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Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8288534" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p>Session 45: Devils!</p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p>Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant)/Wizard</p><p>Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)/Cleric (Knowledge)</p><p>Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/Ranger (Horizon Walker)</p><p>Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients)</p><p>Thneed - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Cleric (War)</p><p>Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore)</p><p></p><p>GM - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p></p><p>29 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 119) (immediately after)</p><p></p><p>We resumed immediately after Thneed’s ranger sense told us that there were no fiends in town. Almost certainly. Why wouldn’t we trust Thneed’s ranger senses, after all?</p><p></p><p>It was late in the afternoon, shortly before dinnertime.</p><p></p><p>We talked a little bit about Levistus as we entered the town (and we had as we’d walked back to town). He’s the ruler of one of the Hells (Stygia) -- trapped in ice. He offers to help people who are restrained, imprisoned, feeling desperate or trapped, etc. (In exchange for their souls.) He also gets hooks into people who are looking for long-term revenge.</p><p></p><p>We realized as we walked through the town that we hadn’t been subtle about looking for fire elementals or a fire portal, largely due to Orryk asking everything that moved whether they’d seen one. So we probably weren’t going to be entirely subtle asking around about devil worshippers. The question of the day was: How do we become a disciple of a devil in a town where we know that someone is a follower of that devil.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: We could go talk to the temples -- religious people might know about religious people, even if they’re of a bad religion. Or the guard. The guard might know about people in prison who could be making deals or know about simmering resentments or feuds in town.</p><p>Taman: What if one of the priests is the guys?</p><p>Joybell: That’s a terrible thought!! How could you think that?</p><p></p><p>We broke into two groups for pursuing information in town -- Team Guards (or Team Order), Joybell, Orryk, and Fiona, were going to go to the temples and the guards. Team Terraces (or Team Chaos), Mo, Taman, and Thneed, were going to go to the Terraces pretending to be out of town gem traders looking for someone to make a quick deal with.</p><p></p><p>Before the two teams parted, Mo gave his sending stone to Joybell, so she could send a message to Taman if she needed to.</p><p></p><p>Team Order went to the Guardhouse (which happened to be right next to the gate through which we entered the city). Joybell put on her Embernook Guard armband and we quickly made our way through a couple of intermediaries before talking to Captain Althorn, Captain of the Erlin Guard. We asked Captain Althorn if he knew anyone in town who might have made a gate to the Plane of Fire, or been able to do so. Joybell, in relaying this, was very careful not to give anything away about there being a gate to Stygia or anything <em>bad</em> about the gate to the Plane of Fire. We just wanted to talk to someone who could make one for reasons never specified. We also asked if he knew of anything or anyone weird -- if there were any simmering resentments around.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: Can you think of anyone angry in a burn down the city sort of way.</p><p>Captain Althorn: I’d be surprised about a resident burning up the city. They live here. Last spring, though, there was an uproar up in Promontory. We had to escort a family out -- they were running a sort of pyramid scheme, or trying to. Their family had been in Promontory for generations.</p><p>Orryk: Are they still in town?</p><p>Captain: Yeah -- they’re in Sunlit. The T’multin family.</p><p>Joybell: A pyramid scheme?</p><p>Captain: They were defrauding families, using the money from new investors to pay old ones and keep them investing more and more. The thing is most of those families up there know each other.</p><p>Orryk: Not too bright.</p><p>Captain: Not as bright as they think they are.</p><p>Joybell: Can you think of anyone else?</p><p>Captain: No.</p><p>Joybell: Are there any libraries in town?</p><p>Captain: Yeah -- there are some in Sunlit and Het’s Ell.</p><p>Joybell: Thanks so much for that information. We’ll be checking those out.</p><p>Captain: Knowing that we have good and interested adventurers in town makes me feel safer.</p><p></p><p>Joybell detected no sarcasm and told him he could reach us at the Golden Gallant if he wanted to get in touch.