Muddled Pasts - Pathfinder 3.5
- Thread starter jydog1
- Start date
Ghoulish creations
Piratecat,
I'm glad you approve. Just wait to see what I have in store for them over the next few weeks.
Though I have to admit, the imagery of the ragged, emaciated, undead scourge unfolding its tattered leathery wings and dropping from the cave's ceiling to bring about utter ruin was one of the highlights of my evening.
The other was when the Skinsaw Man (ghast lord with a split personality and a thing for Trixie the halfling bard) licked the grappled Trixie, thereby paralyzing her, and then proceeded to whisper sweet nothings into her unresisting ear.
Sometimes I worry about where I come up with this stuff
Duane Choquette
aka Kassegore
Piratecat,
I'm glad you approve. Just wait to see what I have in store for them over the next few weeks.
Though I have to admit, the imagery of the ragged, emaciated, undead scourge unfolding its tattered leathery wings and dropping from the cave's ceiling to bring about utter ruin was one of the highlights of my evening.
The other was when the Skinsaw Man (ghast lord with a split personality and a thing for Trixie the halfling bard) licked the grappled Trixie, thereby paralyzing her, and then proceeded to whisper sweet nothings into her unresisting ear.
Sometimes I worry about where I come up with this stuff
Duane Choquette
aka Kassegore
jydog1
Explorer
just one, with an 18 inch bite radius. Absolutely took the party apart. the barbarian was paralyzed in front of the creature and almost dead. I rolled a whopping 4 on my attack with a scorching ray and missed, but the inquistor who had earlier retreated because he was about a point away from dropping managed to hit the creature's AC on the button with a long spear charge to save the day.
This all came about AFTER we'd killed the Skinsaw murderer but saw something shiny in this cavern littered with bones. greediest party ever . . . but it was great fun trying to save Trixie while the bad guy was describing how much fun they were going to have together as he walked along whistling with her tucked under his arm.
jydog1
Explorer
Piratecat,
Sometimes I worry about where I come up with this stuff
Duane Choquette
aka Kassegore
Yes, but what would have happened if we'd pulled the rope coming out of the monkey's mouth?
jydog1
Explorer
Session #20 - january 4, 2011 - Can I have the +5 Ring of Jumping Back?
notes: back to that gorram house again. Sort of an all over the place session, which is to be expected when the PCs get back to town and are asked, "What do you do? All those agendas . . . We got rich yet again but I'm sure the money will be gone soon.
From the journal of Grezzalik M'rethen:
I felt the dirt crumbling away as I desperately scrabbled at the new edge of the cliff, wondering why I hadn't chosen Levitate the last time I felt the ability to learn a new spell . . .
Wait. Getting ahead of myself. And seriously, where's the suspense? If something had killed me I wouldn't have been able to write this, right. Not that that bloody house didn't try . . .
We stumbled back into town, most of us diseased in one way or other. Between Father Xanthis and Naffir Voss we were nursed back to health. the word was put out that we weren't done just yet, and by the time we were back on our feet Master Pho was back in town, looking forward to seeing the surprises offered by the manor house. Father Xanthis was going to come with us as well, along with a gnome that Londis had met. When he spotted Pho his hideous face cracked into a disturbing grin.
"Pho! Time for me to remind you of a promise. Remember our friend the Captain, the one I wanted to give to the Three Sisters?"
"Indeed. We agreed it was wrong to sentence him without proof."
"Of course. Allow me to introduce Lumberlon Thrombletriple, who has the most fascinating story to tell you."
It was pretty interesting,. About 15 years ago he was on a ship run by Captain Bort that stopped near the island of the Three Ladies which was scuttled, resulting in deaths and some being sent to the island to become livestock - including Lum here, who'd been rescued by Londis. It had been planned, and Londis was positively gloating as Pho digested the information.
"Well, that's most surprising. Indeed, after we finish here I will go and see the pirate, as promised. perhaps it will help restore some of the balance that is out of true."
the gnome finished his pint and gestured to Londis. 'hey, ye didn't save any women when ye were there, did ye? there was a handmaiden who was absolutely fookin' gorgeous, and if I'd had a little more time - " He stopped, squinted at me, then looked to Londis. "Is that the one?" When Londis nodded Lum said, "The handmaiden, she worked for a lady named Shamara M'rethen. I'm told that'd be important to ye."
I nodded, not really shocked. "So the master of House Renth had her removed, no doubt so he could wed his harpy. Not surprising. She went with you to the island?"
"Aye, and I reckon she was transformed like the rest of us. More than that, I dinnae know."
I murmured thanks, lost in thought. Not abandoned. Not forgotten about. She'd had no choice. No choice.
------
The Foxglove Manor stood before us, and repulsive as ever. Thousands of birds sat on the roof, carrion eaters. We'd returned with the three holy men and a few guards. No sign of ghouls, but as we drew close the sea of birds rose up and rolled towards us in stinking, rotting swarms.
I hate this place.
The fighters cursed a blue storm each as their weapons weren't much use against the clusters of undead birds, and the clerics screamed that they needed to conserve their positive energy for the ritual. To make matters worse an ogre-ghoul burst out of the carriage house and lumbered toward us. Once I managed to control my gorge, it was easy to see what needed to be done. Giving one group of birds the opportunity to poke even more holes in my body, I raced forward and let the lightning jet from my hand. Several swarms shuddered and dropped tot he ground in great smoking heaps, and the ogre cracked and popped as its skin cooked with a horrid stench. It showed disapproval by clocking me with a backhand that rocked me back and left me barely standing. As I blinked away the pain I felt the warming glow of healing course through my body and turned to see Trixie with her hand on my hip. Timely, that.
When I looked up Tofa had somehow managed to get her newly purchased Bag of Holding over the ogre so that it only showed from the knees down. I knew what that thing was going to do to her bag and possibly her if it had the chance, so I rushed forward as bright green lightning danced around my upraised hand and smacked it. there was a terrible scream and an even worse odor as the thing expired. I let the power go as the glow from my tattoos faded. Nice. very nice.
Then someone gave me a sharp rap in the groin with the back of her knuckles. "Grezz, you idiot, don't rush into combat right after I heal you! Why make me waste a spell if you;re just going to get your dumb ass killed?"
Then Trixie was gone, Shotsie scuttling away. But . . . but . . . I zapped it! Sigh.
------
Long story short - the priests did the ritual, the evil mold faded - and the house began to self-destruct.
I HATE this place.
It was a mad dash for the exit as the walls and roof caved in on and around us. Finally making it up from the basement my feet slid out from under me as I ran for the front door. With groans and crashing behind me I could tell the WHOLE DAMN HOUSE was about to fall off the edge of the cliff to the rocks 300 feet below, and I tried to scramble to safety as Londis came back and dragged me along. The floor was sharply tilting as I dove for the doorway - and came up just short. the floor beneath me splinted and fell away as I screamed and dove for the doorway again, this time getting halfway through as my legs sought purchase.
I felt the dirt crumbling away as I desperately scrabbled at the new edge of the cliff, wondering why I hadn't chosen Levitate the last time I felt the ability to learn a new spell . . . and suddenly I grabbed a strong root, legs flailing wildly beneath me, the deafening crash of the house hitting the ocean below sounding as if it were just a few feet away. I was going to be joining it soon, and -
Strong hands grabbed my arms, pulling me to safety. I caught my breath and attempted to get my galloping heartbeat under control as I murmured thanks. Before we left, everyone miraculously alive, I paused to spit over the new cliff face. Good riddance.
Several days later we stood outside the gates of Magnadaar as I wondered how much trouble I was getting myself into. the letters we'd found indictated Alderin had been pretty much just a pawn, so we decided to come here to check out his lodgings in hopes of finding a clue about the bigger players, the Brothers of the Seven or some other self-important name.
me, I was worried about my former life here and what those left behind might say at my return. And it was possible I wasn't the only not thrilled about being in Magnadaar.
More notes: close, close thing at the manor as I first boned a DC5 climb check and then several more increasingly difficult ones. an 18 got me out of trouble in the end. I also broke in my Cauldron of Brewing, which had devoured all of my previous riches - now I just have to see how to make things!
notes: back to that gorram house again. Sort of an all over the place session, which is to be expected when the PCs get back to town and are asked, "What do you do? All those agendas . . . We got rich yet again but I'm sure the money will be gone soon.
From the journal of Grezzalik M'rethen:
I felt the dirt crumbling away as I desperately scrabbled at the new edge of the cliff, wondering why I hadn't chosen Levitate the last time I felt the ability to learn a new spell . . .
Wait. Getting ahead of myself. And seriously, where's the suspense? If something had killed me I wouldn't have been able to write this, right. Not that that bloody house didn't try . . .
We stumbled back into town, most of us diseased in one way or other. Between Father Xanthis and Naffir Voss we were nursed back to health. the word was put out that we weren't done just yet, and by the time we were back on our feet Master Pho was back in town, looking forward to seeing the surprises offered by the manor house. Father Xanthis was going to come with us as well, along with a gnome that Londis had met. When he spotted Pho his hideous face cracked into a disturbing grin.
"Pho! Time for me to remind you of a promise. Remember our friend the Captain, the one I wanted to give to the Three Sisters?"
"Indeed. We agreed it was wrong to sentence him without proof."
"Of course. Allow me to introduce Lumberlon Thrombletriple, who has the most fascinating story to tell you."
It was pretty interesting,. About 15 years ago he was on a ship run by Captain Bort that stopped near the island of the Three Ladies which was scuttled, resulting in deaths and some being sent to the island to become livestock - including Lum here, who'd been rescued by Londis. It had been planned, and Londis was positively gloating as Pho digested the information.
"Well, that's most surprising. Indeed, after we finish here I will go and see the pirate, as promised. perhaps it will help restore some of the balance that is out of true."
the gnome finished his pint and gestured to Londis. 'hey, ye didn't save any women when ye were there, did ye? there was a handmaiden who was absolutely fookin' gorgeous, and if I'd had a little more time - " He stopped, squinted at me, then looked to Londis. "Is that the one?" When Londis nodded Lum said, "The handmaiden, she worked for a lady named Shamara M'rethen. I'm told that'd be important to ye."
I nodded, not really shocked. "So the master of House Renth had her removed, no doubt so he could wed his harpy. Not surprising. She went with you to the island?"
"Aye, and I reckon she was transformed like the rest of us. More than that, I dinnae know."
I murmured thanks, lost in thought. Not abandoned. Not forgotten about. She'd had no choice. No choice.
------
The Foxglove Manor stood before us, and repulsive as ever. Thousands of birds sat on the roof, carrion eaters. We'd returned with the three holy men and a few guards. No sign of ghouls, but as we drew close the sea of birds rose up and rolled towards us in stinking, rotting swarms.
I hate this place.
The fighters cursed a blue storm each as their weapons weren't much use against the clusters of undead birds, and the clerics screamed that they needed to conserve their positive energy for the ritual. To make matters worse an ogre-ghoul burst out of the carriage house and lumbered toward us. Once I managed to control my gorge, it was easy to see what needed to be done. Giving one group of birds the opportunity to poke even more holes in my body, I raced forward and let the lightning jet from my hand. Several swarms shuddered and dropped tot he ground in great smoking heaps, and the ogre cracked and popped as its skin cooked with a horrid stench. It showed disapproval by clocking me with a backhand that rocked me back and left me barely standing. As I blinked away the pain I felt the warming glow of healing course through my body and turned to see Trixie with her hand on my hip. Timely, that.
When I looked up Tofa had somehow managed to get her newly purchased Bag of Holding over the ogre so that it only showed from the knees down. I knew what that thing was going to do to her bag and possibly her if it had the chance, so I rushed forward as bright green lightning danced around my upraised hand and smacked it. there was a terrible scream and an even worse odor as the thing expired. I let the power go as the glow from my tattoos faded. Nice. very nice.
Then someone gave me a sharp rap in the groin with the back of her knuckles. "Grezz, you idiot, don't rush into combat right after I heal you! Why make me waste a spell if you;re just going to get your dumb ass killed?"
