Of Souls and Seals – A Petrichor Campaign Report

Having fought demons and been rescued by Erishum, a guardian shedu, our heroes have agreed to explore the depths of the ziggurat temple and find out what is going on in the depths.  Erishum being too large to venture within.

The first expedition involves dealing with traps and robed humanoid creatures that are just shells of people animated by strange worm like beings.  It is a standard dungeon crawl but not much more.

When we return to play, its starts in media res in the lowest level of the ziggurat, everyone wounded with Elsbeth unconscious.  Pedr uses a healing potion to get Elsbeth back to her feet and sends her back up.  (Elsbeth’s player could not make it.)  They advance further down the tunnel and find a shattered door behind which is a looted and destroyed armory . . . except for a massive bronze reinforced maul surrounded by a circle of black ash.  Pedr finds fragments of black bone and a feather in the ash.  Lorrend just grabs the maul and adds it to his arsenal, mentioning that he had read about such a weapon belonging to a hero who slew demons back before the Sundering.

They continued down the corridor where it became hotter, dryer and brighter as it fell away into a bright orange desert-scape.  They discuss what to do and hear a voice from the other side commenting blackly upon their options.  They venture into the portal and find, just around the corner, a black tree filled with crows, one, the largest, has four eyes and has been the one talking with them.  Its name is Gon and it offers to guide them to the master of this realm.  They set out across the dusty wastes seeing occasional ruins of different styles of buildings in the distance before arriving at an impossibly tall tower made of brass and iron.  A cage is lowered on a long chain and they ride up, Pedr finding it disconcerting and vomits on the way up.  Arriving near the top they see an ogre like creature with small legs and massive arms operating the winch and then pulling the cage into a safe spot to disembark from.  From there, they moved deeper into the tower, which is hollow and on a platform suspended in the center, is a throne, upon which sits the demon lord, Pazuzu.

They talk, the demon lord is very personable and forthcoming.  Pazuzu explains that he want back into the world but that it has been sealed against him and his kind, though the seals are slowly giving away, other forces could be attracted to close the opening at any time.  He offers power in return for helping him to escape into the Sea of Stars.  They waffle and debate.  He promises to disrupt the rule of the Dragon Empress, all he needs in their help and their souls, upon death.  So they finally decide to accept.  A vulture headed woman brings a clay table to serve as a contract.  They make there marks and are immediately filled with a sense of power.  Pazuzu has the vulture headed woman step forward and kneel next to the characters. “She needs a drop of your blood to be able to accompany you”, says the demon lord.  Which Pedr gives and the demoness transforms into a Visse with raven black hair that looks like she could be Pedr’s sister.  A chest is brought by an overmuscled servant and she equips herself.  “I am called Anatu.”  They then leave, Pedr again having an unpleasant time while riding in the cage, and recross the desert passing by more ruins and close to the grounded ships.

Returning to the world, they proceed to defeat the defenses, guardians and magical alike, and shatter the three remaining seals.  When the third one was broken, the sky became as black as sackcloth and the throb of thousands of locusts fill the air.  Ending the session on that mildly apocalyptic note.

Notes: Again we return to Petrichor after some time, we did two session, one a few months ago and one just recently, this is combining the two narratives.  The first game was fairly blah, I should know better than to try and run modules, and the second session was much more fun and freewheeling as we just dove into the craziness.

Also, the first time I can recall that, in play, someone sold their soul to a demon.

Image statue of Pazuzu from Wikimedia Commons photographed at Le Louvre by PHGCOM licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.