</p><p></p><p>We left and headed toward Sunlit to talk to the people in the temples.</p><p></p><p>Joybell, to Orryk: Should we use the sending stone to let the others know what we learned?</p><p>Orryk: The stones are one use per day. They’re reserved for when they get in trouble.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Team Chaos (Mo, Taman, Thneed) went to the Terraces to talk to people. Before they entered, Mo used prestidigitation to clean all of them up, so that everyone looked as spiffy as possible, then he looked for a really good bar. Taman kept a watch out for anything going on in the streets.</p><p></p><p>On their way to the Terraces, and walking around while there, Mo spent 10 minutes walking and drinking and singing songs to himself -- getting a really good buzz going (or to the “charismatic” stage of drunkenness) and ritually casting Comprehend Languages.</p><p></p><p>Mo found a fancy house (a bar/whorehouse) called Janya’s and they all entered. The place had a proper bar, so Mo talked to the bartender. He ordered excellent whiskey for himself. Thneed ordered a glass of wine. Taman set himself up at the bar so he could listen and observe.</p><p></p><p>The bartender was a muscular looking human woman who looked highly competent and was not dressed in any way as one of the prostitutes. The place had a half-orc doorman/bouncer -- Mo’s height but much much bigger.</p><p></p><p>Mo: You look like you know what’s going on. We’re traveling merchants looking to make coin. Do you know anyone who’s come into money recently who might be looking to make a trade?</p><p>Bartender: New money on the Terraces? No there’s nothing like that here. There’s a lot of money on Promontory, some of it newer than others.</p><p>Mo: Are there any problems in town? We don’t want to stay here if there are. That’s not our line.</p><p>Bartender: Erlin’s not that kind of town.</p><p>Mo: How does someone get vouched into Promontory?</p><p>Bartender: I could try to arrange for you to meet with someone who comes in. But they’re often not here to drink.</p><p>Mo: And they might prefer discretion.</p><p>Bartender: Yes.</p><p>Mo: Thanks. You’ve been a big help. We need to get up into Promontory, I think.</p><p></p><p>Mo then let the bartender go and started looking around to see if anyone in the bar looked out of place or like they’d be worth talking to.</p><p></p><p>While Mo was talking, Taman noticed that the bouncer was having a quiet but forceful conversation with a human woman in her forties. Taman listened in -- the woman was getting more and more strident while the half-orc bouncer was staying calm.</p><p></p><p>Woman: I owned this place! I hired you!</p><p>Bouncer: Yes. And the new owners had to pay to cure your clients.</p><p></p><p>The bouncer denied the woman entrance and she eventually left, though it took a long time to convince her to go.</p><p></p><p>Mo, having observed this as well (having been clued into it by Taman) went to talk to the bouncer.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Hey, Mr. T! I’m Mo W. Kang. What was her problem?</p><p>Bouncer: She thinks she still owns the place.</p><p>Mo: She doesn’t now?</p><p>Bouncer: She was foreclosed on. Yorla is her name.</p><p>Mo: Foreclosed implies a debt.</p><p>Bouncer: She couldn’t pay debts of various sorts...</p><p></p><p>Mo slipped him a platinum piece.</p><p></p><p>Mo: What do you mean “of various sorts”?</p><p>Bouncer: Generally when one comes here, one expects to lose money in exchange for an experience. Under her time, people were losing money and other possessions in exchange for various unspeakable diseases.</p><p>Mo: How long was she the owner?</p><p>Bouncer: Her father owned it before she did. Between the two of them, something like 30 years. The caliber of the place slipped over that time. The new owner is Janya. She’s been here two years. My name is Tosk, by the way.</p><p></p><p>Thneed, to the bartender: Have you had any rougher customers? Anyone dangerous?</p><p>Bartender: Not since the T’multin family got kicked out. They were a bunch of sociopaths.</p><p>Taman: What did they do that was so sociopathic?</p><p>Bartender: Defrauding people -- they were doing a pyramid scheme.</p><p></p><p>They then left the bar. Outside, they talked about what we should investigate next.</p><p></p><p>Taman: I think we should check out this T’multin family. But the bad things happening to the previous owners -- she was certainly aggrieved. Maybe the new owner put her out of business.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Team Order went to the temple of the Lightbringers. Joybell introduced herself first, then realized that she didn’t know what to ask about so she looked to Orryk.