The party hunts down and kills the last 2 remaining undead children.
The party finds the infirmary (after Louis triggers a poison needle trap). They find 2 potions of healing.
The party short rests and expends some hit die.
The party goes up the endless staircase and ambushes the Bodak (with Hanzo and Ev joining from the other side).
With the Bodak dispatched, the party camps outside near the hills with Sam overnight.
The party watches an entourage cautiously approaching the mine:
- A mage with a claw familiar
- 2x bandits
The party sneakily follows this entourage exploring the mines. When they encounter the Bodak, they visibly exclaim. They see the mage toss up an ioun stone, which circles around his head.
The party reasons that the Bodak was placed there by the Drummer Boy.
Hanzo, Helia, and Cory continues following the entourage into the endless staircase. There by accident, Hanzo bumps into the entourage.
Hanzo immediately casts darkness. This leads to a confused mage trying to figure out who these people are.
The mage pleads to remove the darkness, revealing that he sees it as blasphemy. The party and entourage head backwards through the endless staircase, where they are joined by Louis, Ev, Harloc.
Harloc tries to impress with thomaturgy and is dismissed.
Hanzo finally dismisses the darkness. The party observes the mage having similar tatoos as the Prince of Darkness. After some pressing they learn:
- The religion of darkness has 3 priests that follow their own whims
- This is a relatively modern religion with a central organizer
As the party starts accusing the mage of torturing children, he fires back that they were only contracting after the viscount was humiliated. They weren’t intending to torture, merely extract information about…
As the mage looks around, he realizes that the party is the same as the one the viscount is looking for.
Combat is initiated. After some counter spells, the party kills the 2 bandits and the claw (which the mage is very attached to). They knock out the mage and find a note revealing the location of viscount.