The young woman had a faraway look in her intense blue eyes as she told the heroes that she had seen them pursued by Ragesian inquisitors in a dream. She then snapped out of it, blushed, and apologized, explaining that she sometimes has visions that come to her. She introduced herself as Crystin and asked the heroes to take her father and her with them as she saw it was a place of safety. She brought the heroes into her house to meet her father.
Haddin was a cold, calculating man with a disregard for the lives and well-being of others. When Dro'Marri heard Haddin's name, he recalled a story from almost 20 years ago in which Haddin, an upstanding member of society, was accused of using a domination spell to forcibly reform his criminal half-orc half-brother. A riot formed as people were afraid they had been mentally controlled by Haddin in the past. Haddin's brother tried to defend him and was killed by the mob. Haddin fled Gate Pass with his pregnant wife. Crystin was about the right age to be Haddin's daughter. The old, overweight man looked like the years had crushed his humanity.
Haddin refused to leave his home and vowed to defend it against whoever came. When Crystin tried to interject, Haddin told her to be quiet, and she instantly stopped talking. As the heroes argued with Haddin, Dro'Marri and D'buld watched the road outside. They noticed a small figure, a goblin, scurrying around the perimeter toward the back of the house and some movement behind one of the 10-foot-tall mounds along the road. Dro'Marri circled around back while D'buld investigated the road. Crystin's head snapped up as she said, "They're here."
A booming voice from behind the mounds along the road reverberated into the house. "Send Haddin out, and nobody will be harmed! Refuse, and everyone dies!" There was 30 seconds of silence as everyone inside argued about what to do while D'buld and Dro'Marri dove for cover. A group of skeletons advanced on the house with another goblin. Inside, the heroes heard a click as a floating key held by Haddin's
mage hand locked the door. Trinja, Byron, and Zed demanded to be let out, but Haddin wouldn't budge.
Byron looked through the keyhole and used
misty step to pass through the locked door. He found himself in the middle of a battle with D'Buld surrounded and an inquisitor concentrating on a half-cast spell. He tried to send a
healing word to D'buld, but the inquisitor released his
cancel and the healing spell fizzled. Eventually, the heroes inside the house managed to convince Haddin to let them out.
D'buld was now dealing with a menacing half-orc and a number of orc Ragesian soldiers as well. Torrent ran outside and failed to turn the skeletons but managed to bury her axe in the chest of a soldier. Byron used
misty step to get on the roof and let loose a constant volley of
vicious mockery. Suddenly, Haddin ran outside, shut the door behind him, mounted a horse and rode it around the back of the house as a bloodied Dro'Marri finished knocking out the goblin who had taken up a position in the stables. The inquisitor roared at his minions to capture Haddin, and the chase was on.
The rest of the heroes tried their best to hold off the Ragesians, destroying half of the skeletons and soldiers and the hulking half-orc, but they were horrified to see the inquisitor heal the half-orc who drank a potion of growth followed by raging. The huge half-orc started smashing his way toward the heroes. Haddin rode away on his horse, and the huge, half-orc barbarian gave chase, stopping on the way to hit Byron who was at chest level on top of the house. He landed a devastating blow, knocking Byron unconscious. Byron rolled off the roof, landing on Dro'Marri and knocking him out as well.
GM: | When I had set up the barbarian in Roll20, I accidentally clicked his attack while enlarged and raging. It was a critical hit that rolled high and did 31 damage. At our next game, the damage was still in the chat window. One of my player's asked, "Who's smiley?" I told him not to worry about it. The hit on Byron wasn't a critical, but it was still over 20 damage. | |
Hearing the bumps on his roof, Haddin decided it was time to head out the back door and take the advantage. Everyone did a double-take as a second Haddin emerged from the back door of the house and dominated Smiley. Haddin ordered Smiley to kill the inquisitor and any other Ragesian or skeleton on the way. Smiley turned and charged at the inquisitor. When the inquisitor's rebuke magic failed to dispel the domination on Smiley, he turned, jumped on a horse, and rode around to the back to find the spellcaster.
GM: | Up until here, with two of their number bleeding out, the heroes had felt the end was near. Smiley rolled a 1 on his saving throw (resulting in a -1), and Inquisitor Boreus rolled a 1 on his attempt to dispel the domination. The player's mood swung upward. | |
Haddin ran back inside the house and closed the door while Zed and Torrent stabilized Byron and Dro'Marri. The inquisitor cast
shatter and blew apart the back door, catching Haddin in the blast. He lost concentration on the domination spell. Crystin, kneeling over her father, cast a
magic missile at Smiley, knocking him out. The fake Haddin on the horse fired an
eldritch blast, and everyone surrounded the inquisitor, knocking him unconscious before D'buld finished him and Smiley off.
Haddin decided that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to leave the region for a while. Battered and bruised, the heroes decided to rest for the night at Haddin's house before heading into the fiery forest of Innenotdar.
The next day they set out. Each of them drank a potion of
stand the heat which protected them from the oven-like heat if not the fire. They had enough potions for two days of travel, which should be enough. As they entered the forest, they could still feel the heat even if it did not harm them. After a quarter mile, they came on a trio of corpses. Two of them were torn apart, and one had flames playing over its surface. Byron decided to search the corpses, relying on his fire resistance to protect him.
Suddenly, the corpse on fire reached up toward him, saying, "Kill me!" Byron, partly on reaction, obliged and sliced off the humanoids head. The body collapsed, and the flames on it slowly died out. Byron continued to search the corpses, scorching his hands in the process. After he was done, Haddin said, "You know, it was funny watching you burn your hands on them when you could have just had me do this," and he searched the bodies with
mage hand.
GM: | I had been using every opportunity to make Haddin come off as a supreme jerk and brought up a lot of his control over Crystin as well. The players (and heroes) really disliked him, but this incident sealed the deal. Hatred of Haddin: 100%. Achievement unlocked. | |
The heroes had not expected to run into anything in the burning forest, but this experience shook them. What was going on in the forest?