Ryan – Van the Warrior
Jon – Riley the Halfling Chicken Butcher (Deceased) and Lenora the Cleric of Starburst
Patrick – Shif Tan the Thief, Kurt Kangle the Cleric of Amon Tor
Phil – Narsdom the Elf

The adventure started innocently enough with Nardsom getting the deed to some forgotten property in the area. The party journeyed to the moors and soon found the Black Manse, as pants-wettingly drawn by Doug Kovacs.

The party explored the grounds, doing a check of the perimeter. They journeyed through the moathouse, meeting the Seneschal, who they drove off by trying to pickpocket him (!). and then had a clash on the bridge with the Gruesome Lover, who came close to drowning Kurt Kangle (URSULA!) Finally, the party dispatches the GL and his waterlogged zombie henchman, and retrieves the Lion Mask from the moat.

After considering some alternative ways of entering, they walk into the house after correctly surmising that they are expected. They go into the entrance hall, ignore the tapestries and mount the balcony where they promptly open the doors and let all the trapped earth fall down on them, destroying the balcony and floor.

They make their REF saves and fall down to the lower level, confronting a skeleton army bidding them go into the next room. Kangle casts Second Sight and is misled (!) by his god Amon Tor of course (76 on 75% chance of telling the truth, per spell result.) They try to exit the cavern and cast Darkness to cover their escape… a frantic escape ensues in which Riley the Chicken Butcher is lost forever. The rest emerge, scathed, into the chapel— they quickly cover the trap door with rubble to stop the pursuing skeletons from pursuing them.

They are beset by revelers urging them on on on to the Great Hall. They fight off one band and finally comply, passing up the bell tower with the masked figure hung on the rope, joining the massed revelers in the Great Hall.

Here they confront Mammon and his assembled revelers. Mammon demands the hand of Ursula (Van), and the party ignores this request. Having discovered no means by which to fight him (after having been led astray by Amon Tor!), they are pitched into a wild combat with Mammon!

The deciding factor is Narsdom’s total spellburn to the Three Fates. This max. result protects them from taking more than 1 hp damage / attack for three turns as well as boosting attacks for 20 turns (!). Mammon, unable to harm the party in the first two rounds, casts Charm on them, but is resisted by Narsdom and Van. Finally Narsdom spellburns and burns remaining Luck for a magic missile, getting a very high roll and obliterating Mammon’s lesser avatar.

Note:
Both the PCs and the dice seemed unwilling to help the party learn anything about Mammon, the wedding and so on. The worst outcome for the party should have been an all out battle, but some very high save rolls (Crits) and all-out Luck & Spellburn saved their bacon.

The devils dispelled when Mammon was dispsersed by the ridiculously high Magic MIssile spellcheck (2 in a row!), leaving Narsdom & co in possession of the Black Manse.