7 Mostan 1120

Harmony

By the time they returned from Eldmoor the party had been away from Marhaven for almost a solid month. While Strontium and Mrs. Wilkins studied the notes they had recovered from the secret lab in the desert, others picked up the various loose ends they had left behind to pursue Chandrakar.

Recent stories in the Marhaven Crier told of the near destruction of the newly-floated residential deck, an act of vandalism that set the expansion project back a month in time and several thousand gold pieces in cost. The party had not been in town at the time, but another group calling itself the Black Sheep had caught two of the vandals and linked them to the party's ever-present enemy, the Servants of the Beast Below.

The group checked with their contact Riley Hanal-Rian and received a briefing on the situation. Two sea kith had been caught and questioned by Laen Morogue. They were, as reported, low-level members of the Servants of the Beast Below, but they were able to provide very little useful information. An intermediary whom they could not identify had given the sea kith two containers and some painting gear each; they, along with over a dozen cohorts, had been instructed to combine the smaller container's contents into the larger, apply it to the underside of the new deck, and set it alight. The sea kith had been as surprised as any to see the deck itself catch fire.

Through the Adventurers' Guild the party contacted the Black Sheep, a less experienced group who had come together to investigate the deck burning and seemed to be clicking right away. They confirmed what Riley had told them and had little more to offer.

It was Grimaldi who provided the clue that prompted the party's next move. Analysis of the documents recovered from Stevens' Manor (House of Ill Repute), which had been completed some time ago but not reported because the party was out of town, had allowed the chief researcher to piece together the origins of the black goop. While the formula had been devised locally, the records indicated that most funding for the SOBB in Marhaven was actually coming from a chapter in Survale, a port city of the Tumari Coalition. The next rungs in the cult's organizational ladder, it seemed, would be found there.

Armed with a letter of introduction from Riley, the party stocked the Chimera and sailed to Survale. They were struck almost immediately by the poor conditions in the city; even the worst neighborhoods in Marhaven seemed better kept than the area around the docks of Survale. They were continually accosted by beggars. The streets were littered with people simply sitting there staring vapidly into the distance.

The Servants of the Beast Below, the party learned, were many in Survale. The city's proximity to the southern swamps explained some of that, as there was a larger population of lizardfolk and goblinoid types than in most other lands. Also the chaotic nature of the Tumari Coalition encouraged a live and let live attitude. The Servants of the Beast thrived in that environment even to the point of having a fixed, publicly-known Temple of the Beast on the south end of town.

But even as they gathered information on their enemy, the party found themselves distracted by the obvious effects on the city's economy and population of the widespread use of a drug called harmony. The drug, a honey-colored concoction sold in small vials, was said to induce a sense of oneness with the multiverse and to have aphrodisiac properties. Use of harmony was on the rise in Marhaven as well, and the party had recently heard statements claiming that it caused harm to regular users. Here in Survale, with harmony addicts lining the streets instead of working, those warnings were easy to believe.

The group made an appointment with the city's mayor for the next morning. If they were going to cause trouble with the local chapter of the Servants of the Beast, it seemed wise to obtain some sanction from the authorities, or at least a statement of disinterest, first.

The mayor proved to be a mousy little man. He met with a subset of the group, read Riley's letter of introduction, and listened while Aria and Strontium laid out the group's intent to investigate the Servants of the Beast and their likely connection to the Marhaven sabotage. He could not sanction any harrassment of a legitimate religion, the mayor told them, but assured the party they would have no official trouble as long as they did not interfere with commerce.

On the subject of the drug harmony the mayor was equally reluctant to offer backing. The drug's inventor, Pan'phar Thrissek, was a local businessman and mystic but did not belong to any of the merchant guilds that wield power in the city. The rising number of users of the drug, and their tendency to drop out of active society, was putting a lot of pressure on the economy while Pan'phar grew rich on the proceeds, true, but the mayor emphasized that harmony was not an illegal substance and while Pan'phar may not be popular with the guilds was not considered a criminal.

In other words, the party was on their own. Strontium made a mental note to research an insert spine spell for use with future politicians and the party reassembled on the Chimera.

The party's next move was to visit the Mystic Eye, the apothecary and alchemy shop of Pan'Phar Thrissek. It was located in one of the better areas of town, though its size and decor did not reflect Pan'Phar's reputed wealth. Strontium noticed that the shop's glass window bore, in a discreet corner, the submerged eye symbol of the Servants of the Beast Below.

Pan'Phar himself appeared to be genial and unguarded. Melian's arcane eye detected nothing of a magical nature in the shop but was blocked when he tried to examine the proprietor himself. The group took stock, purchased a supply of alchemical items, and engaged Pan'Phar in conversation about harmony. He launched into a lengthy speech about the health benefits of his concoction and its growing popularity, which made it impractical for him to do all the distributing himself. The party purchased a single vial at 60gp, which was double the street price. Pan'Phar dismissed the suggestion that harmony might be harmful; he used it himself, he assured the group, and had suffered no ill effects.