</p><p></p><p>Orryk talked about the portal to Stygia and asked if the priestess knew anyone who would do something like that. At that the priestess took us into a back room. Once there, Fiona told her about the portal to the Plane of Fire hiding a portal to Stygia. She also mentioned the fire portal having some sort of proximity triggered magic that produced elementals when people got close to it.</p><p></p><p>Priestess: I’m admiring the irony of the Hell that is a plane of Ice being protected by a gate to the plane of fire.</p><p>Joybell: Can you think of anyone in town capable of setting something like that up?</p><p>Priestess: In town?</p><p>Orryk: Well, no one came this far to put it outside of Erlin. It could be someone who came to town five or six years ago. Or someone who had a major life change five or six years ago.</p><p>Priestess: There was a guy I ran into in a library about that time. He had just come here from New Arvai. He was interested in books about the planes -- but he seemed new to magic and like he was looking for information outside of his experience.</p><p>Orryk: Maybe he had a new friend giving him advice. Was he human?</p><p>Priestess: Yeah. He seemed like a decent guy at the time.</p><p>Joybell: Did you get a name?</p><p>Priestess: No.</p><p>Joybell: Which library was this in?</p><p>Priestess: Donni’s Library.</p><p>Joybell: What do they have in their collection?</p><p>Priestess: They’re the best library in town for information about magic and the planes.</p><p>Fiona: What did he look like? Maybe we can look for him.</p><p>Priestess: He was one of the most non-descript people I’ve ever seen. Almost as though he was cultivating it -- average haircut, average clothing.</p><p>Joybell: At what point does that become a fieldmark? Do you know anything about the T’multin family?</p><p>Priestess: They are schemesters and sociopaths.</p><p>Joybell: When did they start their pyramid scheme?</p><p>Priestess: I don’t know when they started. I do know that when the people of Promontory, with the help of the Guard, when to throw them out, they searched their house. They didn’t find nearly as much money as they should have.</p><p>Joybell: How many zeroes were missing?</p><p>Priestess: Four or five of them. All in gold.</p><p>Joybell: One thousand to ninety thousand. I actually would have expected more…</p><p>Fiona: Ten thousand to nine-hundred thousand</p><p>Joybell: They don’t teach math in paladin school.</p><p>Fiona, to the priestess: Both of the portals are now closed.</p><p>Priestess: How?</p><p>Fiona: Dispel magic.</p><p>Priestess: I might have been tempted to use her [pointing to Joybell] hammer.</p><p>Joybell: That option was on the table.</p><p></p><p>We thanked the priestess and left, heading back to the Golden Gallant.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Team Chaos was talking about what to do. Thneed wanted to talk to some of the families who’d gotten ripped off by the T’multins -- maybe sticking with the out of town gem merchants ruse. They could approach people with the line that they wanted to help them get their money back. They headed toward the gates of Promontory, which were not all that far from Janya’s Fancy House -- they just had to go up the last couple of switchbacks.</p><p></p><p>The neighborhood of Promontory looked like a very old fort on top of the hill with a large stone and metal portcullis-style gate. The guards appeared to know the people who lived in Promontory -- many people were going in without showing a voucher. Others were stopped. Around the gate, indeed along the switchbacks the whole way up, were various shops and restaurants and bars (Janya’s among them). There were four guards on the ground in front of the gate. The group could also see some number in a crenellated walk above the portcullis.</p><p></p><p>They headed back to the Golden Gallant where they met up with Team Order and we all got dinner and shared information about the T’multins and the angry former fancy house owner and the sketchy guy in the library.</p><p></p><p>Taman: I find your priest very sketchy because she complimented the devil worshipper’s method of hiding the portal. Also she ushered you all into a private room.</p><p></p><p>Mo pointed out that if we could find the T’multin’s house, he could put a clairvoyance in it. With that thought in mind, as soon as we finished dinner we decided to go out for a walk in Sunlit. Mo, in an effort to make the party less conspicuous, cast invisibility on Scooby -- Joybell walked along with the rest of the party.</p><p></p><p>Mo then wandered a bit away from the party, disheveling himself up and putting some dust on his robes and found someone on the street to talk to.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Hi! I just got into town and am looking for my business partner, one of the T’multins. I invested everything I have. I need to talk to him about my money.