Episodes 42, 43, & 44 – Rock Around the Clock to Fight!

As the party rushes over to investigate the source of the cawing ravens, and finds that the the cult had been using ravens to send messages to someone. They formulate a plan to send a message and see if they can discern the source. After scrawling out a hasty message indicating that there is no trouble at the Sawmill, Theo sends his quasit to follow the raven to its destination: the Shadow Clock. The problem? As the raven lands, the scrolls magically unfurls, there is the sound of a woman’s cackling laughter, and then smoke begins to pours out of the clock face, forming into the shape of a gigantic demon. The huge demon makes eye contact with the quasit, who hightails it back to the sawmill to reconvene with Theo.

Meanwhile, the party interrogates Justice Ironbriar. He has been getting his direction from Xanesha, who is allegedly holed up at the Shadow Clock. Ironbriar dodges many of the party’s questions, but eventually Fobias notices that Ironbriar’s eyes are not quite right. He is under the effect of a spell. Despite Theo’s best efforts, he is unable to define the specifics of the spell; they need to find someone who can.

So they take Ironbriar to the Stone of the Seers and wake up Master Leis Nivlandis to banish the effects of the Charm Monster spell. Once his mind has been cleared, Justice Ironbriar tells the party that Xanesha forced him to commit the murders, even if he had been a member of the Skinsaw Cult for a longer time than he’s known her. Her influence was the cause of the all of the murders in Sandpoint and Magnimar. He offers a proposition: if the party agrees to let him go free, he will give them all of the information he has about Xanesha’s operation. They deliberate and eventually agree that need all the help they can get, and Justice Ironbriar isn’t the biggest fish in the pond. Before Ironbriar vanishes off into the night, he tells the group of the Scarecrow, the three faceless stalkers that roam the Shadow Clock, and that Xanesha is a lamia who is only afraid of one person: her sister.

The party rests up and heads over to the Shadow Clock. The crumbling tower is a dangerous place that is decaying and rotting from the inside out. While investigating the first floor, a pile of stones rises up as the Scarecrow sheds its cloak of elvenkind and attacks! It’s grotesque figure, stitched together from horses, cows, and humans, hits hard, but the party is able to dispatch it relatively quickly. As they ascend the stairs, one of the tower’s four bells comes crashing down, sending Fobias hurtling thirty feet to the ground and destroying a portion of the stairs. Theo floats upwards, and suddenly comes face to face with himself! Sensing something is amiss, he casts Enlarge Person and the faceless stalker’s new weight is to much for the rickety steps to handle. They also plummet to the ground.

While the party ascends to fight off the remaining stalkers, the stalkers (all looking like Theo), head downwards to meet them. It was almost as if seeing the fake Theo’s invigorates the party to smash face that much harder! The faceless stalkers that gave them a spot of trouble at Aldern’s Townhouse are easily dispatched. The top of the tower beckons…

What surprises await the party at the top of the tower? Who, or what, summoned the massive demon out of the Shadow Clock? Is there anything better than four Theos?