Falcon's Revenge

The road on which you travel soon branches into a four- way crossroads, forming an elon- gated x-shape. Various shops and stores line these streets, but your attention is drawn to a large, well-kept inn on one of the triangular parcels of land formed by these roads. A freshly painted sign in the shape of a plump fish bears the name of this interesting establishment: The Whistling Fish, Potentate of Potations. The inn is built of the half- timber construction common to Greyhawk. Its size, however, makes it unique. From the positions of the inn's windows, the building appears to have two floors, but the structure looks far too tall to be an average two- story inn. Its roof, made of wood shakes, towers above the other buildings in the neighborhood. Even the front door seems un- usually tall.

A shaggy lawn surrounds the inn. The grass is a color peculiar to Greyhawk: the blades are a deep green along the edges but are dark red down the centers. Natives of Greyhawk can tell you that although the color is unusual, this grass has one dis- tinct adventage: it has a bitter taste that only goats can toler- ate. This prevents the grass from being chewed away to nothing by other animals. Gravel paths lead to the front door and to the adjoining stable. A long hitching rail runs along the front of the building. Al- though seven horses are teth- ered here, there is room for at least another dozen animals.
The proportions of the stable are on a normal scale. The sta- ble is built of wide wooden planking and has a sod roof. The roof is nearly flat, but is mounded in the center and slopes gently toward the sides. Two goats are grazing on the roof. The doors to the stable are open, and a boy of about four- teen is inside brushing one of the horses. There are four horses inside, and they appear to be permanent residents, since their names appear above their stalls: Sharna, Myrna, Gabe, and Gus. A wagon and a cart stand at the front of the sta- ble, tack hangs on the walls, and four saddles rest near the wagon. Twelve other stalls stand empty.

The parchment Gruenab hands you has been folded in thirds, and a plain drop of red wax without a seal holds the page closed. The message is written in ink on the small sheet. It says simply, "Leave the city if you do not wish to be harmed. Stay, and you risk your lives." It is not signed.

The front page of the diary bears   the man's name—Janson Parlens. The diary tells the story of the past few years of his life. Janson was a juggler in a carnival for three years, but he left because the carnival was sold. The new owners treated the troupe poorly, cut their wages, and generally treated the performers as their own personal slaves. Janson decided that even a life of poverty was better than the indignity of working for those people. He left the carnival and came to the City of Greyhawk, because the carnival had once visited the city and Janson thought it was a won- derful place. Unable to find work, Janson settled in Shacktown until he could find something better. The diary ends abruptly, approx- imately two weeks earlier, which the PCs can correctly guess is due to Janson's disappearance. The entries during Janson's final month yield some clues. The PCs will need to spend some time read- ing the diary to find the four clues which follow. Nicholi is reluctant at first to let the PCs take the diary, but he realizes that letting them take it may save other residents from whatever fate Janson suf- fered. He allows the PCs to take the diary if they promise to return it as soon as they have finished with it. For every hour that a PC spends reading, give him one of the clues that follow. Four weeks prior to his disappearance, Janson writes:

I have never seen the City Watch in this part of the city. Yet last night, well after midnight, I heard a commotion down the street. I tried to ignore it, but whatever was happening was just too loud. I stuck my head out of this shack and saw five members of the City Watch led by a man in black pants, a red shirt, and a black half-cloak. They were accusing some poor man of being a pickpocket in the City. He denied everything they said, but they certainly weren't interested in what he had to say—they only wanted to make an arrest. After half an hour of this ruckus, the guards led him away. Their leader knew that people were watching, and announced loudly, "Now let that be a lesson to all of you. We know where to find you. No one here is above the law." I thought the City Watch ignored this place. I can't believe they made such a spectacle. Three weeks prior to Janson's disappearance, he writes: I'm concerned about something I heard last night. I was asleep, but I'd swear that I heard a woman scream. I thought I heard some shuffling noises and a man's voice, but suddenly all was quiet. I thought I was only dreaming, but this morning, I heard that one of the local girls has disappeared. I've seen her around—her name is Mara, and she's about my age. Who would have done such a thing as to kidnap her? No one in Shacktown has any money to pay a ransom. I hope she's all right.

Two weeks before Janson's dis- appearance, he writes:

It's been one week since Mara disappeared. No one has seen her. I worry about what may have happened. I heard today that another girl disappeared in the night the day after Mara vanished. Her friends went to the Citadel, but the officials refused to even listen. Funny that they'll come here in the night to find a pickpocket, but they won't investigate a missing person.