</p><p></p><p>(GM: Mo just ran into the most helpful idiot in town -- Nat 20 on the local knowledge check, Nat 1 on seeing through Mo’s subterfuge.)</p><p></p><p>Person: If you invested all of your money, you need a lot of help. I’ll take you there.</p><p>Mo: Why?</p><p>Person: They’re frauds.</p><p>Mo: What do you mean, they’re frauds? I’ve invested thousands…</p><p>Person: They’re frauds. I’ll take you there.</p><p></p><p>Mo used a message spell to tell Taman to follow him. Taman caught his eye and clapped silently. We all followed, quite a bit back so as not to be an obvious wad of strange people tagging along.</p><p></p><p>Mo was taken to a two story house (at least two stories above the ground). It looked reasonably prosperous, with a coach house and everything. There was a six-foot high stone fence around the property with an iron-barred gate at the front. The fence looked quite climbable and more for privacy than security. The gate was the only place where we could see the house. The yard was unkempt and the house didn’t look particularly well cared for, though it wasn’t in any sort of disrepair either.</p><p></p><p>We could see some lights in windows on the ground floor.</p><p></p><p>Mo, to the helpful idiot: Look, friend. I think I need to deal with this on my own. We’ve known each other a long time.</p><p>Person: Good luck.</p><p></p><p>Mo then tried the gate and found it locked.</p><p></p><p>Mo: The gate is locked. I’ll have to try again in the morning.</p><p></p><p>He and the helpful idiot then left, in different directions. Mo joined the rest of the party a few moments later and we returned to the Golden Gallant, which was not far from the T’multin house. We hoped that we’d worked quickly enough that we were ahead of news getting around that we were making inquiries. If the T’multins were responsible for the Stygia gate, we had some hope that they didn’t realize it yet.</p><p></p><p>Once in our room, Mo cast Clairvoyance -- he played a song on his pipe that started to sound like 1990’s dialup internet, then made his birdman goggles with his hands. He didn’t see anything. The sensor simply didn’t show up inside the house. He recognized that they were blocking being scryed upon -- Fiona was aware of a spell called Mordenkainen’s Private Sanctum that can make a whole building impossible to scry. The private sanctum can be made permanent -- either with high ritual magic or by casting the spell on the same location every day for a year. So it was possible that the house had the private sanctum on it before the T’multins moved in.</p><p></p><p>Thneed suggested continuing the gem merchant facade -- offering a business deal and playing ourselves as obvious marks. Mo suggested using polymorph to turn into something.</p><p></p><p>We decided to go with Mo’s idea, on the grounds that Thneed’s would still be available if it didn’t would. So Mo blew out a cloud of smoke that pooled around his feet then swirled up to his head. As the smoke dissipated a raccoon, Bandit, stepped out. Taman helped Bandit over the fence.</p><p></p><p>Mo proceeded through the yard to the house and scrambled up to the windowsills - but he couldn’t see anything through the windows. Even with his raccoon intelligence, he realized that the windows had been obscured. He could see light, but only blurry shapes. He couldn’t hear anything.</p><p></p><p>He went through the breezeway between the house and the carriage house to the back yard. He found a back door to the house.</p><p></p><p>He scampered across the forty feet or so of yard between the back of the house and the back wall. Once over the wall and in an alley (not where the rest of the party was), he dropped the polymorph and tried to cast a dimension door spell to get inside the back door. The spell simply didn’t work -- he didn’t move at all. Mo started heading toward the rest of the party</p><p></p><p>Mo, to Taman with a message spell as he approached: I can’t see or hear anything. Meet up. I tried dimension door. It didn’t work.</p><p>Taman, to Mo through the spell: I’ll go.</p><p></p><p>Before the rest of the party knew what was going on (because we weren’t privy to the conversation through the spell), Taman vaulted over the wall. Mo cast invisibility on him as he went.</p><p></p><p>Taman crossed the yard to the house and found a window that didn’t have light shining through it. That window was locked. He went around to the back door and picked that lock -- successfully opening the lock.</p><p></p><p>Before he opened the door he ran back to the wall where the party was gathered and popped his head over it.</p><p></p><p>Taman, invisible: Door’s open. Who’s going in?</p><p>Mo, with a message spell in order to be quieter: Don’t go in.</p><p>Joybell, whispering: We have a gallon of oil of etherealness. Slather up.