Then Trixie was gone, Shotsie scuttling away. But . . . but . . . I zapped it! Sigh.
------
Long story short - the priests did the ritual, the evil mold faded - and the house began to self-destruct.
I HATE this place.
It was a mad dash for the exit as the walls and roof caved in on and around us. Finally making it up from the basement my feet slid out from under me as I ran for the front door. With groans and crashing behind me I could tell the WHOLE DAMN HOUSE was about to fall off the edge of the cliff to the rocks 300 feet below, and I tried to scramble to safety as Londis came back and dragged me along. The floor was sharply tilting as I dove for the doorway - and came up just short. the floor beneath me splinted and fell away as I screamed and dove for the doorway again, this time getting halfway through as my legs sought purchase.
I felt the dirt crumbling away as I desperately scrabbled at the new edge of the cliff, wondering why I hadn't chosen Levitate the last time I felt the ability to learn a new spell . . . and suddenly I grabbed a strong root, legs flailing wildly beneath me, the deafening crash of the house hitting the ocean below sounding as if it were just a few feet away. I was going to be joining it soon, and -
Strong hands grabbed my arms, pulling me to safety. I caught my breath and attempted to get my galloping heartbeat under control as I murmured thanks. Before we left, everyone miraculously alive, I paused to spit over the new cliff face. Good riddance.
Several days later we stood outside the gates of Magnadaar as I wondered how much trouble I was getting myself into. the letters we'd found indictated Alderin had been pretty much just a pawn, so we decided to come here to check out his lodgings in hopes of finding a clue about the bigger players, the Brothers of the Seven or some other self-important name.
me, I was worried about my former life here and what those left behind might say at my return. And it was possible I wasn't the only not thrilled about being in Magnadaar.
More notes: close, close thing at the manor as I first boned a DC5 climb check and then several more increasingly difficult ones. an 18 got me out of trouble in the end. I also broke in my Cauldron of Brewing, which had devoured all of my previous riches - now I just have to see how to make things!
jydog1
Explorer
Session #21 - January 11, 2011 - Bright Lights, Big City
notes: Welcome (back) to Magnadaar! Much goings on back in Grezz's hometown as he waits for the Scarnettis to take a crack at him (didn't have to wait long!). A very information-y session with a lot of roleplaying. Chances are that Grezz (sorcerer) and Trixie (bard) will have cracked 6th level, which already has be agonizing over the choice of 3rd level spell. Haste is nice, but with only two melee combatants I'm not sure how useful it'll be (plus the GM is smart enough to make them move every round, thus negating the double attack). Slow is tempting, as of course is Fireball. And I do love me some pits, and Create Spiked Pit is just lovely - that's 5d6 for everyone who falls in. Sigh. Decisions, decisions. i was reading on the Paizo boards that a chunk of people view sorcerers as 'one trick ponies,' just able to mete out damage. In some ways that's true as they are very good at it, but even with limited spell selection (but more spells per day than a wizard, TYVM) they can be quite diversified. I'm trying. Then again, as someone wrote, being a sorcerer is never having to say 'I'm out of 8d6 fireballs' after a round of combat. Sorcerers are hobbled by limited number of skills per level, almost none of them class skills, but that's actually pretty fair considering how destructive they can be. If I take Intensify Spell at 7th level I'll have first level spells that can do 7d6 to single creature or 7d4 in a 15 foot radius - and fireball will have a cap of 15d6. Wheee!!
oh, and this is the greediest party ever.
From the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:
The gates loomed above me as we approached Magindaar, and I couldn't help but sigh. Thought I'd be gone forever, and instead it's been less than a year. I'd be wise to expect trouble.
Beside me, Trixie finished fussing with what could only be called a disguise. Her hair was bound up and hidden under a kerchief and her clothes were loose and shapeless, which was definitely not the norm. Of course she was still riding Shotsie, so there was only so much she could do. As if it could tell I'd been thinking of it, the gecko scampered over to where I was walking my horse and gave me a long slurp. Ick. Damn thing was doing that a lot lately. Trixie favored me with an amused smile.
The guards probably would have passed us right through despite our motley makeup - the forementioned Trixie; Londis, scarred and imposing in his armor; Tofa with her Olfin looks and hand constantly in touch with her blade Hidarga; Firedrin as disheveled as always, with hair in every direction and that creepy thing pretending to be an owl on his shoulder; Lum humming to himself, a gnome clad in full plate on a clearly pissed off pony; and of course me, the prodigal non-son returning home and easily identifiable by, oh, I don't know, the Thassilonian runes tattooed all over my body? - but some weird stuff happened involving a farmer and his cart, thus drawing unwanted attention. We managed to slip away and I took us to a nice inn I knew in the Naos called the Smiling Dog - expensive, but worth it. Trixie had pulled me aside and requested a a place without a stage - I hadn't asked but she told me that she didn't want to be recognized and hassled to perform - and this was it. We all had things we wanted to do, but Lum's first and foremost desire was to spend the afternoon soaking in a tub. Since we were going to claim rewards, I was fine with that.
I sold my horse - why not? - and got a good deal. Tofa had, uhm, a little bit of trouble with her negotiation. When the would-be buyer suggested the horse looked worn out from carrying a heavy load she promptly knocked him out with a single punch. Yep, low profile.
We headed over to the Arvensoar to collect our reward for the dead bandit. We didn't tell them we weren't the ones who killed him and they didn't ask, which was just fine. Firendrin wanted to head over to the Academica Arcana, but I told him that at this time - 4pm or so - he wasn't going to have much luck. Of course he disagreed, but stuck with us as we headed over to Hidemark Manor to find out about Travor Foxglove's pathfinder compass and journal.
Those items got us past guards and butlers and whatnot until we were in an audience with Canayven Hidemarsh himself, who greeted us warmly and led introductions. When he got to me he smiled and said, "You must be Grezzalik Renth."
I groaned a bit. "Grezzalik M'Rethen, actually. That recognizable?"
He smiled. "Not too many half-elves with green Thassilonian tattoos and your notoriety around."
Now I swore. "That whole thing hasn't faded away yet?"
"Story like that? Not likely. EVen heard some rumors they were talking about raising Zerlan Scarnetti."
"Pffhh. I didn't know a horse turd could be raised."
"Just a rumor, Grezzalik." He turned to Trixie. "And you are - "
"Lyn, sir." Trix was doing her best to avoid eye contact and seemed fascinated by her more-modest-than-usual cleavage. To be fair, it was a pretty nice view. i wasn't sure what she was doing but Heidmarch didn't push. Over the next hour or so he did an excellent job of drawing our stories out of us and seemed generally interested. We were invited to stay for dinner and did so, meeting up with his wife and a few other members of the Pathfinder Society.
First I got to run around like an excited child in an incredible library. Amazing resources and I don't remember a single thing I read (OOC: rolled a two on my knowledge:Thassilonian check. sigh). Dinner was interesting for many reasons, but most for Tinuvel Arundevillan. He turned out to be the guy I was looking for via Broderick Quint, an expert on the Fellnight. Fascinating, fascinating stuff.
I'll try to summarize - Queen Roswyn was a member of the Summer Court and decided she wanted all the goodies for herself, so she stole a seed from the World Tree and tried to take over everything. The Summer and Winter Courts actually banded together to stop her, and once she was defeated they severed the Fellnight from reality - it can only be reached in complicated manners and is watched by the Cyrillian Guard, elves based in the Mirnimar Woods. Because the Fellnight is an odd place they couldn't finish her off so they try to keep her contained, which doesn't bode well for me getting my mother out. Although it does bring up the question - if my mother is happy via a bewitching, aren't there worse ways to go through life? I'm not going to stop trying to get to her, but is believing you're happy and living life that way better than being a street urchin? Food for thought.
Tinuevel also knew about my supposed father, Loric Tinvilldien. He was a first-worlder who never migrated, and was an ambassador from the Winter Court. Interesting. I'd love to know what deal he made to get my mother back from Medea and her sisters. Someday, maybe.
I wanted to just give the compass and journal to the Society, but the others wanted a reward and got it. I demurred. Might have been wrong, but it felt like we were being vetted and quite frankly, given their resources and reputation this would be a very good society to be part of.
After dinner we left and Firendrin announced that he was going to the Academica. I shook my head.
"You're not going to get in. The professors don't want to be disturbed at night."
He blew a raspberry. "Oh, they'll see me." With that he stalked off, and I shrugged. He'd been steadily regressing back to difficult and erratic personality he'd sported when we first rescued his soon-to-be sacrificed ass. Maybe cities bothered him.
After about fifteen minutes of walking we were about halfway to the inn when there was a shriek of female terror. It came from a nearby alley and Londis wiggled his fingers, murmured something, and simply vanished from sight. It was easy to follow him because, well, CLANK CLANK CLANK, and we emerged into the alleyway in time to see two individuals about 50 feet away ducking behind a building, and a woman in torn clothes prone.
Then Trixie yelled and pointed. "AMBUSH!!!"
I followed her gaze and spotted two - no three - no four - four figures on roofs, two on either side, and heard the twang of plucked bowstrings right about the time I felt a pair of arrows thud into my chest. Dammmmmmmmmm! That hurt! Trixie had somehow avoided being hit as she moved more quickly than I thought even her possible of (OOC: the DC to see the ambush was a 28 - Laura rolled a 30 and probably saved Grezz's life, as a round of surprise attacks on top of the regular 1st round attack probably would have killed him. As it was he was down to 6 hits and we were in trouble, given that our healer was back at the inn and Firedrin was off not being admitted to the Academica and missing the fight) and her kazoo started to play an inspiring tune. I fled for cover from the archers, tossing a pit on top of the far building. One of my attackers disappeared with a yelp, followed by a squeal of pain, but as I ran I saw bravos rushing down the street toward me. Our 'victim' was up and heading this was as well. Not good.
Tofa rushed by me and went up a ladder. there was a bellow and seconds later the crunch of someone hitting the street HARD, followed by Tofa's triumphant shout. I felt the warm glow of Trixie's healing touch as she steadied me a bit, but at the cost of getting sliced herself. Two thugs and our lady fair skidded around the corner and she damn near punched me to unconsciousness. I made a special pit just for them, but only one fell in with a satisfying crunch. From around the corner I heard another howl of agony - turns out Londis had dropped himself from the roof onto another foe, crushing him. I fished out a serious healing potion and quaffed it as the bitch leaped away from the edge of the pit, and from the corner of my eye I saw the guy on the roof breifly appear at the edge before falling back in again. Bastards. I was getting pissed now. One of the guys, an ugly brute in studded leather, ran up to me and barely missed with a hacking strike. I made mystical passes as he jabbed with frustration, and my tattoos erupted with a green light as I reached out and just barely made contact with his swinging arm - but it was enough, pumping bolts of electricity into him. It raced all over his body, in and out of his mouth, it made his damn eyes explode. It was glorious. Seconds later there nothing left of him but a pile of ash and a melted shortsword. I spun and looked at the wide-eyed bitch who'd set us up and yelled (somewhat overdramatically), 'YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHO YOU'RE F****** WITH!!!!"
Londis yelled something at her as well and her head jerked in his direction - either what she saw or what he'd said spooked the hell out of her and she took off.
Trixie laughed. "Yeah. You wish, bitch." A giant ant popped into existence in her path and simply clobbered her. And, suddenly, it was over. We stood around panting for a minute, looking around. An extremely well-set up ambush, and we'd torn it to shreds in under a minute. Hell, even I was impressed.
Firendrin showed up a little while later. "Hey, they wouldn't let me in. But I saw a gargoyle!"
I nodded, still pumped up from the fight. "Yes, they're there to keep people out. People like you, who try to get in at night."
His response was to wander around healing us as the Guard arrived. And as that fun started, i noticed Trixie was glaring at me. "What?"
"I offered to heal you, Grezz."
"I . . . I didn't hear you. Firendrin didn't really ask, he just did it."
She looked, hell, she looked hurt. "But I offered. I offered to heal you."