Clearly the party would learn nothing more from Pan'Phar. They paid for their purchases and left the shop. Outside they were able to compare notes. Melian offered his opinion that the store was too small to serve as the real production site for the drug. Nothing in the main area had shown as magical, but there was a back room and an upstairs they hadn't been able to examine, any of which might contain a teleporter or similar device. A closer look at those areas would be necessary, and that likely meant a break-in.

The group waited on the Chimera until the dead of night and then made their way back to the Mystic Eye. Melian picked the (exceptional quality) lock on the back door and the group found themselves in an orderly storeroom. Melian set to work on the locked chests but was interrupted when Pan'Phar appeared at the top of the stairs with a lantern.

Strontium tried to prevent a violent encounter with Otiluke's Resilient Sphere but Pan'Phar dodged it and came running down the stairs to face the intruders. Audas hit him with an eldtirch blast but the group held back from further hostilities and tried to engage Pan'Phar in discussion. Under the circumstances they found him less friendly and disinclined to be helpful.

Caenus, recognizing that Pan'Phar's necklace was important, tried to take it by force. Pan'Phar responded with surprising agility. He leapt up on top of a set of crates and took a defensive posture that Aria recognized as that of a trained monk. Her conclusion was confirmed immediately when Pan'Phar executed a successful stunning fist attack on Caenus.

Strontium responded with a blast of force but the spell failed. Something -- the necklace, he presumed -- was conferring spell resistance on Pan'Phar. Quinn attempted to grab the old man but he avoided her grasp along with most of Aria's flurry of blows.

As the party closed in on his position Pan'Phar attempted to vault over them toward the door. Aria arrested his leap with a well-timed grab and brought him to the floor where she was able to establish a strong hold.

At that moment, there was a shimmer of light and a new enemy appeared behind the group: a tsochar. It struck Caenus immediately with a thin blue ray of enfeeblement that sapped his strength. It was unprepared, however, for Strontium. The dwarf's personal revulsion for tsochari, born of his early close encounter with one, prompted him to respond with a lesser missile storm centered directly on the creature that did devastating damage. It retaliated with a darkbolt but had no chance against Strontium's missiles and Audas's eldritch blast attacks.

Unable to escape Aria's grasp and now stripped of his magical protections, Pan'Phar became more inclined to answer questions. He was not, he confessed, the inventor of harmony; it was provided to him by the Servants of the Beast Below, who paid him to be the public front for the drug so that it wouldn't be associated with their organization. The tsochar had been inhabiting Pan'Phar's body, helping him with its telepathic abilities while its spell resistance and damage reduction extended to him.

Under further pressure from Caenus Pan'Phar revealed that the real source of harmony, at least for Survale, was an underground lab off the city sewers. He gave the party instructions on where to find the lab but did not actually know anything about the formula for the drug or the process of its manufacture.

With the battle over the party turned their attention back to the chests. They were full of vials of harmony -- several hundred vials, in fact, worth thousands of gold pieces. The group took a few to have examined by Grimaldi later and smashed the rest.

The party now had a dilemma on their hands: what to do with Pan'Phar? If they left him be Pan'Phar had every legal right to complain to the city watch that the party had broken into his store, assaulted him, and destroyed his perfectly legal merchandise. Given the mayor's unwillingness to endorse the party's mission that was clearly not an option the group wanted available. Several in the group favored force-feeding Pan'Phar multiple doses of harmony to keep him quiet and sedated. Aria, however, couldn't stand by and allow an act that she knew would be harmful to a helpless prisoner. After some debate, Quinn came up with a workable compromise: using ingredients in Pan'Phar's shop she brewed three doses of a strong alchemical sleeping draught. They took Pan'Phar back to the Chimera, drugged him, and locked him up in a spare cabin while they planned their assault on the drug lab.

The next night they drugged Pan'Phar again to ensure he would not escape while they explored the lab. The party located the part of the sewer described by Pan'Phar and followed the rancid waters to a broken grate on the southeast edge of the system. As soon as they passed through the grate the stench of offal assaulted their senses. Several in the party became sickened by the odor but they pressed on.

Then something more than the odor assaulted them: from a filthy pool in the middle of the entrance cavern enormous tentacles shot out and grabbed Aria and Caenus. Caenus struggled to break free but found the creature's grip sickeningly strong. Aria turned to her dragon breath ability when she was unable to break free and at least had the satisfaction of searing the alien flesh.

Audas let loose with a series of eldritch blasts while Melian employed his returning trident. Strontium recognized the creature as an otyugh -- specifically, a lifeleech otyugh -- and warned the rest of the group to stay clear of the tentacles. Caenus broke free and Aria breathed fire again, then Audas delivered a deadly strike with his eldritch blast and destroyed the creature.