</p><p></p><p>We went back to the Golden Gallant where Taman, still invisible, slathered up with one of the vials of oil of etherealness -- so he was then both ethereal and invisible. He went back to the house on his own, walking through the city streets like a ghost. He was able to get in the house with no problems and walked around inside scouting the place. The layout was a pretty normal layout for a house of that size.</p><p></p><p>He made his way into a room where he saw a handful of people, five of them. One was a very non-descript male human, who appeared to have deliberately dressed in the most common or average clothing styles that everyone in town seemed to be wearing. One was a woman who appeared to be trying to act like and look like a noble. One was the woman Taman had seen arguing with the half-orc bouncer at the fancy house, Yorla. There were also two other male humans.</p><p></p><p>They were doing some sort of funky ritual to do with a large circle carved into the wooden floor.</p><p></p><p>He’d just earlier that day seen one just like it at the cave south of town.</p><p></p><p>Taman immediately left the house and used the stone of sending to talk to Joybell.</p><p></p><p>Taman: Holy naughty word! There’s a devil circle inside. Let's go! Am still ethereal, dammit!</p><p></p><p>Joybell relayed this to the others.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: I don’t know if he means let's go in or let’s leave.</p><p>Mo told her what to say in response. (Note: My notes do not record what Mo told her to say.)</p><p></p><p>Taman returned to the Golden Gallant about the time that the oil of etherealness wore off.</p><p></p><p>Taman: Five people. The chick from the bar, Yarla, who was arguing with Mr. T. And a perfectly average guy. They were in the middle of doing something with a circle on the floor.</p><p>Thneed: If they’re opening a gate...not just summoning a devil but opening a door…</p><p></p><p>Thneed detected for fiends and found that there were approximately three. Or maybe four. (DM error/waffling)</p><p></p><p>Thneed: Approximately three and a half.</p><p></p><p>They were between the Golden Gallant and the T’multin house.</p><p></p><p>Orryk summoned an air elemental with the censer. Mo pulled a baboon, Rafiki, from the bag of tricks.</p><p></p><p>Mo: If he survives, he can be a buddy for Clyde.</p><p></p><p>Taman poured a bottle of holy water over his head and cast protection from evil and good on himself. Joybell laid hands on Taman, herself, and Scooby. (We were all still somewhat injured from fighting the fire elementals at the gate early in the day.)</p><p></p><p>Taman: This means they know we’re doing stuff -- whether because we were asking after them or because we destroyed the circle.</p><p>Orryk: Joybell spilled the beans.</p><p>Joybell: I did not! I did not mention the devil circle at all. I was very careful. You did!</p><p></p><p>All of these things, and the conversation, happened while we were rushing out of the inn and heading toward the T’multin house. Joybell and Orryk were in the front of the party.</p><p></p><p>As we proceeded, we made a turn and at the end of the street we saw four devils -- one large one and three smaller ones. There were also a smattering of innocent civilians in the street. The smaller ones were pretty humanoid looking, but with thorns. The larger one had a long stinger like a skeletal scorpion.</p><p></p><p>Thneed was able to identify these as three barbed devils and one bone devil. She told us that the barbed devils grapple people and throw fireballs. Both kinds are immune to fire, resistant to cold, and resistant to spells they had to make a save for.</p><p></p><p>Thneed, on seeing the devils, moved into position and started shouting for the civilians to get out of the way. Then she shot an arrow at the closest bone devil.</p><p></p><p>Mo looked to see if he could use a plant growth spell, but there weren’t any plants for the spell to work on. So instead he moved up 30 feet and cast hypnotic pattern on the bone devil and two of the barbed devils. Unfortunately all of them saved. Then he inspired Thneed.</p><p></p><p>Orryk sent the air elemental, which moves incredibly fast, right up into the face of the bone devil, but it was unable to attack after flying so fast. Joybell, who saw that she was not going to be able to attack either, rode Scooby until she was next to one of the civilians (so she could protect them if they were attacked) and dodged.</p><p></p><p>Joybell, as she rode, shouting: Go! Go!! Get out of here!</p><p></p><p>Taman moved up next to her. Fiona moved up, trying to get into spell range, and dodged.</p><p></p><p>The bone devil attacked the air elemental that was right in front of its face. The elemental was hit by a claw but missed by the huge stinger.</p><p></p><p>Three of the civilians, seeing the devil attacking and the air elemental and hearing Thneed and Joybell shouting for them to get clear, froze in place and whimpered piteously. Three of them ran away screaming, including the one that had been next to Joybell.