillars. The floor is split by a bright green carpet, indicating that this entrance is reserved for commoners when they are allowed to attend.

Filled with classic church pews now covered in the finest silks and cushions, the main room of the opera house is what the heroes would expect from a temple-turned-theater. An odd mixture of religious symbols (all of the deceased god Aroden) and modern theater tropes cover the walls, ceilings, and finely-carved pillars.

The wooden stage was painted black and currently decorated to look like a jungle underworld, with fake plants, vines, and a backdrop of jungle scenery. An orchestra pit separates the stage from the main opera house and a thick, red velvet curtain conceals the back of the stage.

Once the heroes settled into their seats near the far back by the doors, the opera started. It was melodramatic, over-acted, gaudy, and tasteless. As yet another twirling dancer in a brown costume festooned with bright pink, flowing silk scarves spun across the jungle set at the front of the stage, the orchestra reached a screeching crescendo that crashed the entire opera to a halt. The dancers stood quietly for a moment, breathing heavily and listening to the scattered applause across the obviously bored Taldan audience. Suddenly, a sound like a thousand gongs shook the entire building to its very foundation and the audience murmured in a mixture of delight and fear. The actors and orchestra, however, fled the stage, disappearing behind the curtains.

Hrol and Wrack took a few moments to detect evil and magic, respectively. Moments after the gong, the doors leading into the opera house crashed open and a horde of zombies flooded in, immediately attacking any nobles too shocked to run. The heroes were concerned with the zombies that came in from the nearest door, as they moved directly toward them and attacked. The zombies all fought to the death.

Once the action got started, all of the interior doors the heroes found were ajar. Signs of battle are everywhere - blood, corpses, abandoned clothing or refinery, torn wallpaper, broken mirrors, shattered chandeliers, chipped marble, etc.

Once the zombies were defeated and the nobles had fled their zombie attackers, the heroes found the opera house empty. Bodies of several dozen dead lay scattered about the room and signs of carnage stretched out of every door in every direction. Screaming, moaning, and the sounds of combat could be heard from every corner of the opera house.