Bard Harder - Yet another ingredient list for a curse

Library

Eparius leads the band to the library of the castle. He informs the band that the hidden entrance to the laboratory is somewhere in the room, but even he is not certain of the method as it was kept secret from all staff and he doesn't have much dexterity in his sword form. He begged for years to know the secret in case something happened to go wrong, but Lord Pentival was quite stubborn on the matter. Hell, even if he knew it, he might not be able to open the damned door in his current form.

The room contains shelf upon shelf of beautifully preserved books that cover every single wall except for one. On this wall, there is a massive glass window that overlooks the backyard of the property. A fine wooden desk sits just in front of this window, decorated with many fine carvings and sculptures of animals scattered across its surface with light cascading down over them. There are a few sitting chairs scattered through the area as well as a massive rug that covers almost half of the hardwood flooring with an intricate red, white, and orange design. Lanterns still sit on hooks scattered around the room, but nothing here screams secret entrance to the band.

As the band get close to the desk they notice that there are 6 statues on the desk and Yomi moves to search it, the notice how fine the quality of these creatures are, that they are all sitting in small indentations carved directly into the wood of the desk, and that there are a few empty indentations as well. 

There are 6 statues in total 

1. A lion, 
2. a snake, 
3. a dragon, 
4. a wolf, 
5. a weasel, and 
6. an eagle. 

They are all crafted of wood, but they have been painted to have realistic features that have held up through the ages. They are all resting on identical rounded bases of marble. 

There are 4 slots along the left side of the desk, 4 along the front, and 4 along the right side of the desk. There are 4 statues sitting along the front, 1 on the left, and 1 on the right. 

Yomi searches through the drawers of the desk, and finds that tucked inside one of the books is a small note with the following text: 

“Four on the left, five at the front, and six on the right.” 

“Only the first matters: 1-6 | 7-13 | 14-19 | 20-26” 

The band start frantically trying to work out this puzzle, while they do Silme and Lemmog search the Library and  find scroll that unfurled to a map of the realm.

While Heironymo is sleeping  meditating the other band members consider if rebranding Arcane Fire to another name would negate the hell contract?

Final Solution

Heironymo after finishing his Koans meditation in what I think is the downward aardvark pose, or perhaps that was just cramp.

Announces to the others, who thought he had just fallen asleep... again, I have the answer...

• Lion - Left Side, Slot 2 
• Wolf - Left Side, Slot 4 
• Eagle - Front Side, Slot 1 
• Snake - Front Side, Slot 3 
• Dragon - Right Side, Slot 1 
• Weasel - Right Side, Slot 4

When the last piece is placed in the correct spot, one of the bookshelves along the wall to the right of the desk pops open ever so slightly and all of the statues tip over onto the desk. 

Hurrah...

The band pull open the bookshelf which revealed a spiral stairwell leading down. 

Gribble is nominated to lead the band down the dark stairwell, which descends for 2 stories before leading to a plain wooden door.

Gribble calls back that there is a door down here, and gets told to open it. It is locked.

After much stealth, ie calling back and forth up the stairwell about chopping the door down, getting weapons ready, breaking down the door, etc. You know all those typically stealthy options you do when you don't know what's on the other side of the door or who is listening.

Ekam then descends and picks the lock of the door and opens it.

The band sees before them a laboratory in a thirty-foot square room. 

The Laboratory of Lord Jorlen Pentival 

There is a disheveled bed off in the far corner of the room with a platter of goodberries sitting on a plate next to it. The walls are covered in cabinetry - some secured and some open with jar upon jar of ingredients and labels inscribed into the wood in front of each. 

At the center of the room is a sprawling alchemy table decorated with beakers, vials, pestle and mortar, bowls, dozens of feet of tubing, and other strange devices. The place smells pleasantly sweet and is lit by a set of four lanterns that hang on the walls. 

Standing before them is a man who looks to be in his sixties, but his true age is hidden by eyes set deep in their sockets and dark grey bags beneath them. He is emaciated and has a long beard that has not seen a comb in months. His skin is ghostly pale and the skin is cracked, but the outfit he wears is lovely. It is a set of red, orange, and white robes with a rose embroidered over the heart. The man also wears a ring on nine out of ten fingers, all of which seem quite valuable.

He immediately berates Ekam for his insolence and rudeness of just breaking into his laboratory.

He speaks down to the band, and after much to and fro, does 

He does introduce himself as Lord Jorlen Pentival, and that the band should always refer to him as such.

Jorlen then present the band with a barrage of questions how did they find the castle? How did they get down here? Have they seen the werewolf? 

Ekam tries to introduce Lemmog the King of Richmond, but the Lord has already dismissed this talk and continues with his own questions.

Eventually he tells the band of his attempts to find a cure for lycanthrope. 

He has been working at it for years, but his supplies are dwindling for many ingredients and he has been surviving on only goodberries for some time now. 

He does, however, think he might have come up with a combination that has potential! Unfortunately, many of the ingredients required he has run out of and he would have to risk being mauled if he wanders onto the castle grounds to find more. 

He asks if the band might be able to help him! If they do, he can make it worth their while, 2500 Gold for you to split between your band as you see fit.

The items he needs are a vial of wolf’s blood, a winterbloom rose, and a gargoyle’s heart. 

The vial of wolf’s blood is straightforward they are in the woods just outside.

The winterbloom rose is found in a special garden bed out back . . . but the enchantments to protect the castle also included the garden. 

The gargoyle hearts are fairly straightforward as well. The creatures that stood watch at the entryways. When it is dead, crush its chest and bring its stone heart back to the lab. 

 Jorlen gives the band all they will need - a special hammer to smash through the stone of a gargoyle, a set of vials to use to collect the blood, and a set of gardening shears to clip the rose. 

He also hands the band an eighteen inch tall rounded top glass case and tells them it is for the rose. If it is out of the cold for more than a few minutes without protection then it will wilt. The case should keep it alive long enough for him to extract what he needs from it.

Ingredient #2 - Winterbloom Rose 

The winterbloom rose is found in the garden on the backside of the house. The band have Eparius lead them through a secret back door. 

This leads out to a massive sprawling walkway. There are large stone statues of the same animals that were found on the desk in the library as well as a variety of hedge animals that have somehow managed to retain their form. 

In fact, the garden looks quite nice - or at least the portions that have survived the cold winter weather. 

The winterbloom roses are found in a flowerbed near a currently frozen water fountain at the centre of a spiralling set of hedges that are nearly ten feet tall. The other flower beds along the exterior of the fountain are all dead from the cold of winter. The roses are a beautiful white colour with a light blue stem that looks to be made of ice with vicious thorns. They are absolutely beautiful.

The band once again nominate Gribble to take the lead, while they hold back and "observe the surroundings".

Gribble goes invisible and makes his way all the way to the winterbloom roses, pulls out the gardening shears and snips one of the winterbloom roses, just then the band and especially Gribble begin to hear rustling through the hedges. A few moments later, creatures begin crawling from out of the hedge maze - the hedge animals they saw on their way over - and they are not happy!

Yomi sends some into a slumber, Silme fireballs others while Ekam is blasting them. Lemmog and Heironymo start punching and slashing at them.

Gribble then casts plant growth, making the garden life bust into growth making it extremely difficult terrain. This saves Gribble from being beaten to a pulp by the other garden ornaments.

Lemmog throws Gribble a rope and starts to haul him out of the garden.

Heironymo seemingly defying the terrain rushes over to Gribble and casts fly on him, and with Lemmog they cart him back like a kite into the "safety" of the castle.

The band then return to the Laboratory to hand off the Ingredient before heading out of the Castle to gather the other two.