</p><p></p><p>One of the barbed devils backed away from the air elemental, which was able to take an opportunity attack against it and hit solidly. It attacked the air elemental with a thrown fireball, but that missed. Another barbed devil threw fire at the air elemental and hit solidly.</p><p></p><p>The third threw its fireball at Orryk, hitting him squarely, but doing no damage at all, because Orryk. Orryk grinned.</p><p></p><p>Thneed moved up to where she could cast her hunters mark on the barbed devil that attacked Orryk -- then she took a shot at it. Mo moved up and shot the same one with his crossbow, then he inspired Joybell.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Keep these civilians safe.</p><p></p><p>Orryk ran forward and took two shots with his bow on the devil that had fireballed him. Then he spent a ki point for Patient Defense. The air elemental did two slams on one of the barbed devils, hitting it.</p><p></p><p>Joybell rode up next to one of the civilians who was frozen in fear and yelled at him to snap out of it. Then she threw her javelin of lightning at the bone devil, hitting solidly. Taman ran over to the one that had attacked Orryk and attacked, but there was no one else fighting it so he wasn’t able to sneak up on it. Fiona moved up as far as she could and cast magic missile on the barb devil that Taman was fighting with.</p><p></p><p>The bone devil moved up to attack Joybell, but missed with all of its attacks. One of the barbed devils did as well - or maybe it was attacking the civilian she was standing next to -- it was really impossible to tell.</p><p></p><p>None of the three civilians were able to snap out of their terror and run away. All just cried and whimpered, staring in horror and terror at the devils.</p><p></p><p>The barbed devil that was fighting with Taman attacked but missed. And the one that was fighting the air elemental backed away a bit and shot a fireball out it.</p><p></p><p>Thneed shot the barbed devil Taman was fighting and hit it incredibly solidly (note: she did 43 points of damage, which was not even the maximum she can do). That dropped the barbed devil, which dissolved into a puddle of slime.</p><p></p><p>Mo told Rafiki the baboon to grab one of the civilians. Rafiki ran off to do that, though it would take him several seconds to get to the civilian.</p><p></p><p>The air elemental moved to fight the barbed devil that was attacking Joybell, then Orryk shot it in the back with his shortbow.</p><p></p><p>Joybell attacked the bone devil and just missed and missed. Even Mo’s inspiration couldn’t help her. Taman moved, swiping along the blade of his rapier as he walked to activate his planar warrior ability, then attacked the bone devil for a lot of damage. Fiona fired a guiding bolt at the bone devil, but missed with the shot.</p><p></p><p>The bone devil turned away from Joybell and attacked Taman -- he got lucky and was missed by a claw. Mo spoke some cutting words and prevented the stinger from hitting.</p><p></p><p>The civilian near Joybell, and the bone devil, and a barbed devil, finally snapped out of his terror and ran away. The other two were unable to get their muscles working, except to cry and scream feebly.</p><p></p><p>One of the barbed devils attacked Joybell and hit her. One of them threw fire at Tamana, but missed. However, we noticed that there was a bit of fire on some of the buildings. Rafiki started guiding one of the civilians out of the street and down a side alley. Mo himself, frustrated, unrolled the battle hammock and pushed the final civilian into it, then told the broom to fly around a corner into an alley.</p><p></p><p>The air elemental made two slam attacks on the barbed devil. Orryk moved to ten feet away from the same barbed devil and hit it with his fists of unbroken air--hitting three times, one of which hit into a critical spot on the devil.</p><p></p><p>Joybell attacked the bone devil and smote it, strongly, twice. (Note: She did a third level smite and a second level smite -- totalling 70 or so damage.) Taman then attacked and dropped the bone devil. His second attack hit the nearby barbed devil. Fiona cast a guiding bolt on the barbed devil on Joybell and Taman and the air elemental. Doing some nice damage and the next attack against it would be at advantage.</p><p></p><p>The civilian with Rafiki apparently found that an agitated baboon was just another thing to be terrified by and stayed in place. Thneed moved up a bit closer and moved her hunter’s mark to the barbed devil on Joybell, Taman and the air elemental -- she hit it because of Fiona’s guiding bolt. Her second shot was better -- that dropped it.</p><p></p><p>The devils attacked, to remarkably little effect.