S26: Bonds of the Flesh

A magic portal through a mirror leaves our group standing in the middle of a small, heavily stocked library. Books upon books of bestiaries, anatomy, and history fill three large bookshelves. A large oaken desk sits in the corner with a singular leather tome -- the binder, written by hand, reads manual of flesh golems. Interested in its contents Alora begins to flip through its pages. Symbols and sigils glow with an unearthly purple hue -- the contents unreadable by the party. Alora grabs her head as a sharp pain arcs through her brain. She slams the book closed. In true, BOP fashion the group's first reaction, you guessed it, burn the book. Glug quickly saves it from a crispy fate, tucking it away for a later date. Mokon searches the desk for anything of value, finding none except ink and quill, he hefts the desk overhead and begins to shake it vigorously. Five gold coins clink to the floor. With no perceivable door in the room Nom investigates the shelves dumping row after row of books on the floor assuming a hidden door in the bookshelf, as she has seen Huther use before. She is correct in her assumption, finding a hidden switch connected to a nearby candelabra. The door opens revealing a small stone room with three doors. A iron beam gate to the left, a wooden door forward, an open door to the right, and a lever on the northern wall. Alora, believing there could be more to this place than meets the eye, casts detect magic to see what she could find. Nothing new is revealed, minus a glimmer of magic from the Manual of Flesh Golems in Glug’s possession. Alora, then deciding that Huther’s obsession with her is unhealthy, disguises herself as a slightly taller Bogtwo with little magic -- just in case.

Taking the path of least resistance Alora and Fey move out with the group, except Mokon, who is very curious as to if he can take the humongous (really it’s stupidly large) with him. Passing through the open door the group finds a laboratory of sorts. Another desk, shelves of bottles of liquids and specimens, a magically infused round table with unreadable sigils, a second wooden door, and a 15 foot glass holding tank filled with green liquid. Inspection of the shelves reveals vials of blood and other bodily fluids. Fey takes a bottle of dragon blood, suspecting it could come in handy, Nom takes the rest of the bottled blood samples for a potential early morning pick-me-up. A table like this has not been seen by the party before. Glowing circles with sigils and symbols are etched and drawn onto its surface -- even Glug is unsure of its purpose. Fey quietly approaches and even more quietly opens the second door in the room, expecting the worst. It’s a closet. A closet with empty cages, hay, and bags of seeds and grain. Now for the elephant in the room, well, a giant green-liquid filled vat in the room. What is its purpose? As the group looks deeper into its depths they notice limbs and pieces of flesh gently float by -- parts and pieces from all manner of humanoid and beast. As they watch disgusted they see a familiar face -- the head of Huther’s mage Sra, with eyes wide open in a look of terror, flows in and out of their view. Having had enough of Huther, the group opts for destruction, yet again. Fey rounds the vat finding a release spout toward the bottom of the multi-hundred gallon tank. Turning it begins to release the foul green liquid onto the floor and through a large grate disappearing into the darkness below. Unfortunately, before long the spout became clogged with body parts and the flow slowed to a trickle. Not content with this show of defiance, the group backed toward the entry door of the room as Fey lets loose two fire bolts, one directed at the dry hay in the storage room, and another at the vat (attempting to break the glass). The dry grass burst into flame sending plumes of gray smoke into the air. Fey closes the storage door. The second firebolt hits the glass with a dull thud seemingly causing no damage. Mokon decides to leave the desk in the library. 

The group moves on re-entering the small room with four doors. They look at the lever, so very much wanting to pull it, but knowing levers aren’t always what they seem. At first they believe it may be the lever to close the hidden bookshelf, but upon closer inspection Glug noticed a lever on the bookshelf itself which proves to be the mechanism to toggle the hidden door’s state. The lever on the wall is a mystery. Showing great restraint the group leaves the lever as is. 

The Bogtwo disguised Alora takes the lead heading north through the iron barred gate. As she enters the room she begins to hear pitiful moans and the sound of wet movement. Rounding the corner she sees a horrific sight. The room is lined with small cells, eight total, within most of the cells moving and undulating flesh, bones, and blood. As she walks forward she begins to realize the beings within these cells were once humanoid, now disfigured abominations. Some of the beings are rotund, swollen masses oozing out of their cells secreting yellow liquid. Others, boneless piles of skin that crawl and slide across the floor. And one a humanoid form with a humongous fluid filled sack adorning their shoulders and back. One after another she tries to communicate. They try to talk, but speech is impossible -- guttural noises and inhuman sounds spew forth as some of the victims reach through the bars grabbing at Alora’s body. Not in anger or aggression, but in a call for help. As Alora locks eyes with these creatures she can see their pain. The group does not need to hear words, they know what they must do. Nom is the first to act walking up to the first cell asking the being within if it wishes for death. It leans its head against the cell wall. Nom plunges her sword deeply into the tortured creature as it slumps to the floor. One, two, three, four Nom releases these souls knowing there was no other way. When she reaches the fifth failed experiment, Alora asks her to stop. This being seems more aware than the others. It acts much more human, although disfigured, it seems as though it is in less pain and does not want to die. Fey unlocks the cell. The being remains still even after being allowed to leave. Alora asks its name. An unholy sound escapes its lips - human, but also something else. Mokon hands the being a paper and quill. This time it writes down Swaran.