I held up my hands. "Trix, I honestly didn't hear you. I'm sorry. Really."
She looked a little mollified, but by then we were surrounded by guards yelling at us. Firendrin tried to leave us there by saying he hadn't been there for the fight - true enough, but . . . - anyway, they made him come. Then there was the issue with Tofa, who flat out refused to take off Hidarga. The guard sergeant didn't lose his cool and didn't quite threaten, but suddenly a dozen or so men had her ringed and it was about to get ugly. She offered to be peace-knotted but thatw asn't enough, and I knew she was damn crazy enough to fly into one of her rages and try to take on the whole damn bunch of them, and it was going to get her killed.
. Think fast, Grezz. "Sergeant? if I might? Uhm she's from the north and they have this whole strange thing between them and their weapons. So, can I suggest you let her keep the peace-knotted sword but manacle her instead?"
He opened his mouth to probably tell me to shut up, but paused, and Trixie jumped in and greatly improved on my desperate improvisation. "Oh, the stories I could tell you about Olfin and their weapons - they think the things are imbued with spirits of dead warriors - the manacles are nice compromise, no?"
By Shelyn's Luscious Lips, the girl was pure charm. Seconds later they clapped her in irons and off we went, back to the Arvensoar.
Not as nice a treatment this time, although the cells were clean and relatively safe - and anti-magicked. We were finally brought before the Commander of the Tower, Ismeir Odinburge, who listened to our tale with a calculating eye. One of his underlings started calling for us to be hanged, tortured, etc - and this turned out to be the 'friend' of Sheriff Hemlock, Drekk Detritus. I pointed out that if were were criminals of Sandport, why was there a play about us? Odinburge finally sent us back to nicer cells while he investigated further - i assume messengers were sent up the coast.
After a few hours we were brought back in and set free, which Firendrin almost managed to sabotage by deciding to play games with his familiar. I should also mention that the bloody chief Inquistor came in and pitched a bitch about us being sprung. Wonder what his agenda was? In the Scarnettis' pocket? Something against me, as he was a half-elf? Londis was busy drooling over the Hellknight that was with him. The would-be assassins were part of the Night Scales, the oldest thieving guild in town. I hadn't heard of them being murder for hire, but what did I know? As the morning broke we strode out, free again, with a whole list of things to do - visit the Academica, visit Foxglove's place, maybe do some shopping at the Bazaar of Sails . . . oh, and maybe find out who tried to kill us and which of us they were after in particular - I would think me, but Trixie, still irritated, uttered a cryptic 'It's not always about you, you jerk,' before stalking off.
Welcome home, indeed.
notes: Welcome (back) to Magnadaar! Much goings on back in Grezz's hometown as he waits for the Scarnettis to take a crack at him (didn't have to wait long!). A very information-y session with a lot of roleplaying. Chances are that Grezz (sorcerer) and Trixie (bard) will have cracked 6th level, which already has be agonizing over the choice of 3rd level spell. Haste is nice, but with only two melee combatants I'm not sure how useful it'll be (plus the GM is smart enough to make them move every round, thus negating the double attack). Slow is tempting, as of course is Fireball. And I do love me some pits, and Create Spiked Pit is just lovely - that's 5d6 for everyone who falls in. Sigh. Decisions, decisions. i was reading on the Paizo boards that a chunk of people view sorcerers as 'one trick ponies,' just able to mete out damage. In some ways that's true as they are very good at it, but even with limited spell selection (but more spells per day than a wizard, TYVM) they can be quite diversified. I'm trying. Then again, as someone wrote, being a sorcerer is never having to say 'I'm out of 8d6 fireballs' after a round of combat. Sorcerers are hobbled by limited number of skills per level, almost none of them class skills, but that's actually pretty fair considering how destructive they can be. If I take Intensify Spell at 7th level I'll have first level spells that can do 7d6 to single creature or 7d4 in a 15 foot radius - and fireball will have a cap of 15d6. Wheee!!
oh, and this is the greediest party ever.
From the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:
The gates loomed above me as we approached Magindaar, and I couldn't help but sigh. Thought I'd be gone forever, and instead it's been less than a year. I'd be wise to expect trouble.
Beside me, Trixie finished fussing with what could only be called a disguise. Her hair was bound up and hidden under a kerchief and her clothes were loose and shapeless, which was definitely not the norm. Of course she was still riding Shotsie, so there was only so much she could do. As if it could tell I'd been thinking of it, the gecko scampered over to where I was walking my horse and gave me a long slurp. Ick. Damn thing was doing that a lot lately. Trixie favored me with an amused smile.
The guards probably would have passed us right through despite our motley makeup - the forementioned Trixie; Londis, scarred and imposing in his armor; Tofa with her Olfin looks and hand constantly in touch with her blade Hidarga; Firedrin as disheveled as always, with hair in every direction and that creepy thing pretending to be an owl on his shoulder; Lum humming to himself, a gnome clad in full plate on a clearly pissed off pony; and of course me, the prodigal non-son returning home and easily identifiable by, oh, I don't know, the Thassilonian runes tattooed all over my body? - but some weird stuff happened involving a farmer and his cart, thus drawing unwanted attention. We managed to slip away and I took us to a nice inn I knew in the Naos called the Smiling Dog - expensive, but worth it. Trixie had pulled me aside and requested a a place without a stage - I hadn't asked but she told me that she didn't want to be recognized and hassled to perform - and this was it. We all had things we wanted to do, but Lum's first and foremost desire was to spend the afternoon soaking in a tub. Since we were going to claim rewards, I was fine with that.
I sold my horse - why not? - and got a good deal. Tofa had, uhm, a little bit of trouble with her negotiation. When the would-be buyer suggested the horse looked worn out from carrying a heavy load she promptly knocked him out with a single punch. Yep, low profile.
We headed over to the Arvensoar to collect our reward for the dead bandit. We didn't tell them we weren't the ones who killed him and they didn't ask, which was just fine. Firendrin wanted to head over to the Academica Arcana, but I told him that at this time - 4pm or so - he wasn't going to have much luck. Of course he disagreed, but stuck with us as we headed over to Hidemark Manor to find out about Travor Foxglove's pathfinder compass and journal.
Those items got us past guards and butlers and whatnot until we were in an audience with Canayven Hidemarsh himself, who greeted us warmly and led introductions. When he got to me he smiled and said, "You must be Grezzalik Renth."
I groaned a bit. "Grezzalik M'Rethen, actually. That recognizable?"
He smiled. "Not too many half-elves with green Thassilonian tattoos and your notoriety around."
Now I swore. "That whole thing hasn't faded away yet?"
"Story like that? Not likely. EVen heard some rumors they were talking about raising Zerlan Scarnetti."
"Pffhh. I didn't know a horse turd could be raised."
"Just a rumor, Grezzalik." He turned to Trixie. "And you are - "
"Lyn, sir." Trix was doing her best to avoid eye contact and seemed fascinated by her more-modest-than-usual cleavage. To be fair, it was a pretty nice view. i wasn't sure what she was doing but Heidmarch didn't push. Over the next hour or so he did an excellent job of drawing our stories out of us and seemed generally interested. We were invited to stay for dinner and did so, meeting up with his wife and a few other members of the Pathfinder Society.
First I got to run around like an excited child in an incredible library. Amazing resources and I don't remember a single thing I read (OOC: rolled a two on my knowledge:Thassilonian check. sigh). Dinner was interesting for many reasons, but most for Tinuvel Arundevillan. He turned out to be the guy I was looking for via Broderick Quint, an expert on the Fellnight. Fascinating, fascinating stuff.
I'll try to summarize - Queen Roswyn was a member of the Summer Court and decided she wanted all the goodies for herself, so she stole a seed from the World Tree and tried to take over everything. The Summer and Winter Courts actually banded together to stop her, and once she was defeated they severed the Fellnight from reality - it can only be reached in complicated manners and is watched by the Cyrillian Guard, elves based in the Mirnimar Woods. Because the Fellnight is an odd place they couldn't finish her off so they try to keep her contained, which doesn't bode well for me getting my mother out. Although it does bring up the question - if my mother is happy via a bewitching, aren't there worse ways to go through life? I'm not going to stop trying to get to her, but is believing you're happy and living life that way better than being a street urchin? Food for thought.
Tinuevel also knew about my supposed father, Loric Tinvilldien. He was a first-worlder who never migrated, and was an ambassador from the Winter Court. Interesting. I'd love to know what deal he made to get my mother back from Medea and her sisters. Someday, maybe.
I wanted to just give the compass and journal to the Society, but the others wanted a reward and got it. I demurred. Might have been wrong, but it felt like we were being vetted and quite frankly, given their resources and reputation this would be a very good society to be part of.
After dinner we left and Firendrin announced that he was going to the Academica. I shook my head.
"You're not going to get in. The professors don't want to be disturbed at night."
He blew a raspberry. "Oh, they'll see me." With that he stalked off, and I shrugged. He'd been steadily regressing back to difficult and erratic personality he'd sported when we first rescued his soon-to-be sacrificed ass. Maybe cities bothered him.
After about fifteen minutes of walking we were about halfway to the inn when there was a shriek of female terror. It came from a nearby alley and Londis wiggled his fingers, murmured something, and simply vanished from sight. It was easy to follow him because, well, CLANK CLANK CLANK, and we emerged into the alleyway in time to see two individuals about 50 feet away ducking behind a building, and a woman in torn clothes prone.
Then Trixie yelled and pointed. "AMBUSH!!!"
I followed her gaze and spotted two - no three - no four - four figures on roofs, two on either side, and heard the twang of plucked bowstrings right about the time I felt a pair of arrows thud into my chest. Dammmmmmmmmm! That hurt! Trixie had somehow avoided being hit as she moved more quickly than I thought even her possible of (OOC: the DC to see the ambush was a 28 - Laura rolled a 30 and probably saved Grezz's life, as a round of surprise attacks on top of the regular 1st round attack probably would have killed him. As it was he was down to 6 hits and we were in trouble, given that our healer was back at the inn and Firedrin was off not being admitted to the Academica and missing the fight) and her kazoo started to play an inspiring tune. I fled for cover from the archers, tossing a pit on top of the far building. One of my attackers disappeared with a yelp, followed by a squeal of pain, but as I ran I saw bravos rushing down the street toward me. Our 'victim' was up and heading this was as well. Not good.
Tofa rushed by me and went up a ladder. there was a bellow and seconds later the crunch of someone hitting the street HARD, followed by Tofa's triumphant shout. I felt the warm glow of Trixie's healing touch as she steadied me a bit, but at the cost of getting sliced herself. Two thugs and our lady fair skidded around the corner and she damn near punched me to unconsciousness. I made a special pit just for them, but only one fell in with a satisfying crunch. From around the corner I heard another howl of agony - turns out Londis had dropped himself from the roof onto another foe, crushing him. I fished out a serious healing potion and quaffed it as the bitch leaped away from the edge of the pit, and from the corner of my eye I saw the guy on the roof breifly appear at the edge before falling back in again. Bastards. I was getting pissed now. One of the guys, an ugly brute in studded leather, ran up to me and barely missed with a hacking strike. I made mystical passes as he jabbed with frustration, and my tattoos erupted with a green light as I reached out and just barely made contact with his swinging arm - but it was enough, pumping bolts of electricity into him. It raced all over his body, in and out of his mouth, it made his damn eyes explode. It was glorious. Seconds later there nothing left of him but a pile of ash and a melted shortsword. I spun and looked at the wide-eyed bitch who'd set us up and yelled (somewhat overdramatically), 'YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHO YOU'RE F****** WITH!!!!"
Londis yelled something at her as well and her head jerked in his direction - either what she saw or what he'd said spooked the hell out of her and she took off.
Trixie laughed. "Yeah. You wish, bitch." A giant ant popped into existence in her path and simply clobbered her. And, suddenly, it was over. We stood around panting for a minute, looking around. An extremely well-set up ambush, and we'd torn it to shreds in under a minute. Hell, even I was impressed.