</p><p></p><p>Rafiki pushed the civilian he was interacting with out of the street and into an alley. Then Mo tried to shoot the last barbed devil in the face with his crossbow, but he missed. The air elemental hit it. Orryk hit it with a critical blow with the medic’s blade, but it didn’t drop. Joybell rode over to it and hit it with two smiting blows, finally dropping it.</p><p></p><p>Mo: I go to collect my broom and my monkey.</p><p></p><p>We headed to the house -- which was about a 10 minute walk from where we were. The house looked pretty much the same as we’d seen earlier, except that there was a smoldering crater in the street outside the house. Fiona and Orryk knew that sometimes the portals appear at a location near, but not exactly on, the site of the circle. Apparently, the devils appeared here.</p><p></p><p>And there we ended -- in the street outside the T’multin house.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8288534, member: 7016699"] Session 45: Devils! Dramatis Personae: Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant)/Wizard Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)/Cleric (Knowledge) Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/Ranger (Horizon Walker) Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients) Thneed - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Cleric (War) Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore) GM - Everyone Else 29 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 119) (immediately after) We resumed immediately after Thneed’s ranger sense told us that there were no fiends in town. Almost certainly. Why wouldn’t we trust Thneed’s ranger senses, after all? It was late in the afternoon, shortly before dinnertime. We talked a little bit about Levistus as we entered the town (and we had as we’d walked back to town). He’s the ruler of one of the Hells (Stygia) -- trapped in ice. He offers to help people who are restrained, imprisoned, feeling desperate or trapped, etc. (In exchange for their souls.) He also gets hooks into people who are looking for long-term revenge. We realized as we walked through the town that we hadn’t been subtle about looking for fire elementals or a fire portal, largely due to Orryk asking everything that moved whether they’d seen one. So we probably weren’t going to be entirely subtle asking around about devil worshippers. The question of the day was: How do we become a disciple of a devil in a town where we know that someone is a follower of that devil. Joybell: We could go talk to the temples -- religious people might know about religious people, even if they’re of a bad religion. Or the guard. The guard might know about people in prison who could be making deals or know about simmering resentments or feuds in town. Taman: What if one of the priests is the guys? Joybell: That’s a terrible thought!! How could you think that? We broke into two groups for pursuing information in town -- Team Guards (or Team Order), Joybell, Orryk, and Fiona, were going to go to the temples and the guards. Team Terraces (or Team Chaos), Mo, Taman, and Thneed, were going to go to the Terraces pretending to be out of town gem traders looking for someone to make a quick deal with. Before the two teams parted, Mo gave his sending stone to Joybell, so she could send a message to Taman if she needed to. Team Order went to the Guardhouse (which happened to be right next to the gate through which we entered the city). Joybell put on her Embernook Guard armband and we quickly made our way through a couple of intermediaries before talking to Captain Althorn, Captain of the Erlin Guard. We asked Captain Althorn if he knew anyone in town who might have made a gate to the Plane of Fire, or been able to do so. Joybell, in relaying this, was very careful not to give anything away about there being a gate to Stygia or anything [I]bad[/I] about the gate to the Plane of Fire. We just wanted to talk to someone who could make one for reasons never specified. We also asked if he knew of anything or anyone weird -- if there were any simmering resentments around. Orryk: Can you think of anyone angry in a burn down the city sort of way. Captain Althorn: I’d be surprised about a resident burning up the city. They live here. Last spring, though, there was an uproar up in Promontory. We had to escort a family out -- they were running a sort of pyramid scheme, or trying to. Their family had been in Promontory for generations. Orryk: Are they still in town? Captain: Yeah -- they’re in Sunlit. The T’multin family. Joybell: A pyramid scheme? Captain: They were defrauding families, using the money from new investors to pay old ones and keep them investing more and more. The thing is most of those families up there know each other. Orryk: Not too bright. Captain: Not as bright as they think they are. Joybell: Can you think of anyone