In the last cell, a figure, more humanoid than all the others, lays on the floor breathing deeply. Its right lower arm has been removed as has its left lower leg, patchwork skin adorns its body with thick stitches surrounding each piece, a dark socket stares forward empty where an eye once lived, a noticeable deep cut with iron staples trail from right above its eye to the back of its skull, tubes red with blood connect various arteries and veins on the outside of its body. It lays quietly, breathing deeply. A lone tusk penetrates its wide jaw. As Mokon inspects this particular victim, there is a familiarity. Although it has been defiled again and again, there is something recognizable. Mokon tries to wake the being, it does not stir. Reaching down Mokon divinely heals the pitiful soul. A deep gasp of air enters its lungs. Its eye opens. 

“Who are you? What do you want?”, a familiar voice to Mokon speaks out, but it can’t be!

Mokon asks, “Who are you?” the voice responds, “I was once Nordrum, now, I’m not so sure.”

Mokon stands in awe and confusion. After a brief discussion it is concluded that this could indeed be Mokon’s brother, although Nordrum has been here for more than 20 years, and Mokon only a few months. Also, Mokon had killed his brother and burned the corpse years ago. Nordrum explains that part of the initiation into the “business” was for Mokon to think he killed his own brother and that part of Nordrum’s acceptance was to never contact Mokon, no matter the circumstance. Rage fills Mokon’s heart as he reaches through the bars and lifts Nordrum to his feet. “How could you!” Mokon roars as he drops Nordrum back to the ground with a thud. Nordrum knows very little about Huther or his plans, but asks the group to leave them and kill Huther. “Come back for me if you survive.” 

In shock, the group leave the room of cells with an angry Mokon and a curious abomination with a large shoulder-sack following steps behind.

The group enters once more the hallway of doors which connects the cells, library, and lab. Only one last door to open. From behind the door they hear a familiar voice, “ Huther, is close, the new samples will work.” A furious Mokon pushes through,  raising his foot high, he kicks the door with every ounce of his rage before the group can listen further. 

As the door bursts open, the sound of shattering glass fills the halls. In front of them stands a wide-eyed Huther Linds, jaw agape in shock. Beside him, a small purple being, the group assumes to be Bogone, as preluded to by Bogtwo. The small large headed purple being barely noticing its doppelganger Alora amongst all the confusion.

The group instantly attacks, giving Huther no time to respond or react. Cut after cut, and blow after blow Mokon and Nom attack Huther leaving deep bleeding cuts in his flesh. His clothes become red with blood. Fey launches a bolt of fire igniting Huther’s clothes as he yells in pain. Glug launches blue energy from his hands pelting the already bloodied Huther as Alora magically blinds Huther adding insult to injury. As Huther stands blinded and continually getting beaten by Nom and Mokon. Fey gracefully climbs onto a stone table littered with bones launching herself into the air and burning two daggers deep into Huther’s neck and shoulders. Alora, sprints forth with a clear plan in mind. Remove one of Huther’s ringed hands from his wrist -- with precision, she does exactly that. Huther screams in agony. Throwing his blinded body toward his only option for escape, Huther clumsily scurries over his surgical table and out of sight into a deep dark pit of death.  Fey quickly grabs the quivering Bogone asking where Huther went. “He is going to kill you,” it laughs as black thick liquid begins to cover its skin -- Fey slashes at his spindly arm with her dagger in response. They hear, “Bogone come with me.” Bogone slips to the ground disappearing in an instant. Without thinking and eager to finish Huther before he can escape, one by one the Butcher’s of Pillory follow suit. Throwing themselves, some more gracefully than others, into the unknown. Mokon lands first, followed by Nom, Fey, and Alora. Glug opts to due distance damage from above (and not at all because the DM forgot to make Glug jump down and didn’t realize it until it made no sense). 

As the group stands in a pile of blood, flesh, and bone they see Huther standing only twenty feet away. His back against a towing wall of stone up to his knees in his victims. He spouts, “Huther is giving you a last chance or I’ll kill you all.” The group's response -- laughter. And with that, Huther’s body seems to melt into the bodies below. Nom runs over trying to determine where he went, but Huther appears to be gone. They take a quick survey of their surroundings. They had fallen almost 100 feet, luckily landing on mounds of bodies to cushion their fall. Around them are high stone walls, a potential tunnel to the northwest, and a series of grates in various places across the ceiling of the cavern. Large jawed insects scurry and eat the discarded corpses. The ground begins to rumble and shake, the bodies beneath their feet begin to move and coalesce into a screaming, yelling 25 foot tall mound of pain. 

Again, Fey, Nom, and Mokon attack, cutting and slicing off chunks of flesh and mismatched limbs. The hulking beast writhing in pain. Glug attacks from above showering the beast with magic missiles, and Alora blasting it against the wall with magical wind. The beast attacks, throwing a wet mass of its own body at Nom. She slices through taking no damage to the advance. The group advances again without fear. Although the beast is enormous, the BOP are making quick work of their enemy. The abomination of flesh attacks again bringing one of its huge repulsive arms toward Nom and Alora. Mokon immediately reacts. As its giant limb of limbs smashes down upon the two Mokon raises his hand, divine golden radiant light expands from Alora and Nom devolving their attacker into the mound of flesh and bone it once was. The room goes quiet. As the group rallies from their victory. A screech penetrates their ears as a naked patchwork mound of flesh explodes from the bodies below toward Nom. Without thinking, Nom blade swipes upward. Huther lays in two pieces on the ground, each piece crawling in opposite direction. The top half muttering words of confusion and threats. Alora, tired of anything Huther, drops her illusory form and stabs her sword directly through his head. Huther’s limbs continue to crawl and mouth tries to speak. Nom, swiftly removes Huther’s head from his nick. Alora raises her sword, the Huther’s head continues to try to speak. Stepping in Mokon ends Huther once and for all with divine force.

The BOP stand victorious -- knee deep in Huther and his victims.