Firendrin showed up a little while later. "Hey, they wouldn't let me in. But I saw a gargoyle!"
I nodded, still pumped up from the fight. "Yes, they're there to keep people out. People like you, who try to get in at night."
His response was to wander around healing us as the Guard arrived. And as that fun started, i noticed Trixie was glaring at me. "What?"
"I offered to heal you, Grezz."
"I . . . I didn't hear you. Firendrin didn't really ask, he just did it."
She looked, hell, she looked hurt. "But I offered. I offered to heal you."
I held up my hands. "Trix, I honestly didn't hear you. I'm sorry. Really."
She looked a little mollified, but by then we were surrounded by guards yelling at us. Firendrin tried to leave us there by saying he hadn't been there for the fight - true enough, but . . . - anyway, they made him come. Then there was the issue with Tofa, who flat out refused to take off Hidarga. The guard sergeant didn't lose his cool and didn't quite threaten, but suddenly a dozen or so men had her ringed and it was about to get ugly. She offered to be peace-knotted but thatw asn't enough, and I knew she was damn crazy enough to fly into one of her rages and try to take on the whole damn bunch of them, and it was going to get her killed.
. Think fast, Grezz. "Sergeant? if I might? Uhm she's from the north and they have this whole strange thing between them and their weapons. So, can I suggest you let her keep the peace-knotted sword but manacle her instead?"He opened his mouth to probably tell me to shut up, but paused, and Trixie jumped in and greatly improved on my desperate improvisation. "Oh, the stories I could tell you about Olfin and their weapons - they think the things are imbued with spirits of dead warriors - the manacles are nice compromise, no?"
By Shelyn's Luscious Lips, the girl was pure charm. Seconds later they clapped her in irons and off we went, back to the Arvensoar.
Not as nice a treatment this time, although the cells were clean and relatively safe - and anti-magicked. We were finally brought before the Commander of the Tower, Ismeir Odinburge, who listened to our tale with a calculating eye. One of his underlings started calling for us to be hanged, tortured, etc - and this turned out to be the 'friend' of Sheriff Hemlock, Drekk Detritus. I pointed out that if were were criminals of Sandport, why was there a play about us? Odinburge finally sent us back to nicer cells while he investigated further - i assume messengers were sent up the coast.
After a few hours we were brought back in and set free, which Firendrin almost managed to sabotage by deciding to play games with his familiar. I should also mention that the bloody chief Inquistor came in and pitched a bitch about us being sprung. Wonder what his agenda was? In the Scarnettis' pocket? Something against me, as he was a half-elf? Londis was busy drooling over the Hellknight that was with him. The would-be assassins were part of the Night Scales, the oldest thieving guild in town. I hadn't heard of them being murder for hire, but what did I know? As the morning broke we strode out, free again, with a whole list of things to do - visit the Academica, visit Foxglove's place, maybe do some shopping at the Bazaar of Sails . . . oh, and maybe find out who tried to kill us and which of us they were after in particular - I would think me, but Trixie, still irritated, uttered a cryptic 'It's not always about you, you jerk,' before stalking off.
Welcome home, indeed.
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jydog1
Explorer
Session #22 - January 18, 2011 - Mob Mentality
notes: crazy goings-on in Magnidaar as we managed to get ourselves in more and more trouble, as PCs are wont to do. We had a guest player (Tofa's player's sister) who fit in seamlessly and was a fun addition. The session ended on what could only be called a cliffhanger as the heroes of Sandport are going to have to do some quick thinking to avoid a grisly fate . . . dinner was a ravoli lasagna tossed together by laura and myself and a cosmic crapload of Italian pastries. Leave the d12, take the cannoli!
from the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:
We managed to catch a few hours of sleep back at the Smiling Dog before regrouping and stumbling over to the Academica Arcanica. Firendrin was still babbling about the gargoyles and once we were inside damn near lost his mind when he spotted one of the guardian golems. I believe he had a conversation with it - details are mercifully lost to the wind. He had some business with Eland Drosk, and Tofa some with Haradrum Mensk (about her sword Hidarga, which according to her is a weapon of legend. When I'd first examined the sword it seemed like a host of other abilities were present but not yet accessible by her - perhaps Mensk could provide her with some answers).
I went to see my former adviser Jandro Pelesh. his office had moved, and I playfully bowed and scraped as I entered. "Oh great and newly promoted Dean of Ancient Magic, will you spare but a moment for a lowly worm of a former student . . ."
He greeted me with his usual good nature! "Grezzalik! Not dead yet! And with even more tattoos! Splendid, splendid, do come in!" His spacious office was full of interesting things, including a cute tiefling who looked up from some scribing.
"Yes, yes, Cyrith, this is Grezzalik, now out and about making his mark in the world." I blushed as she rose and nodded. "Cyrith Jegere, very nice to meet you. I saw what you did in the dual against Zerlan Scarnetti."
Ugh. "Ah, that's like, faded and nobody talks about that anymore, right?"
She laughed. "Surprisingly enough, someone's head being blown to pieces is a tenacious subject."
I shook my head and, at Jandro's urging, brought him up to date with what's been happening, with emphasis on the Thassilonian parts. He was very interested in the Catacombs of Wrath and their connection to Runelord Alarzist, having been only lightly briefed by Broderick Quint. After a while the others joined us and I introduced them.
Then a bunch of colored lights went off in Jandro's face, but instead of being shocked or dazed he merely glanced at the for a second before peering over at Firendrin's familiar. He nodded , made a few finger wiggles and POOF - the familiar was gone. Firendrin almost leaped out of his skin.
"What did you do?"
Unperturbed Jandro replied, "You were infested with Chaos Worms, boy. Nasty things. It cast a spell at me."
"Well, she's very mischievous!"
"Wait!" I cocked an eye at the dwarf. "Has that thing been causing all the problems with the guard?"
Firendrin tried to look angry. "She was just having fun!" he turned to Jandro. "What did you do?"
He shrugged. "I dismissed it, back to where it belonged."
"But that's my familiar!"
"Really?" Jandro raised an eyebrow. "Here the familiars are usually much better behaved. I suppose I can bring it back if you wish."
"Yes! Yes! bring her back!"
"Very well." As he gestured Jandro shot a wink for Cyrith and myself, and the thing popped back on Firendrin's shoulder.
"Dean, can I ask a favor? I, uhm, spent some time with one of the Sisters of Fate, and I'm just curious if she left any sort of lingering effect on me."
THAT got me a curious look (and a snicker from Trixie) but Jandro wove a spell or two before saying, "Well, I say. It seems you have a wyrd, Grezzalik. There's something plucking at the strings of fate that trail from you - not sure in what way, but it definitely has a hand in your future."
"Wonderful," I muttered. "Medea wants to stick around, I see."
Trixie struggled to keep from cracking up. "Geez, Grezz, you can't even catch a social disease the right way."
----
From there we went to check out the Foxglove Estate. Jandro has suggested that Cyrith could use some field work and would be a boon for us as well, and nobody objected. We let ourselves in - having keys is a nice advantage - and after a bit ran into a blustering butler who insisted Foxglove and his wife were having lunch. He wanted to fetch him but we followed, led by Londis. Indeed Alderin was dining with what looked like Iesha and a maid. He jumped up and yelled in outrage, but that didn't stop Trixie from storming across the room and slapping him as hard as she could.
His face slid sideways and stayed that way. "Oh well, I guess there's no need for that anymore." As we watched all of them transformed into misshapen humanoids, the Alderin creating spikes from his fingers and mauling Trixie. I shouted and loosed a scorching ray at him but missed high and wide (OOC: the first of my many, many sub-5 rolls for the evening). Cyrith loosed a crossbow bolt as she screamed out what they were - faceless stalkers, shapeshifters. Things were dicey for a bit and I got clobbered by the butler-thing from behind before the battle tipped our way, greatly aided by the arms of Londis and Tofa and a summoned ant of Trixie's. We managed to keep the Alderin thing alive and with it secured Trixie gave it an icy smile. She'd gotten around the language barrier it was attempting to hide behind with a spell and it looked like we might get some good info out of it.
Then Firedrin walked over and stabbed it in the groin, also twisting the blade. killing it.
I stared at him. "What the hell are you doing? Why would you do that?"
He looked confused. "He needed to be dead."
"No, he needed to be interrogated! Heal him! Why would you do that?" I was stunned. Seriously, why would he do that?
Some muttering later the thing gasped back to life - perhaps overhealed as it shifted form and slipped the manacles. Tofa splashed it against a wall and we were done with shapeshifters. I left the room in disgust. Trixie told me later she asked Firendrin to cast Speak with Dead and he'd refused, saying it wouldn't do any good.
A search of the house turned up a mostly scavenged place except for a hidden cache we had the right key for. It gave us 200 platinum, the deeds to the undersea chateau known as Foxglove Manor and the place we were in now, and some legal papers drafted 60 years ago between Voros and the Brothers of the Seven, whoever they were. In another 20 years the estate would go over to them. interesting.
In addition we found a ledger listing transactions, including 200 gold a week for 'Iesha's trip to Absolom' that was paid each Oathday at midnight in a sawmill on an island just south of the main part of the city - the Sevens Sawmill to someone referred to as 'B7.' A lead!
In addition we remembered (OOC: with some GM prodding, but I did have it in my notes) that the cages in Foxglove Manor had a distinctive maker's mark - Rimer Founderson. trixie's cameo had one too, that of Minsk Madlevia. Worth checking out, so after we spent the night in OUR new townhouse we were off to the Bazaar of Sails.
Picture the largest market you've ever seen. Now make it ten times as big. That's about a tenth of the Bazaar. We made our way in and found the blacksmith fairly quickly. With Trixie running point we were able to get the name of the guy who'd commissioned them - Jellick Morves, who happened to own the . . . surprise, surprise . . . the Sevens Sawmill. There had been dead rats in those cages - rats would be a pretty damn effective way of spreading the damn phage. I made a mental note to got to the Arvensoar and ask if it had started showing up in the slums yet.
Meanwhile, outside the others were being entertained by a traveling troupe of musicians singing about - us. As we came outside an absolutely gorgeous woman who had been talking to Tofa addressed Trixie, who either didn't hear her or was ignoring her. She went on as the singer danced away from Firendrin's clumsy attempts to steal his lute and continued his song, which suddenly began to venture into things we hadn't done yet, and probably wouldn't do. Dark, gloomy, evil things. The gathered crowd started to mutter angrily, and as the slice of hotness next to us laughed they turned toward us with ugly intent in their eyes.
This didn't look good for the good guys . . .
notes: crazy goings-on in Magnidaar as we managed to get ourselves in more and more trouble, as PCs are wont to do. We had a guest player (Tofa's player's sister) who fit in seamlessly and was a fun addition. The session ended on what could only be called a cliffhanger as the heroes of Sandport are going to have to do some quick thinking to avoid a grisly fate . . . dinner was a ravoli lasagna tossed together by laura and myself and a cosmic crapload of Italian pastries. Leave the d12, take the cannoli!
from the journal of Grezzalik M'Rethen:
We managed to catch a few hours of sleep back at the Smiling Dog before regrouping and stumbling over to the Academica Arcanica. Firendrin was still babbling about the gargoyles and once we were inside damn near lost his mind when he spotted one of the guardian golems. I believe he had a conversation with it - details are mercifully lost to the wind. He had some business with Eland Drosk, and Tofa some with Haradrum Mensk (about her sword Hidarga, which according to her is a weapon of legend. When I'd first examined the sword it seemed like a host of other abilities were present but not yet accessible by her - perhaps Mensk could provide her with some answers).
I went to see my former adviser Jandro Pelesh. his office had moved, and I playfully bowed and scraped as I entered. "Oh great and newly promoted Dean of Ancient Magic, will you spare but a moment for a lowly worm of a former student . . ."
He greeted me with his usual good nature! "Grezzalik! Not dead yet! And with even more tattoos! Splendid, splendid, do come in!" His spacious office was full of interesting things, including a cute tiefling who looked up from some scribing.