1 Week Before:

I saw a strange man wander- ing through Shacktown today. No one from the city ever comes here—there's really nothing here, no businesses, no shops. This guy seemed to be looking for something—or someone. As he passed people, he'd look at them very hard, as if he were trying to recognize someone. He stared at me too, and for a mo- ment, I thought he was going to say something, but he just walked away. He seemed to know his way around here, but I've never seen him before.

You can smell the Great Burn long before it actually comes into view. Residents of this area go about their daily life without even noticing the gaping black void in the middle of their neighborhood. As you approach the burn site, you realize that as many as a dozen buildings were proba- bly consumed by the blaze. You've heard that the fire was large, but you didn't expect it to be quite this large. It appears that no effort was made to clear away the rubble. Stones, bricks, timbers, and sec- tions of walls and roof lie in an enormous, blackened heap. Talasek tells you that the mayor of Greyhawk decided that clearing the area would be more dangerous than leaving it lie. A low fence (4') was con- structed around the site to pre- vent children from wandering in accidentally. The fence is cer- tainly no barrier to anyone who wants to enter the site badly enough.

• Watch patrols Old City, but at night they travel in pairs and do not venture off the Processional or the main roads.
• Although the Thieves' Guild is powerful, it is not as strong as it has been in past years.
• Sometimes people can be seen coming and going from some of the warehouses around the burn site at odd hours of the night.
• The Thieves' Guild is aware of every activity in the city, thanks to its strong spy network.
  They stakeout the warehouses at night:
• Produce Warehouse: Beginning about one hour after midnight, people begin trickling toward the warehouses. During the first hour, six people arrive: one pair, and the rest alone. During the second hour, two men arrive together, burdened by great packs on their backs. These men appear to be travelers, judging from the belongings they carry. During the third hour, four people exit the warehouse. The PCs can recognize them as four of the people who arrived during the first hour.
• Fish Processing Warehouse: Beginning two hours after midnight, three people arrive individually, approximately ten minutes apart. They exit the warehouse together approximately one hour later.
• Grain Warehouse: One person arrives at this warehouse one hour after midnight. He exits again two hours later.
  They capture one of them and he is a cult member. Worvin Casts a Geas on him. He reveals all that there is a secret sewer entrance to each of the warehouses and where they are located. Worvin kills him with Phantasmal Killer.   They rest and head out for the sewers in the morning.
Reaping 8th, 580 They go into the sewers to find the cult headquarters. Carcarius easily finds the area of the Burn and finds the cults headquarters. They do not think a full assault is wise. They encountered many zombies in the sewers, that didn't appear hostile but seemed to be cleaning. Veenaira destroyed most of them.
Reaping 9th, 580
  They go to consult with the Temple and the Paladin. They learn about the cult through Talasek's Grandfathers Diary.   They devise a plan to defeat this cult. They reach the Cult hideout and Narciara easily enters. They make their way to the Ceremonial Chamber

Main Ceremonial Chamber:



This is the site of all the important rituals that the cult performs. It is also the site of meetings that involve the entire membership of the cult. Tb say that this room is hideous would be an understatement. Every detail of this room is derived from and devoted to evil. The ceremonial chamber is 50' wide and 90' long. The cavern was hollowed out of the earth, then the walls and ceiling were tiled with blocks of polished obsidian. The reflection of candle and torchlight off the tiles give the room an eerie, supernatural feeling. It also gives the room a strange, unearthly echo. The floor of the cavern is made of slabs of black basalt, also highly polished. A long, black carpet runs the length of the main aisle in or- der to muffle the noise created by hard shoes and boots. Despite the polished stone, the chamber is filthy. Dust and dirt lie everywhere, and webs fill corners and spaces beneath the benches and altar. The remains of herbs and incense lie on the floor, along with ash and black wax from can- dles and torches. Even dung from underground animals litters the floor. The building materials for this chamber arrived slowly over a per- iod of many months. They were carried in by cult members arriv- ing from distant cities. A special- ized magical item was created for this purpose, similar to a bag of holding. This item resembles a small crate and is capable of hold- ing 3,000 pounds while weighing only 20 pounds. Once emptied in- side the chamber, the crates were carried back out of the city to be filled and reused many times. None of the crates are stored in the complex. Two visible doors provide access to the ceremonial chamber. One of these is the set of double doors that leads from the assembly room (area 5). The other is a single door at the back of the chamber and leads from the private meeting room used by the cult leaders. There is a secret door in the front of the chamber, behind the upper- most of the three steps (described below). It is sometimes used in combination with smoke tricks to make dramatic entrances or exits. Only the cult leaders know of its existence and the mechanism which activates it. From the cham- ber side, it is opened by two latches: one near the floor which is tripped with one's foot, and an- other at chest height between the cracks of the stone blocks. From the opposite side of the wall, the se- cret door is opened by pulling down on the lower jaw of a stone snake which hangs near the secret door. Another unusual feature of this room is six holes in the walls ap- proximately one and one-half feet in diameter. The holes are posi- tioned at the point where the wall meets the floor. At first glance, they appear that they could be part of a drainage system or perhaps an animal burrow. The holes are ob- structed (but not impassable) with dust, webs, and filth. The holes lead to hollow sections behind the walls. Each section is home to one scryxull. The scryx- ulls attack upon verbal command, and despite the size and construction of the chamber and its inher- ent echo, those verbal commands are easily received. The ceremonial chamber is eerie in its own right, but the furnish- ings here make it even more fright- ening. Long benches arranged in rows provide seating for the cult members; the carvings of the black, wooden benches depict faces twisted and distorted in pain and torture. Distributed throughout the chamber are six large (4' diame- ter), bowl shaped drums. They are constructed of some type of black- ened skin stretched over a bronze bowl, supported on tripods of large bones. Near each drum is a large bronze gong, hung from a frame built of bones. Twelve mallets of bone, padded with black hair, lie near each drum and gong. Near the front of the room, an al- tar stands in silent testimony to the evil that dwells here. The altar has a black marble top deeply engraved with runes. It is supported on both ends by two more slabs of black granite, but these are nearly hidden by many blackened hu- manoid skulls. The skulls are stacked on top of each other with the largest skulls at the bottom. Both ends of the altar are flanked by copper braziers in black wrought-iron stands. These give off a foul odor even when cold. They are used to burn incense and herbs derived from poisonous plants and noxious weeds, as well as the dung of humans and ani- mals. The room is lit by torches that line the walls at four foot intervals. Again, the evil of the cult is re- vealed in the features of the torch holders. Each torch is thrust into the hole in the base of an over- turned skull that hangs on the wall. When lit, the torchlight fills the empty cavities of the upside- down skulls, making them appear alive and silently laughing. Behind the altar is a series of three wide, semi-circular stone steps. They simply provide an ele- vated platform to enable cult lead- ers to be better seen and heard. Around the altar and positioned strategically on the steps are nu- merous black candelabra that each hold six black candles. Each candlabra is slightly different from the others; upon inspection, PCs will discover that these differences are due to the fact that they are constructed of bones, blackened by fire. The candles are held in small brass cups, but all other parts of the candelabra are made of bone. The candles that they hold give off a foul odor even when they are not lit; when they are, the fumes and smoke are nauseating. For ceremonies which induct new members into the cult, special can- dles are used whose fumes are mildly hallucinogenic. This seems to help the new recruits believe in the powers of Iuz and and reinforce their decision to join the cult. Between the altar and the front of the stone steps is an enormous two-piece tapestry curtain. The curtain may be drawn to opposite sides of the room if desired. It is of- ten used for dramatic effect, some- times assembling the cult leaders behind the curtain then opening it with a bright flash and a cloud of smoke. Sometimes it is kept closed so that its portrait may reinforce the mission of the cult. The tapestry work of the curtain depicts a mural of death and de- struction in the City of Greyhawk. Across its 50' width, various scenes depict citizens being slaughtered by followers of Iuz, fires raging uncontrolled, and lightning raining from the sky. Dark clouds hang over the city. The largest of the scenes depicts the destruction of the Sacred Tem- ple of St. Cuthbert. The Temple lies in ruins and the bodies of its clerics litter the scene. The most important element of the tapestry is visible only when the two sections of curtain meet in the center of the room. Each side bears half an image that is view- able when the halves meet. The image is that of an enormous fal- con, claws extended as if reaching down to snatch up its prey. The fal- con hovers at the top of the mural, directly in the center. The chamber is otherwise empty; no papers, books, scrolls, or personal items are kept here. Such items are removed immedi- ately after ceremonies are finished and are only brought in when ceremonies are about to begin.

  Veenaira tears down the blasphemous tapestries, and throws them in the Bag of Holding to destroy them (One of the new ones 3,000 lbs, 20 lbs.)   They almost disrupt the ritual but the watch led by Nestor breaks up the fight and orders it stopped. The Company realizes it is not prudent to disobey the watch. They leave, and are escorted out with assurances the cult is stopped by the watch. None of them beleive this so.   Reaping 11th, 580 They are summoned to the citadel for their reward. They are each given 5,000 gp.