Beyond the entrance cavern was a winding corridor the held an even more repugnant sight: sitting down in the tunnel was a creature that defied description. The creature's right side was human enough, but the left had huge plant-like tendrils sticking out of a green, withered-looking trunk. It was almost as if someone had sliced a human in half vertically and melded one side with a similarly bisected monster. As the party watched, the monstrous side seemed to be overgrowing the human side. A look of agony was fixed on the human side of the face.

Aria took out the Rod of Health and used a remove disease charge on the creature. The green alien side vanished and a healthy human man emerged. The man had no idea where he was or how he'd gotten there. He didn't seem particularly gifted in the intellect, either. Still, the party had a much better idea now what the ultimate affects of harmony could be. They gave the stoner directions out of the cave and continued on.

Between the battle in the first cavern and the conversation in the tunnel, the party was not overly surprised to find more hostiles waiting for them in the next chamber. A half dozen lizardfolk armed with spears and javelins ran forward to attack as soon as the party appeared.

The encounter was short and bloody. Aria concentrated on the leader and eventually brought him down with repeated blows. Audas and Strontium divided their magical attentions between several targets while Quinn and Melian took another opponent each. Caenus entered a rage and swung his chain furiously. One of his enemies took a spike directly to the chest and began spurting gouts of blood. The last lizardman standing dropped his weapon and dove into a pool at the back of the cavern.

A quick inspection of the pool revealed an underwater tunnel. The group healed up and took to the water in pursuit of the escaping enemy. The passage proved to be short and led to another large cavern. This was clearly the drug lab: on the north end a huge machine of some kind grunted and chugged, sucking liquids from a pair of vats and performing unknown processes.

A more immediate concern was the room's occupants: the fleeing lizardman, still bleeding from earlier wounds; a pale humanoid figure cloaked in black, whose coloring and features resembled the half-farspawn psions the group had encountered in Stevens Manor (House of Ill Repute); and three large, vaguely humanoid-shaped monsters that reminded them all of the stoner they'd rescued in the outer tunnel.

Melian saw the pale man as the likely leader and hurled his trident at him. His grip was too hurried, though, and the trident sailed past the target and got stuck in the soft stone wall, unable to return to his hand. Strontium reached the same conclusion and cast dimensional anchor to prevent the likely psion from teleporting away. Both Aria and Caenus also closed on the black-cloaked figure.

The monsters, however, proved to be a more immediate physical threat. Their powerful claws tore into Caenus and Quinn, doing sickening amounts of damage. The claws were coated in a viscous substance -- a poison, Quinn discovered quickly, that damaged the Wisdom of the victim.

Not that the leader wasn't also dangerous. A blast of mental energy stunned Aria and Caenus and confirmed that the man had psionic power. Attack after attack directed against him failed because of an invisible psionic shield and the spellcasters found themselves under almost constant threat from the hulking monstrosities, who also had formidable physical protection and speed to go with their strength and poisoned claws.

Melian's eye was caught by the machine. He noticed moisture seeping through the wall behind it and suspected it may have been unwise to mount the vats to that particular wall. He examined the machine and tried to find a way to turn it off but it was a highly complex system and wouldn't yield easily to his fiddling.

The green creatures proved amazingly difficult to harm with physical attack. Their hard hide and surprising reflexes made most blows glance off them. Strontium and Audas concentrated their magical fire on the monsters and slowly chipped away at them while Caenus flailed at them with his chain. Quinn managed to slow one down with a freeze spell and helped to engage the others with her frost trident.

Meanwhile, Aria and the psion exchanged blows and powers. Her strong force of will allowed Aria to shake off most of the enemy's mental attacks. Then, as the party was beginning to turn the tide in their own favor, Aria missed with a forceful blow and struck the machine. It began to shake violently and make loud noises of metal gnashing against metal. Melian tried again to turn the thing off but the controls were unresponsive.

The black-cloaked leader fell to Strontium's last magic missile for the day just as Caenus and Audas felled the remaining monsters. Melian saw cracks appear in the wall behind the machinery and warned the party that they had little time to search. As they ransacked the lab for evidence or anything of use the wall gave in and water rushed into the place. They grabbed three chests and got out before the rushing water could carry them away.

As soon as they were clear of the immediate threat the party examined their salvaged chests. Two contained vials of harmony -- several hundred vials each. The third held oilskin bags containing gold, gems, and a thick sheaf of notes that seemed to detail the usage of the machine. Conspicuously missing from those notes was the actual formula for the drug. Apparently the machine simply combined two liquids that were created elsewhere and processed them into the finished substance. The true source of the drug remained a mystery.

The party returned to the Chimera to find their prisoner still unconscious and secure. They would need to rest and heal, but another debate on the subject of Pan'Phar would be necessary. The group was not ready to leave Survale just yet.

<MR>
5/20/07

The subplot involving the drug Harmony was conceived several months ago as a logical part of the Big Bad's plans. However, the final form of this adventure borrows heavily from the Seeds of Sehan arc featured in issues 145 through 147 of Dungeon magazine. Thanks, Paizo!