"Yes, yes, Cyrith, this is Grezzalik, now out and about making his mark in the world." I blushed as she rose and nodded. "Cyrith Jegere, very nice to meet you. I saw what you did in the dual against Zerlan Scarnetti."
Ugh. "Ah, that's like, faded and nobody talks about that anymore, right?"
She laughed. "Surprisingly enough, someone's head being blown to pieces is a tenacious subject."
I shook my head and, at Jandro's urging, brought him up to date with what's been happening, with emphasis on the Thassilonian parts. He was very interested in the Catacombs of Wrath and their connection to Runelord Alarzist, having been only lightly briefed by Broderick Quint. After a while the others joined us and I introduced them.
Then a bunch of colored lights went off in Jandro's face, but instead of being shocked or dazed he merely glanced at the for a second before peering over at Firendrin's familiar. He nodded , made a few finger wiggles and POOF - the familiar was gone. Firendrin almost leaped out of his skin.
"What did you do?"
Unperturbed Jandro replied, "You were infested with Chaos Worms, boy. Nasty things. It cast a spell at me."
"Well, she's very mischievous!"
"Wait!" I cocked an eye at the dwarf. "Has that thing been causing all the problems with the guard?"
Firendrin tried to look angry. "She was just having fun!" he turned to Jandro. "What did you do?"
He shrugged. "I dismissed it, back to where it belonged."
"But that's my familiar!"
"Really?" Jandro raised an eyebrow. "Here the familiars are usually much better behaved. I suppose I can bring it back if you wish."
"Yes! Yes! bring her back!"
"Very well." As he gestured Jandro shot a wink for Cyrith and myself, and the thing popped back on Firendrin's shoulder.
"Dean, can I ask a favor? I, uhm, spent some time with one of the Sisters of Fate, and I'm just curious if she left any sort of lingering effect on me."
THAT got me a curious look (and a snicker from Trixie) but Jandro wove a spell or two before saying, "Well, I say. It seems you have a wyrd, Grezzalik. There's something plucking at the strings of fate that trail from you - not sure in what way, but it definitely has a hand in your future."
"Wonderful," I muttered. "Medea wants to stick around, I see."
Trixie struggled to keep from cracking up. "Geez, Grezz, you can't even catch a social disease the right way."
----
From there we went to check out the Foxglove Estate. Jandro has suggested that Cyrith could use some field work and would be a boon for us as well, and nobody objected. We let ourselves in - having keys is a nice advantage - and after a bit ran into a blustering butler who insisted Foxglove and his wife were having lunch. He wanted to fetch him but we followed, led by Londis. Indeed Alderin was dining with what looked like Iesha and a maid. He jumped up and yelled in outrage, but that didn't stop Trixie from storming across the room and slapping him as hard as she could.
His face slid sideways and stayed that way. "Oh well, I guess there's no need for that anymore." As we watched all of them transformed into misshapen humanoids, the Alderin creating spikes from his fingers and mauling Trixie. I shouted and loosed a scorching ray at him but missed high and wide (OOC: the first of my many, many sub-5 rolls for the evening). Cyrith loosed a crossbow bolt as she screamed out what they were - faceless stalkers, shapeshifters. Things were dicey for a bit and I got clobbered by the butler-thing from behind before the battle tipped our way, greatly aided by the arms of Londis and Tofa and a summoned ant of Trixie's. We managed to keep the Alderin thing alive and with it secured Trixie gave it an icy smile. She'd gotten around the language barrier it was attempting to hide behind with a spell and it looked like we might get some good info out of it.
Then Firedrin walked over and stabbed it in the groin, also twisting the blade. killing it.
I stared at him. "What the hell are you doing? Why would you do that?"
He looked confused. "He needed to be dead."
"No, he needed to be interrogated! Heal him! Why would you do that?" I was stunned. Seriously, why would he do that?
Some muttering later the thing gasped back to life - perhaps overhealed as it shifted form and slipped the manacles. Tofa splashed it against a wall and we were done with shapeshifters. I left the room in disgust. Trixie told me later she asked Firendrin to cast Speak with Dead and he'd refused, saying it wouldn't do any good.
A search of the house turned up a mostly scavenged place except for a hidden cache we had the right key for. It gave us 200 platinum, the deeds to the undersea chateau known as Foxglove Manor and the place we were in now, and some legal papers drafted 60 years ago between Voros and the Brothers of the Seven, whoever they were. In another 20 years the estate would go over to them. interesting.
In addition we found a ledger listing transactions, including 200 gold a week for 'Iesha's trip to Absolom' that was paid each Oathday at midnight in a sawmill on an island just south of the main part of the city - the Sevens Sawmill to someone referred to as 'B7.' A lead!
In addition we remembered (OOC: with some GM prodding, but I did have it in my notes) that the cages in Foxglove Manor had a distinctive maker's mark - Rimer Founderson. trixie's cameo had one too, that of Minsk Madlevia. Worth checking out, so after we spent the night in OUR new townhouse we were off to the Bazaar of Sails.
Picture the largest market you've ever seen. Now make it ten times as big. That's about a tenth of the Bazaar. We made our way in and found the blacksmith fairly quickly. With Trixie running point we were able to get the name of the guy who'd commissioned them - Jellick Morves, who happened to own the . . . surprise, surprise . . . the Sevens Sawmill. There had been dead rats in those cages - rats would be a pretty damn effective way of spreading the damn phage. I made a mental note to got to the Arvensoar and ask if it had started showing up in the slums yet.
Meanwhile, outside the others were being entertained by a traveling troupe of musicians singing about - us. As we came outside an absolutely gorgeous woman who had been talking to Tofa addressed Trixie, who either didn't hear her or was ignoring her. She went on as the singer danced away from Firendrin's clumsy attempts to steal his lute and continued his song, which suddenly began to venture into things we hadn't done yet, and probably wouldn't do. Dark, gloomy, evil things. The gathered crowd started to mutter angrily, and as the slice of hotness next to us laughed they turned toward us with ugly intent in their eyes.
This didn't look good for the good guys . . .
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jydog1
Explorer
Session #23 - January 31st, 2010 - Tell Me if You've Heard This One Before
Notes: as mentioned above, I had a long post essentially finished and my computer just shut down. So, here I am again! This was a very fun session that featured some wild ideas that seem brilliant now due to excellent rolling, but once again the group worked well together and at least now we know one of the groups after us. Dinner was sausage and peppers and dessert was a chocolate chip cookie pie. NOM. I apologize now for the length of this and the frequent interruptions for OOC comments.
From the Journal of Grezzalik M'rethen:
The mob before us continued to mutter and yell as they picked up things to throw and swing at us. Besides us the woman - at second glance not quite as stunning, but still cute - laughed and seem to meld with the shadows. I didn't know who she was but I doubt she had anything pleasant planned for us.
Speaking of dealing unpleasantness, Londis stepped forward to confront the crowd while casting a spell - I recognized it as Silence, and moments later the singer's song was abruptly cut off. The mob buzzed with confusion but only for a bit. The bard cast a spell of his own to negate it, and the tune recommenced. Dozens of unfriendly eyes swung back to us. Damn, I knew I should have learned Fireball.
That's a joke.
Instead I opted for crowd control, and a beautiful web spread almost the width of the square, catching just about all of them. I smiled, satisfied that I had averted a dangerous situation.
Well, then the people started freaking out. I really hadn't figured on that. Lum stepped forward and started reasoning with them. Meanwhile Tofa stepped up, drawing her bow, and said (OOC:This should be said in your head in the voice of Natasha Fatale), "I do not care for this music." The arrow she nocked had runes for acid etched int he head, and it flew from her in a straight line - right into the bard's lute, shattering it into a million pieces (OOC: okay, this was a called shot. Tofa's player announced her intent and while the GM was trying to figure out what was going to be needed to hit it - a 50'+ shot over a webbed mob at a small instrument - she rolled a natural 20 and made it all moot. I don't doubt for a second that the GM would have come up with a way for there to be a chance, because roleplaying/cinematic aspects/coolness trump hard rules, but again, a 20 makes decisions simple).
Th bard looked pretty put out but I give him credit, he managed to string a series of colorful cursing into the lyrics of his song. I heard Firendrin's not-owl make a not-owl noise behind me and Tofa, Firendrin, and Trixie took off in that direction, the latter climbing up a building via Shotsie. Cyrith gave me an apologetic shrug, said "I have to go report to the Dean," before blipping out of sight.
Londis tried the silent treatment again, and this time our foe moved outside the range to reestablish the song - then vanished. I was already heading in that direction and tossed a pit where I'd seen him last - and had no idea if I'd gotten him or not. I kept going, confident that Landis would cover my back, and caught a quick glimpse of the bard crawling out and scampering away from the square. Ducking behind a tent I tried to cut off his escape, but when I turned the corner I didn't see any sign of him. I did see, over the blacksmithy we'd been at, a huge cloud of scintillating colors. That couldn't be good. I moved back toward the square and I could hear someone chanting, but I couldn't tell precisely where he was. Good thing my Lightning Spray doesn't require precision (OOC: The air elemental sorcerer has the option of turning any elemental type of damage to lightning. I'm like Palpatine, bitches!).
There was a squawk of outrage and I saw a shifting form briefly outlined in the magic. i wasn't sure where he'd moved to and another spray clearly missed, but this time I heard him running away and could somewhat see his passage as he fled. I didn't feel safe chasing him alone while I couldn't see him, so I turned for Londis - who was nowhere in sight. And here came the guard.
To summarize - Trixie and I sweettalked the guard and extricated ourselves from that mess. Kina - that's the not-owl - had spotted the woman called Alastrina before she tagged it with a poisoned knife. Tofa followed her into an alley and used a sunrod to negate her ability to meld with shadows (OOC: what a great idea BTW). Trixie, from the roof, made her collapse with laughter by spelling the following joke: "Hey, how Many Dranns does it take to fall in a pit? Just one, you stupid cow!" After a bear trap and other odd stuff they put her to sleep and knocked her out, and Londis and Tofa took her back to the house under cover of invisibility.
When I got back there Londis had her restrained in the basement and had evidently gathered every bit of metal with an edge in all of Magnidaar and put them on a table in front of her. I didn't need to watch that, so instead I gathered her stuff and went upstairs to ID it (OOC: first 6 ID rolls - 18;18;20;19;20;18. That's nice, but in combat would have been better).
When they came back up I turned to Trixie and said, "They knew you. What are they trying to kill us?"
Tough as nails Trixie promptly burst into tears. Around several profuse apologies she explained it thusly: a while back she'd been recruited into the Exaulted Troupe, a traveling band of actors/bards that did some thievery on the side - although it was sometimes the other way around. She and Drannalew, the former lute owner, had become lovers but that was evidently just part of a plan to eventually set her up, as he was also with Alastrina. Trixie turned the tables on them and fled, not telling us about her past because she was too embarrassed. She's known they'd found her in Sandpoint as 'Strina sent her a letter that said they would discredit then kill all of us before destroying her mind.
When she finished there was an awkward silence before Londis walked over and said gravely, "I will never be able to trust you again." I guess my own hurt was written all over my face because Trixie looked at me before waving a hand dismissively.
As for 'Strina, she'd been terrified to say anything out of fear of Drannalew - then again, she's a professional liar, so who knows? - but the four of them, aided by some sort of ash trick by Firendrin, managed to break her. Today's attack was to taunt us and maybe get a couple of us hurt, and clearly had not gone as planned. They had members coming in from all over Varisia to help, which caused Trixie to swear. At least we'd know who to look for. They didn't know where we were living yet, and this was a matter of revenge and the belief that Trixie had some huge amount of money she'd stolen from them. Oh, and the new play opening up about us? Drannalew had his hands all over that. Probably not going to be too flattering.
I checked for blood. 'Okay, where is she?"
Tofa patted her Bag of Holding. "We keep her in here, hopefully I remember to open for air sometimes." She shrugged. "Maybe not."
