Editing Session 037 All the little children sing

{{Session 
|campaign=Vellors Prison
|session_date= 01 October 2021
|game_date= 
|synopsis= A hasty search for the prisoners and artifacts lead the party to a different kind of treasure...
|summary=  

After debating what to do next the party decides to check out the noises coming from the floor above. Passing's the windows on the way to the stairs Stirkirk begins shouting about the burning eyes outside the window while a smoky tendriled creature crawls across the ceiling towards the stairs. A few well placed knife throws and it scurries upstairs. After berating him for looking outside (again) and feeling pressed for time will the party decides to leave him to stare out the window babbling to himself. Advancing slowly up the creaky staircase the party gets the sense they are making too much noise - in particular [[Horin]] who sounds like a bag of pots being drug up the stairs. Luthaist springs forward to investigate and in perfect silence bounds up the steps to disappear into the darkness...

Moments later Luthaist is flung screaming back downstairs but his cat like instincts save him from a near fatal fall. Peeling itself away from the heavy timbered ceiling where it was lurking a demon drops to the top of the stairs and attacks the party. As it drops it belches out a cloud of poison gas that seems to crawl as much as sink down the stairs encompassing the party. With their lungs burning Luthaist is skewered by the demons nasty bite and Ragnum also takes some hits before they party responds with deadly force. Gallandrin and Mourn both unleash a torrent of arrows and flame bolts while Ragnum strikes back hard with the Darzog hammer. The demon belches out another cloud but it has little effect this time on the party who take advantage of their massed numbers to gravely wound the demon who leaps back up the stairs into the darkness.

Horin has been busy healing the party from a safe distance and now with the rest of party run upstairs and finds themselves in a long hallway with over a dozen rooms (or cells) - their doors 1/2 open, some entirely unhinged, the muffled sounds of alternate crying and chanting coming from the rooms. Each member enters a room while Gallandrin watches for the demon who has slunk into the shadows at the far end of the hallway. The rooms contain the children of Sorgen, their minds and souls broken in preparation for some foul ceremony. Some of the kids sit in the circle, chanting, while others stare blankly into space the spark of life seemingly gone. One child leaps out the window as the party enters while the other start wailing mournfully.

Moving down the hallway Luthaist is distracted by something malign overhead, trips and falls through the floor into the room below! Though the rain he sees Stirkirk has moved outside and is trying to open the gates to the Abby. Rushing after him, Luthaist forgets about the mist hounds in the courtyard that immediately form and attack. He escapes their grasp and finds himself on the far side of the courtyard as Stirkirk drops the bar holding the gate shut as he steps into the gathering storm.

Upstairs the party trees to gather the children to leave as the demon begins to slowly advance down the hallway only to find they are unwilling or unable to take direction. Some move out of their rooms in a zombie like manner and while walking towards the party fall through the hole in the floor with a sicking sound of bones breaking as they hit the ground. Morin, and Horin grab two screaming kids while Ragnum and Gallandrin manage to save another 11. They begin to usher them down the stairs into the main floor towards the doors leading outside. In the darkness the silhouettes of the children's broken bodies lurch across the courtyard towards the unsuspecting Luthaist.

|exp=
* XP 531 - Forcing the demon to retreat
* XP 2600 - Rescuing the children from the abbey
|treasure=
* 11 Rescued children

|key_npcs=
* Dimitri - Innkeeper and mayor
* Ileena - Inkeeper, wife of Dimitri
* Aileen - Half-elven spy and body guard
* Stirkirk - Dwarven mercenary captain

| tasks =
* Recover the High Priest and Elvish clan lord along with the stolen dwarf artifacts from the demi-plane.
* Recover the dwarves relic from Logeth Hold
* Advance north and secure an old ruined keep in the Ripper Highlands for the demi-human army to use as a stronghold for upcoming raids north.

| rumors =
* The prisoners may held in the dungeons of Azal'Lan's castle.
* On rare occasions small black skinned humanoids (possibly Drow) have been seen outside the town.
}}