Illustrious Castle: The Misty Court

Wandering Encounters

There is a 15% chance, every hour, of encountering d3 skeletons, up to a maximum of six.

Skeletons: undead 1; move 10; short sword d6; defense 3; slashing weapons do half damage, thrusting weapons do 1 point.

If anyone dies in this area, Eliazu might animate them as zombies and then bring them to the Demon’s Court.

There is a foot of misty fog covering all rooms from two to five.

The Misty Court: Empty (1)

The limestone corridor slopes downward, and a misty fog swirls about your ankles and feet. Tendrils of mist snake up and around the stalagmites, and dance around your legs as you move across the cavern. You hear the drip-drip-drip of water from the stalactites that emerge from the mist-shrouded ceilings.

There is a foot of misty fog covering the floors in this room and a thin mist permeates the whole cave.

Skeleton Cave (2)

Bones lie scattered, peeking through the swirling mist. A rank smell permeates the air, reminiscent of rotting wood, or old eggs.

You hear a flutter. Two shapes swoop down, black wings on the misty air. A painful screech pierces your soul.

There are two screeching bats here, which attack anything that enters. Lying about are many skeletons, killed when the summoning went awry. A crystal goblet with a demon face, in style like the Demon’s Court demon (450 shillings) lies in the southwest. Along with it are a chisel, a hammer, and a metal stencil about one foot square cut with Eliazu’s sigil. This was brought by Corlile the engraver, whose skeleton is among the bones. Eliazu’s sigil is a closed door with light shining through.

Screeching bats: demon 3; survival 10, 15; move 3/15; bite 2d4; defense 3; painful screech; magic resistance 1.

The Grinning Ballroom (3)

Spirits of mist dance and make merry, as if alive. Every so often, out of the corner of your eye, you see grinning, rotting skulls, with worms crawling about their faces.

These phantoms have no power, at least not yet. Eliazu may increase their power given time and enough fear.

The Hole to the Lake (4)

The caverns have shifted downward somewhat, and here they come up against the edge of the lake cavern. A hole has been broken through, about a yard tall and a little less wide. The hole was broken through as part of the earthquake when Eliazu was summoned. It’s a forty-five-foot drop to the lakeshore, and about forty feet up to the roof of the lake cavern.

The Demon’s Court (5)

Fog rolls out of the entrance and into the hallway. Inside, fog roils about the room, twisting around statues of princes, knights, and squires, all kneeling to a gleaming stone demon.

Stone statues of princes and knights kneel before a stone demon, tail, horns, and all, sitting on a throne in regal stone clothes. The figure gleams with cunning. It is the vessel in which Eliazu the demon was summoned. Eliazu will generally stay quiet. It is patient; it needs to wait until it is powerful enough to escape, which means getting dupes to complete some rituals for it. If the player characters give any indication of either (a) trying to dispel it, or (b) being easily deceived, Eliazu will speak to them, softly, as if in a distant wind. It will try to convince them that it can give them power (which in fact it can, although it isn’t likely to follow through except in the most literal and deadly manner possible) if it thinks that bribes are the best choice; or it will try to convince them that after a hundred years stuck in this damn statue all it really wants is to go home.

A circle is engraved around the stone “king”. Among all of the court, a smaller, throne-like chair, also stone, faces the king’s throne. The smaller throne is empty. The smaller throne is about seven feet away from the circle.

If they have the exorcism ritual, it will try to convince them not to use it: it isn’t an exorcism, Eliazu will tell them, it’s a ritual for calling more demons into statues. Or it will place Eliazu into a human host—the reader of the scroll, “and why would I want to be trapped in such a puny frame? I’d rather be stuck in this stone.”

In arguing and pleading for its way, it will be as truthful as it can to avoid detection, but will try not to give the characters any information that will assist them in exorcising or otherwise neutralizing it. It wants to be free on Earth. Eliazu will be in turn funny, disgusting, snide, friendly, tired, and desperate, whatever it needs to do to convince them to do what it wants. The last thing it wants is to go back to hell. Who wants that? It would rather stay in the stone than go to hell.

If the characters continue performing the exorcism or doing anything that would send the demon back to shadows, a loud howling, as of heavy storm winds, will fill the room. The statues (except the demon king) shake, and parts of the statues break off and fly toward the characters. One piece will fly per round, aimed at a random character (or, if a prophet is calling spirits, toward the prophet). The demon attacks as a ninth level demon, and the rocks do d4 points of damage on a successful hit.

The pieces can be blocked from a specific target (by someone other than the target) with a shield as if trying to hit a defense of 2, but as a called shot. There is a penalty of 1 if using a sword or other slashing weapon, and a penalty of two if using a thrusting weapon such as a spear. The ritual will take six rounds to complete.

If Eliazu has any skeletons or demons nearby, it will bring them in to stop the exorcism as well.

If Eliazu is exorcised, the court will fill with rubble, starting in the ballroom, blocking their escape. Any character who does not immediately run toward the far end of the Court takes 2d6 damage, or half on a successful evasion roll. The ground will crack open, and the rubble, characters, and all will be sucked down the hole (taking another d4 damage, or nothing on a successful evasion roll). They come to a stop in The Lake Cavern. Lying next to them, grinning evilly, is The Demon’s Head.

It’s also possible to perform the exorcism in the same room where the summoning was performed. The ground will shake. Pieces of rock will fall. But the characters will then be able to return to the surface in relative safety.