Tough call, keeping her alive. I'm not one for slitting someone's throat but they weren't inciting that crowd to toss rose petals at our feet either.
We didn't have too much time to dwell on it or how Trixie's admission that she'd kept us in the dark while our lives were threatened was going to affect the group, since we needed to go check out the sawmill. 'Strina had said that they were NOT behind the previous night's attack, so we had an as-yet unidentified someone after us as well. Probably those scumbag Scarnettis. In any case, we headed off to take a look at Seven Borthers Sawmill.
-------
"I'm really not a fan of this plan."
"Oh Grezz, quit bitching." Trixie paused from applying makeup. "Don't be a baby."
"Baby! I'm just not sure me going in first is a great idea. I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't wear armor."
I definitely DID NOT like the plan. The sawmill was one of several on a island in a river, with said water providing power via 4 huge water wheels. Under the guise of Tofa being an agent for a shipbuilder we got a tour of the place, and it wasn't encouraging. The guys walking around had items that radiated necromancy (to be fair, so do I) and there was definitely a lot of blood mixed in with the sawdust comeing from the upper floor. That reeked of necromancy as well. Kina has spotted several caged ravens in the cupola, no doubt infected with phage.
So we'd shifted to a stakeout before our midnight meeting, with Tofa and Kina under the docks and the rest of us hidden in nearby bushes. Around 10 or so a barge snuck in with 6 guys and someone wrapped in a blanket, and Tofa overheard the name Nordebur. When Kina relayed that Trixie knew (of course) that he was an evil god for an old Chelxian cult of murderers. They favored weekly sacrifices and that's probably what old Foxy had been dropping off each week. They also referred to Father Skinsaw. Hurray. More straight razors.
Which brings us back to the plan. Disguised as Alderin - I even had his coat - I'd try to bluff my way in and . . . well, I don't know, but hopefully I wouldn't get killed right off the bat. Trixie finished touching me up and peered at me critically. "Not bad. might work."
"Would it help if I got on my back and you got on to -OWWWWW!"
So, I knocked on the door and a guy in an odd orange and black robe/hood combination opened up. "Yeah?"
"It's me. Foxglove. here for the weekly dropoff."
There was a moment's pause before he ushered me into the building. It was a 80'x60' building of three floors. This level was dominated by the massive waterwheels and all sorts of belts and machinery on the ceiling. As I stepped in the guy in front of me jerked his head at a guy off to the right and said, "Funny, but we killed Foxglove three weeks ago," before trying to slash my jugular with a straight war razor.
He didn't get it, but he came pretty damn close. His deep cut left me reeling, but as I'd hoped (prayed) the companions surged in behind me. A few moments later a grappling hook was dropped by Kina (OOC: oy, the debate on this one. I am in the camp that a creature the size of a beer can couldn't fly a grappling hook up a narrow space, but the other side talked the GM into it) on a railing as we battled 5 of these cultists. Tofa appeared briefly but had thrown a chain into the waterwheels, as they were powering a number of traps as well - including one that mangled Londis somewhat - and managed to destroy ALL of them. As they tore free and fell into the river she was trapped by the debris and went down with it. I sent an octopus to help her and Firedrin dove in as well. Soon afterward a greatly larger Tofa appeared and we listened to shouts from upstairs. knowing we weren't done yet.
more notes: ought to be interesting to see what we run into upstairs. Londis and Firendrin have to be pretty low on spells - we didn't have time to rest up from the earlier fight - but Trixie and Grezz are in pretty good shape and Tofa has like 18 rounds of berserk at her disposal. I managed to roll a 1 for a save against a Suggestion spell and was happily trotting into the trapped area before the prone Londis was able to grab and stop me. Who says having a low CMD bonus is always a bad thing?
7th level not too far off. Expanded Arcana again or Intensify Spell? Sigh.
Notes: as mentioned above, I had a long post essentially finished and my computer just shut down. So, here I am again! This was a very fun session that featured some wild ideas that seem brilliant now due to excellent rolling, but once again the group worked well together and at least now we know one of the groups after us. Dinner was sausage and peppers and dessert was a chocolate chip cookie pie. NOM. I apologize now for the length of this and the frequent interruptions for OOC comments.
From the Journal of Grezzalik M'rethen:
The mob before us continued to mutter and yell as they picked up things to throw and swing at us. Besides us the woman - at second glance not quite as stunning, but still cute - laughed and seem to meld with the shadows. I didn't know who she was but I doubt she had anything pleasant planned for us.
Speaking of dealing unpleasantness, Londis stepped forward to confront the crowd while casting a spell - I recognized it as Silence, and moments later the singer's song was abruptly cut off. The mob buzzed with confusion but only for a bit. The bard cast a spell of his own to negate it, and the tune recommenced. Dozens of unfriendly eyes swung back to us. Damn, I knew I should have learned Fireball.
That's a joke.
Instead I opted for crowd control, and a beautiful web spread almost the width of the square, catching just about all of them. I smiled, satisfied that I had averted a dangerous situation.
Well, then the people started freaking out. I really hadn't figured on that. Lum stepped forward and started reasoning with them. Meanwhile Tofa stepped up, drawing her bow, and said (OOC:This should be said in your head in the voice of Natasha Fatale), "I do not care for this music." The arrow she nocked had runes for acid etched int he head, and it flew from her in a straight line - right into the bard's lute, shattering it into a million pieces (OOC: okay, this was a called shot. Tofa's player announced her intent and while the GM was trying to figure out what was going to be needed to hit it - a 50'+ shot over a webbed mob at a small instrument - she rolled a natural 20 and made it all moot. I don't doubt for a second that the GM would have come up with a way for there to be a chance, because roleplaying/cinematic aspects/coolness trump hard rules, but again, a 20 makes decisions simple).
Th bard looked pretty put out but I give him credit, he managed to string a series of colorful cursing into the lyrics of his song. I heard Firendrin's not-owl make a not-owl noise behind me and Tofa, Firendrin, and Trixie took off in that direction, the latter climbing up a building via Shotsie. Cyrith gave me an apologetic shrug, said "I have to go report to the Dean," before blipping out of sight.
Londis tried the silent treatment again, and this time our foe moved outside the range to reestablish the song - then vanished. I was already heading in that direction and tossed a pit where I'd seen him last - and had no idea if I'd gotten him or not. I kept going, confident that Landis would cover my back, and caught a quick glimpse of the bard crawling out and scampering away from the square. Ducking behind a tent I tried to cut off his escape, but when I turned the corner I didn't see any sign of him. I did see, over the blacksmithy we'd been at, a huge cloud of scintillating colors. That couldn't be good. I moved back toward the square and I could hear someone chanting, but I couldn't tell precisely where he was. Good thing my Lightning Spray doesn't require precision (OOC: The air elemental sorcerer has the option of turning any elemental type of damage to lightning. I'm like Palpatine, bitches!).
There was a squawk of outrage and I saw a shifting form briefly outlined in the magic. i wasn't sure where he'd moved to and another spray clearly missed, but this time I heard him running away and could somewhat see his passage as he fled. I didn't feel safe chasing him alone while I couldn't see him, so I turned for Londis - who was nowhere in sight. And here came the guard.
To summarize - Trixie and I sweettalked the guard and extricated ourselves from that mess. Kina - that's the not-owl - had spotted the woman called Alastrina before she tagged it with a poisoned knife. Tofa followed her into an alley and used a sunrod to negate her ability to meld with shadows (OOC: what a great idea BTW). Trixie, from the roof, made her collapse with laughter by spelling the following joke: "Hey, how Many Dranns does it take to fall in a pit? Just one, you stupid cow!" After a bear trap and other odd stuff they put her to sleep and knocked her out, and Londis and Tofa took her back to the house under cover of invisibility.
When I got back there Londis had her restrained in the basement and had evidently gathered every bit of metal with an edge in all of Magnidaar and put them on a table in front of her. I didn't need to watch that, so instead I gathered her stuff and went upstairs to ID it (OOC: first 6 ID rolls - 18;18;20;19;20;18. That's nice, but in combat would have been better).
When they came back up I turned to Trixie and said, "They knew you. What are they trying to kill us?"
Tough as nails Trixie promptly burst into tears. Around several profuse apologies she explained it thusly: a while back she'd been recruited into the Exaulted Troupe, a traveling band of actors/bards that did some thievery on the side - although it was sometimes the other way around. She and Drannalew, the former lute owner, had become lovers but that was evidently just part of a plan to eventually set her up, as he was also with Alastrina. Trixie turned the tables on them and fled, not telling us about her past because she was too embarrassed. She's known they'd found her in Sandpoint as 'Strina sent her a letter that said they would discredit then kill all of us before destroying her mind.
When she finished there was an awkward silence before Londis walked over and said gravely, "I will never be able to trust you again." I guess my own hurt was written all over my face because Trixie looked at me before waving a hand dismissively.
As for 'Strina, she'd been terrified to say anything out of fear of Drannalew - then again, she's a professional liar, so who knows? - but the four of them, aided by some sort of ash trick by Firendrin, managed to break her. Today's attack was to taunt us and maybe get a couple of us hurt, and clearly had not gone as planned. They had members coming in from all over Varisia to help, which caused Trixie to swear. At least we'd know who to look for. They didn't know where we were living yet, and this was a matter of revenge and the belief that Trixie had some huge amount of money she'd stolen from them. Oh, and the new play opening up about us? Drannalew had his hands all over that. Probably not going to be too flattering.
I checked for blood. 'Okay, where is she?"
Tofa patted her Bag of Holding. "We keep her in here, hopefully I remember to open for air sometimes." She shrugged. "Maybe not."
Tough call, keeping her alive. I'm not one for slitting someone's throat but they weren't inciting that crowd to toss rose petals at our feet either.
We didn't have too much time to dwell on it or how Trixie's admission that she'd kept us in the dark while our lives were threatened was going to affect the group, since we needed to go check out the sawmill. 'Strina had said that they were NOT behind the previous night's attack, so we had an as-yet unidentified someone after us as well. Probably those scumbag Scarnettis. In any case, we headed off to take a look at Seven Borthers Sawmill.
-------
"I'm really not a fan of this plan."
"Oh Grezz, quit bitching." Trixie paused from applying makeup. "Don't be a baby."
"Baby! I'm just not sure me going in first is a great idea. I don't know if you've noticed, but I don't wear armor."
I definitely DID NOT like the plan. The sawmill was one of several on a island in a river, with said water providing power via 4 huge water wheels. Under the guise of Tofa being an agent for a shipbuilder we got a tour of the place, and it wasn't encouraging. The guys walking around had items that radiated necromancy (to be fair, so do I) and there was definitely a lot of blood mixed in with the sawdust comeing from the upper floor. That reeked of necromancy as well. Kina has spotted several caged ravens in the cupola, no doubt infected with phage.
So we'd shifted to a stakeout before our midnight meeting, with Tofa and Kina under the docks and the rest of us hidden in nearby bushes. Around 10 or so a barge snuck in with 6 guys and someone wrapped in a blanket, and Tofa overheard the name Nordebur. When Kina relayed that Trixie knew (of course) that he was an evil god for an old Chelxian cult of murderers. They favored weekly sacrifices and that's probably what old Foxy had been dropping off each week. They also referred to Father Skinsaw. Hurray. More straight razors.
Which brings us back to the plan. Disguised as Alderin - I even had his coat - I'd try to bluff my way in and . . . well, I don't know, but hopefully I wouldn't get killed right off the bat. Trixie finished touching me up and peered at me critically. "Not bad. might work."
"Would it help if I got on my back and you got on to -OWWWWW!"
So, I knocked on the door and a guy in an odd orange and black robe/hood combination opened up. "Yeah?"
"It's me. Foxglove. here for the weekly dropoff."
There was a moment's pause before he ushered me into the building. It was a 80'x60' building of three floors. This level was dominated by the massive waterwheels and all sorts of belts and machinery on the ceiling. As I stepped in the guy in front of me jerked his head at a guy off to the right and said, "Funny, but we killed Foxglove three weeks ago," before trying to slash my jugular with a straight war razor.
He didn't get it, but he came pretty damn close. His deep cut left me reeling, but as I'd hoped (prayed) the companions surged in behind me. A few moments later a grappling hook was dropped by Kina (OOC: oy, the debate on this one. I am in the camp that a creature the size of a beer can couldn't fly a grappling hook up a narrow space, but the other side talked the GM into it) on a railing as we battled 5 of these cultists. Tofa appeared briefly but had thrown a chain into the waterwheels, as they were powering a number of traps as well - including one that mangled Londis somewhat - and managed to destroy ALL of them. As they tore free and fell into the river she was trapped by the debris and went down with it. I sent an octopus to help her and Firedrin dove in as well. Soon afterward a greatly larger Tofa appeared and we listened to shouts from upstairs. knowing we weren't done yet.
more notes: ought to be interesting to see what we run into upstairs. Londis and Firendrin have to be pretty low on spells - we didn't have time to rest up from the earlier fight - but Trixie and Grezz are in pretty good shape and Tofa has like 18 rounds of berserk at her disposal. I managed to roll a 1 for a save against a Suggestion spell and was happily trotting into the trapped area before the prone Londis was able to grab and stop me. Who says having a low CMD bonus is always a bad thing?
7th level not too far off. Expanded Arcana again or Intensify Spell? Sigh.
jydog1
Explorer
Session #24 - February 7, 2011 - And Justice for All
notes: Wooo! This one might have to be broken up into a pair of posts because a whole lotta stuff went on last night, including us apparently finishing up a story arc (and having us being a little surprised at how big a deal we were, or appear to be anyway). The neutral characters are really pushing at the limits of how much the good characters can allow them to get away with (and also making me try to see just how far I can stretch the ideals of my neutral good sorcerer, who isn't exactly well-disposed towards those who try to kill him).
Great meld of the Runelords mods and our own personal stuff - we had a genuine 'Holy CRAP!' moment at an unmasking of a bad guy, quickly followed by a 'Holy CRAP we're in trouble moment.' I would also like to take a moment to thank the players of Piratecat's Defenders campaign, as I remembered a tactic they used once and adapted it for us last night, making me look very clever indeed.
And how did I miss Eagle's Splendor all these levels? Yeeesh!
From the journal of Grezzalik M'rethen:
A quick breath, a few muttered spells, and up the stairs we went.
Not a great plan. You know, someone had mentioned maybe summoning something to send up the stairs first, but somehow we forgot. For that failing we received a fireball in our faces as we reached the next floor. I managed to avoid the worst of it, but not for the first time I noted that perhaps having my elemental ties to fire instead of air and lightning might have been better for me. Lum was able to heal us up with waves of positive energy.
We charged into a large room filled with stacks of lumber, crates, barrels, and angry masked cultists. As evidenced by the fireball, some practitioners of magic as well. I spotted a few of them and tossed a Web to keep them busy, unfortunately snaring only a pair. The rest of the party spread out and the combat became the usual chaotic mess. One of our foes had an especially freaky mask and sounded disturbingly like Londis. He began laying about with a flaming mace, landing solid blows on both the inquisitor and Tofa. He managed to avoid my pit by grabbing one of his allies as he fell and using him for leverage to throw himself clear. His buddy was rewarded by being allowed to splat messily at the bottom.
Their caster popped out again and grooved another fireball. Trixie, while kazooing away, sent a celestial ant after the warrior but it was unable to touch him at all. I had more success with a non-blessed one that managed to bite the wizard and hang on. He let out a blue streak of curses he didn't learn at the Academica Arcanica.
Londis and Tofa were both bloodied and battered but finally managed to take down the big guy. The caster saw which way the wind was blowing and, breaking free of the ant, threw himself down the blade shaft - the saws had been stilled by Tofa's destruction of the water wheels. I raced back down the stairs and shot a lightning ray at him as he feather-fell down, but missed. Firedrin came floating down after him and also missed with his maul. Seconds later I heard Londis yell 'GREZZ!' and so was ready to Feather Fall him as he dropped down the shaft.
Londis didn't miss.
Things were swimming along just fine as we looted the place, finding all sorts of stuff including books and a journal and the fact that the entire upper floor was pretty much a gruesome shrine to their crazy god of murder - and also the hastily slain sacrifice victim, alas.
Then we unmasked the big warrior. Balls. It was Chief Justice Ironbriar, the guy so keen to keep us locked up . . . was that really just last night? Wonderful.
"We'd better make sure we make this body unrecognizable," I said.
Firendrin hefted his maul. "Leave that to me."
In the belfry we found several caged ravens, apparently phage free. We let one go and had Firedrin's not-owl track it as we set about to pouring copious amounts of oil on Ironbriar's body and the mill in general. We slipped out with our loot and, once across the river, I tossed a simple Spark cantrip and we got outta there.
Back at the townhouse we found a note from Trixie's buddy Drannalew - in essence it said he wanted his girlfriend back, and if we gave her to him he'd forget we ever existed. if we didn't he vowed to kill all of us and to find our families and kill them too. He has some issues, that Drannalew. Trixie adamantly insisted that his word wasn't worth salt to a sea turtle, and i was willing to believe her. So we headed in to rest and recuperate - and to do the things we're good at. For me that meant identifying what we'd found, which included some potions, a healing wand, more of those creepy masks and razors, and lots of books. Trixie went to work on a journal we'd found that was written in a mixture of Elven (which we both could read), Abyssal (which she can somehow read), and draconic, which she used a spell for. It had a difficult cypher - which Trixie figured out in a matter of hours - and proved to be a detailed accounting of all the crazy evil Ironbriar had been up to. The half-elf had fallen in love with someone called Wanton of Nature's Pagan Form. That's one hell of a name. In essence, by Trixie decoding this she'd given us a chance to save our asses, if the law somehow figured out we had a hand in. Would that really happen?
In the morning Tofa went to put some food and water in the bag of holding for Alastrina - and the bitch was gone. Oh, terrific. I'm sure she won't resent Firedrin having lamed her at ALL. Cursing our mistake, we tried to figure out what to do next. Kina the not-owl had come back and related to Firendrin that the raven had flown to a huge tower in the Shadow, beneath the Irespan. Some of us wanted to head there right away, while myself and some others thought going to the Pathfinder Society first might be a better idea. I couldn't shake the feeling getting in that organization would be nothing but a good thing for us, and while some didn't quite understand my zeal they agreed to go there first.
Lord Hidemarch was happy to receive us and listened politely as we nibbled around the edges of Ironbriar's reputation and tossed out names for him to react to. He didn't seem completely resistant to the concept of Ironbriar being corrupt and seemed fascinated by the Skinsaw masks, so I took a chance and told him that Ironbriar had been the leader of a cult of murderers and that we'd killed him, adding in the rest of the story.
He sighed. "So, you'll have about 48 hours or so before they've identified his body unless you really destroyed it, and then their scrying spells will find you. Then what?"
"Well, we have this journal of his that pretty much says everything."
He looked at it. "Elven . . . is that draconic?"
Trixie nodded as she cleaned her nails. "I needed a spell for that, but the Elven and Abyssal I already knew."
"Okay," he said, nonplussed. "And the cypher seems pretty complex."
"Oh, it totally was. Took me three hours, what a pain in the ass."
He just looked at her. "It took you three hours to break a cypher based in three languages, one of them being abyssal?"
"Well, yes, but I did stop to have a snack."
He handed back the volume and looked at us. "I'm not really sure you understand what you've done. This cult has been operating for years, with most of the murders being hushed up, and you just came in and cracked it in a matter of days, exposing one of the justices as a ringleader. Going to the authorities would be in your best interests, but if you know where the trail ends I strongly suggest you finish this before whatever is there spooks and runs." He drummed his fingers together for a moment before chuckling. "So, you've unearthed several previously undiscovered Thasselonian ruins; you've thwarted a goblin invasion; you freed polymorphed sailors just because it was the right thing to do; and you've stopped a ghoul infestation and destroyed a wight, just to name a few things." He laughed again. "If you can finish this thing by yourselves, I would feel most compelled to send you to Absolom and nominate you all for membership in the Pathfinder Society, waiving the usual three year wait."
Outstanding. All those books on Thasselonia, all the resources of the Society, plus the prestige . . . not bad for breedo tossed out of his House not too long ago. Plus the info they'd have on possibly getting into (and out of) the Fellnight.
Trixie and Londis both protested. "Oh, sure, we do the work. What's in it for us?" he said.
Hidemarch looked surprised and started listing things. "The libraries, the status, the vast wealth and magical items, the safehouses . . ."
"Oh, THOSE things," Londis said with a gleam in his eyes, and Trixie concurred. "Safehouses are nice."
So, off we went to the bad part of town. Several groups of street thugs gave us the once over, but no doubt the grim visage of Londis and the challenging glares from Tofa were enough for them to seek easier prey. Soon we found ourselves at the base of an old clocktower that stretched almost 200 feet up. There was a single door at the base, and the others started discussing how we wanted to go in. I looked at the tower again and dug in my pack.
"Hey?" They stopped and looked at me. " So, we have a couple of Fly potions and a Spider Climb scroll, plus Trixie can ride Shotsie. How about we go in from the top instead of though the no doubt heavily trapped and heavily guarded front door?"
There were a few moments of silence. Then Trixie said, "By Calistria's nipples, Grezz, maybe you really aren't as dumb as I thought you were. Or maybe you're just getting smarter from being around me."
Indeed.
Up we went - Firendrin under his own fly hex; myself, Tofa and Lum via Fly potions; Londis via Spider Climb and Trixie on her gecko. We arrived at the top to find a flat roof with a statue of an angel so weathered it was difficult to tell whether she was the benevolent or avenging kind. We also found Wanton of Nature's Pagan Form, who seemed somewhat surprised to see us, whatever the hell she was (OOC: she was a lamia matriarch, i believe, but either beefed up or extremely buffed by spells. 185 hits, i believe, and a very high AC and Dex). She vanished from sight - damn, but I'm getting sick of invisibility spells! Firedrin cast something so he could see her and tied to point her out, but it wasn't until he tried a Burning Hands on her that I could sort of make out where she was, and I tossed a Dispel Magic at her.
Poof, she popped back into sight - all 6 of her. Tofa slashed one away, clearly a decoy, and I zoomed in - flying is fun and feels very natural - and cut loose with a Lightning Spray of my own. The others all rippled and were gone, and the thing glared at me through a strange mask that suddenly glowed green. I felt disoriented for a second and my muscles began to lock up, my breath suddenly hard to draw - and just like that, the sensation was gone (OOC: via the masks he attempted to petrify me at a DC of 15 - and I rolled a 1 for my save. Why am I not a statue broken into a zillion pieces on the pavement below? LUCKY HALFLING. Laura/Trixie makes another saving throw for me using her insane save bonuses, and it was still close thing - I made it on the nose thanks to Prayer). She was elusive, popping around with dimensional spells and toting a spear of frightening power. We sent droves of summoned eagles after her that died feathery deaths, and Firendrin summoned some horror that briefly restrained her. In the end it was Tofa and Londis who did most of the damage, with her ravens blinding the thing and both of them made massive by spells from Luma nd the dwarf (OOC:with Enlarge, Bull's Strength, Trixie's Inspire and Heroism, Tofa was at +20 to attacks before adding flanking. Can't argue with that!). In the end she died shrieking and I feather falled her body - not out of kindness, but so her things wouldn't get broken! Her other minions - including a flesh golem - fled at her demise. Indeed the interior would have been a difficult path upward indeed.
Not long after, with Hidemarch's assistance, we found ourselves in front of a requested audience with the Lord Mayor, who was most appreciative of our actions. Tofa, ever mindful of her image, asked for the play about us to be quashed. As we still st before him thoughts of action against Drannalew are on the tip of my tongue, in addition to having us be given the Foxglove townhouse legally - can we go so far as to have Drann eliminated, or just banished? I couldn't really askf or someone to be killed, right? Right?
Notes: the lamia's loot is awe-inspiring, including a snakeskin shirt that gives a +2 to dex - my scorching rays will love that, and the spear isn't too shabby either. the lamia was a very tough fight but she got in trouble being grappled and blinded - it took away her combat reflexes and negated a nasty, nasty crit on a charging Londis. With the cleric healing us we're a very tough group indeed, although the attack bonuses the monsters need to tote around to hit Londis and Tofa pretty much make me an autohit, something to consider for getting intensify spell to make that shocking grasp more powerful - I still have to get into range. Decisions, decisions.
next, off to Shalue and Belden's wedding. (Trixie: What should we get as a gift? Grezz: You don't think saving him from becoming a ghoul is enough?
)
notes: Wooo! This one might have to be broken up into a pair of posts because a whole lotta stuff went on last night, including us apparently finishing up a story arc (and having us being a little surprised at how big a deal we were, or appear to be anyway). The neutral characters are really pushing at the limits of how much the good characters can allow them to get away with (and also making me try to see just how far I can stretch the ideals of my neutral good sorcerer, who isn't exactly well-disposed towards those who try to kill him).
Great meld of the Runelords mods and our own personal stuff - we had a genuine 'Holy CRAP!' moment at an unmasking of a bad guy, quickly followed by a 'Holy CRAP we're in trouble moment.' I would also like to take a moment to thank the players of Piratecat's Defenders campaign, as I remembered a tactic they used once and adapted it for us last night, making me look very clever indeed.
And how did I miss Eagle's Splendor all these levels? Yeeesh!
From the journal of Grezzalik M'rethen:
A quick breath, a few muttered spells, and up the stairs we went.
Not a great plan. You know, someone had mentioned maybe summoning something to send up the stairs first, but somehow we forgot. For that failing we received a fireball in our faces as we reached the next floor. I managed to avoid the worst of it, but not for the first time I noted that perhaps having my elemental ties to fire instead of air and lightning might have been better for me. Lum was able to heal us up with waves of positive energy.
We charged into a large room filled with stacks of lumber, crates, barrels, and angry masked cultists. As evidenced by the fireball, some practitioners of magic as well. I spotted a few of them and tossed a Web to keep them busy, unfortunately snaring only a pair. The rest of the party spread out and the combat became the usual chaotic mess. One of our foes had an especially freaky mask and sounded disturbingly like Londis. He began laying about with a flaming mace, landing solid blows on both the inquisitor and Tofa. He managed to avoid my pit by grabbing one of his allies as he fell and using him for leverage to throw himself clear. His buddy was rewarded by being allowed to splat messily at the bottom.
Their caster popped out again and grooved another fireball. Trixie, while kazooing away, sent a celestial ant after the warrior but it was unable to touch him at all. I had more success with a non-blessed one that managed to bite the wizard and hang on. He let out a blue streak of curses he didn't learn at the Academica Arcanica.
Londis and Tofa were both bloodied and battered but finally managed to take down the big guy. The caster saw which way the wind was blowing and, breaking free of the ant, threw himself down the blade shaft - the saws had been stilled by Tofa's destruction of the water wheels. I raced back down the stairs and shot a lightning ray at him as he feather-fell down, but missed. Firedrin came floating down after him and also missed with his maul. Seconds later I heard Londis yell 'GREZZ!' and so was ready to Feather Fall him as he dropped down the shaft.
Londis didn't miss.
Things were swimming along just fine as we looted the place, finding all sorts of stuff including books and a journal and the fact that the entire upper floor was pretty much a gruesome shrine to their crazy god of murder - and also the hastily slain sacrifice victim, alas.
Then we unmasked the big warrior. Balls. It was Chief Justice Ironbriar, the guy so keen to keep us locked up . . . was that really just last night? Wonderful.
"We'd better make sure we make this body unrecognizable," I said.
Firendrin hefted his maul. "Leave that to me."
In the belfry we found several caged ravens, apparently phage free. We let one go and had Firedrin's not-owl track it as we set about to pouring copious amounts of oil on Ironbriar's body and the mill in general. We slipped out with our loot and, once across the river, I tossed a simple Spark cantrip and we got outta there.
Back at the townhouse we found a note from Trixie's buddy Drannalew - in essence it said he wanted his girlfriend back, and if we gave her to him he'd forget we ever existed. if we didn't he vowed to kill all of us and to find our families and kill them too. He has some issues, that Drannalew. Trixie adamantly insisted that his word wasn't worth salt to a sea turtle, and i was willing to believe her. So we headed in to rest and recuperate - and to do the things we're good at. For me that meant identifying what we'd found, which included some potions, a healing wand, more of those creepy masks and razors, and lots of books. Trixie went to work on a journal we'd found that was written in a mixture of Elven (which we both could read), Abyssal (which she can somehow read), and draconic, which she used a spell for. It had a difficult cypher - which Trixie figured out in a matter of hours - and proved to be a detailed accounting of all the crazy evil
Ironbriar had been up to. The half-elf had fallen in love with someone called Wanton of Nature's Pagan Form. That's one hell of a name. In essence, by Trixie decoding this she'd given us a chance to save our asses, if the law somehow figured out we had a hand in. Would that really happen?In the morning Tofa went to put some food and water in the bag of holding for Alastrina - and the bitch was gone. Oh, terrific. I'm sure she won't resent Firedrin having lamed her at ALL. Cursing our mistake, we tried to figure out what to do next. Kina the not-owl had come back and related to Firendrin that the raven had flown to a huge tower in the Shadow, beneath the Irespan. Some of us wanted to head there right away, while myself and some others thought going to the Pathfinder Society first might be a better idea. I couldn't shake the feeling getting in that organization would be nothing but a good thing for us, and while some didn't quite understand my zeal they agreed to go there first.
Lord Hidemarch was happy to receive us and listened politely as we nibbled around the edges of Ironbriar's reputation and tossed out names for him to react to. He didn't seem completely resistant to the concept of Ironbriar being corrupt and seemed fascinated by the Skinsaw masks, so I took a chance and told him that Ironbriar had been the leader of a cult of murderers and that we'd killed him, adding in the rest of the story.
He sighed. "So, you'll have about 48 hours or so before they've identified his body unless you really destroyed it, and then their scrying spells will find you. Then what?"
"Well, we have this journal of his that pretty much says everything."
He looked at it. "Elven . . . is that draconic?"
Trixie nodded as she cleaned her nails. "I needed a spell for that, but the Elven and Abyssal I already knew."
"Okay," he said, nonplussed. "And the cypher seems pretty complex."
"Oh, it totally was. Took me three hours, what a pain in the ass."
He just looked at her. "It took you three hours to break a cypher based in three languages, one of them being abyssal?"
"Well, yes, but I did stop to have a snack."
He handed back the volume and looked at us. "I'm not really sure you understand what you've done. This cult has been operating for years, with most of the murders being hushed up, and you just came in and cracked it in a matter of days, exposing one of the justices as a ringleader. Going to the authorities would be in your best interests, but if you know where the trail ends I strongly suggest you finish this before whatever is there spooks and runs." He drummed his fingers together for a moment before chuckling. "So, you've unearthed several previously undiscovered Thasselonian ruins; you've thwarted a goblin invasion; you freed polymorphed sailors just because it was the right thing to do; and you've stopped a ghoul infestation and destroyed a wight, just to name a few things." He laughed again. "If you can finish this thing by yourselves, I would feel most compelled to send you to Absolom and nominate you all for membership in the Pathfinder Society, waiving the usual three year wait."
Outstanding. All those books on Thasselonia, all the resources of the Society, plus the prestige . . . not bad for breedo tossed out of his House not too long ago. Plus the info they'd have on possibly getting into (and out of) the Fellnight.
Trixie and Londis both protested. "Oh, sure, we do the work. What's in it for us?" he said.
Hidemarch looked surprised and started listing things. "The libraries, the status, the vast wealth and magical items, the safehouses . . ."
"Oh, THOSE things," Londis said with a gleam in his eyes, and Trixie concurred. "Safehouses are nice."
So, off we went to the bad part of town. Several groups of street thugs gave us the once over, but no doubt the grim visage of Londis and the challenging glares from Tofa were enough for them to seek easier prey. Soon we found ourselves at the base of an old clocktower that stretched almost 200 feet up. There was a single door at the base, and the others started discussing how we wanted to go in. I looked at the tower again and dug in my pack.
"Hey?" They stopped and looked at me. " So, we have a couple of Fly potions and a Spider Climb scroll, plus Trixie can ride Shotsie. How about we go in from the top instead of though the no doubt heavily trapped and heavily guarded front door?"
There were a few moments of silence. Then Trixie said, "By Calistria's nipples, Grezz, maybe you really aren't as dumb as I thought you were. Or maybe you're just getting smarter from being around me."
Indeed.
Up we went - Firendrin under his own fly hex; myself, Tofa and Lum via Fly potions; Londis via Spider Climb and Trixie on her gecko. We arrived at the top to find a flat roof with a statue of an angel so weathered it was difficult to tell whether she was the benevolent or avenging kind. We also found Wanton of Nature's Pagan Form, who seemed somewhat surprised to see us, whatever the hell she was (OOC: she was a lamia matriarch, i believe, but either beefed up or extremely buffed by spells. 185 hits, i believe, and a very high AC and Dex). She vanished from sight - damn, but I'm getting sick of invisibility spells! Firedrin cast something so he could see her and tied to point her out, but it wasn't until he tried a Burning Hands on her that I could sort of make out where she was, and I tossed a Dispel Magic at her.
Poof, she popped back into sight - all 6 of her. Tofa slashed one away, clearly a decoy, and I zoomed in - flying is fun and feels very natural - and cut loose with a Lightning Spray of my own. The others all rippled and were gone, and the thing glared at me through a strange mask that suddenly glowed green. I felt disoriented for a second and my muscles began to lock up, my breath suddenly hard to draw - and just like that, the sensation was gone (OOC: via the masks he attempted to petrify me at a DC of 15 - and I rolled a 1 for my save. Why am I not a statue broken into a zillion pieces on the pavement below? LUCKY HALFLING. Laura/Trixie makes another saving throw for me using her insane save bonuses, and it was still close thing - I made it on the nose thanks to Prayer). She was elusive, popping around with dimensional spells and toting a spear of frightening power. We sent droves of summoned eagles after her that died feathery deaths, and Firendrin summoned some horror that briefly restrained her. In the end it was Tofa and Londis who did most of the damage, with her ravens blinding the thing and both of them made massive by spells from Luma nd the dwarf (OOC:with Enlarge, Bull's Strength, Trixie's Inspire and Heroism, Tofa was at +20 to attacks before adding flanking. Can't argue with that!). In the end she died shrieking and I feather falled her body - not out of kindness, but so her things wouldn't get broken! Her other minions - including a flesh golem - fled at her demise. Indeed the interior would have been a difficult path upward indeed.
Not long after, with Hidemarch's assistance, we found ourselves in front of a requested audience with the Lord Mayor, who was most appreciative of our actions. Tofa, ever mindful of her image, asked for the play about us to be quashed. As we still st before him thoughts of action against Drannalew are on the tip of my tongue, in addition to having us be given the Foxglove townhouse legally - can we go so far as to have Drann eliminated, or just banished? I couldn't really askf or someone to be killed, right? Right?
Notes: the lamia's loot is awe-inspiring, including a snakeskin shirt that gives a +2 to dex - my scorching rays will love that, and the spear isn't too shabby either. the lamia was a very tough fight but she got in trouble being grappled and blinded - it took away her combat reflexes and negated a nasty, nasty crit on a charging Londis. With the cleric healing us we're a very tough group indeed, although the attack bonuses the monsters need to tote around to hit Londis and Tofa pretty much make me an autohit, something to consider for getting intensify spell to make that shocking grasp more powerful - I still have to get into range. Decisions, decisions.
next, off to Shalue and Belden's wedding. (Trixie: What should we get as a gift? Grezz: You don't think saving him from becoming a ghoul is enough?
)
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