else? Captain: No. Joybell: Are there any libraries in town? Captain: Yeah -- there are some in Sunlit and Het’s Ell. Joybell: Thanks so much for that information. We’ll be checking those out. Captain: Knowing that we have good and interested adventurers in town makes me feel safer. Joybell detected no sarcasm and told him he could reach us at the Golden Gallant if he wanted to get in touch. We left and headed toward Sunlit to talk to the people in the temples. Joybell, to Orryk: Should we use the sending stone to let the others know what we learned? Orryk: The stones are one use per day. They’re reserved for when they get in trouble. Meanwhile, Team Chaos (Mo, Taman, Thneed) went to the Terraces to talk to people. Before they entered, Mo used prestidigitation to clean all of them up, so that everyone looked as spiffy as possible, then he looked for a really good bar. Taman kept a watch out for anything going on in the streets. On their way to the Terraces, and walking around while there, Mo spent 10 minutes walking and drinking and singing songs to himself -- getting a really good buzz going (or to the “charismatic” stage of drunkenness) and ritually casting Comprehend Languages. Mo found a fancy house (a bar/whorehouse) called Janya’s and they all entered. The place had a proper bar, so Mo talked to the bartender. He ordered excellent whiskey for himself. Thneed ordered a glass of wine. Taman set himself up at the bar so he could listen and observe. The bartender was a muscular looking human woman who looked highly competent and was not dressed in any way as one of the prostitutes. The place had a half-orc doorman/bouncer -- Mo’s height but much much bigger. Mo: You look like you know what’s going on. We’re traveling merchants looking to make coin. Do you know anyone who’s come into money recently who might be looking to make a trade? Bartender: New money on the Terraces? No there’s nothing like that here. There’s a lot of money on Promontory, some of it newer than others. Mo: Are there any problems in town? We don’t want to stay here if there are. That’s not our line. Bartender: Erlin’s not that kind of town. Mo: How does someone get vouched into Promontory? Bartender: I could try to arrange for you to meet with someone who comes in. But they’re often not here to drink. Mo: And they might prefer discretion. Bartender: Yes. Mo: Thanks. You’ve been a big help. We need to get up into Promontory, I think. Mo then let the bartender go and started looking around to see if anyone in the bar looked out of place or like they’d be worth talking to. While Mo was talking, Taman noticed that the bouncer was having a quiet but forceful conversation with a human woman in her forties. Taman listened in -- the woman was getting more and more strident while the half-orc bouncer was staying calm. Woman: I owned this place! I hired you! Bouncer: Yes. And the new owners had to pay to cure your clients. The bouncer denied the woman entrance and she eventually left, though it took a long time to convince her to go. Mo, having observed this as well (having been clued into it by Taman) went to talk to the bouncer. Mo: Hey, Mr. T! I’m Mo W. Kang. What was her problem? Bouncer: She thinks she still owns the place. Mo: She doesn’t now? Bouncer: She was foreclosed on. Yorla is her name. Mo: Foreclosed implies a debt. Bouncer: She couldn’t pay debts of various sorts... Mo slipped him a platinum piece. Mo: What do you mean “of various sorts”? Bouncer: Generally when one comes here, one expects to lose money in exchange for an experience. Under her time, people were losing money and other possessions in exchange for various unspeakable diseases. Mo: How long was she the owner? Bouncer: Her father owned it before she did. Between the two of them, something like 30 years. The caliber of the place slipped over that time. The new owner is Janya. She’s been here two years. My name is Tosk, by the way. Thneed, to the bartender: Have you had any rougher customers? Anyone dangerous? Bartender: Not since the T’multin family got kicked out. They were a bunch of sociopaths. Taman: What did they do that was so sociopathic? Bartender: Defrauding people -- they were doing a pyramid scheme. They then left the bar. Outside, they talked about what we should investigate next. Taman: I think we should check out this T’multin family. But the bad things happening to the previous owners -- she was certainly aggrieved. Maybe the new owner put her out of business. Meanwhile, Team Order went to the temple of the Lightbringers. Joybell introduced herself first, then realized that she didn’t know what to ask about so she looked to Orryk. Orryk talked about the portal to Stygia and asked if the priestess knew anyone who would do something like that. At that the priestess took us into a back room. Once there, Fiona told her about the portal to the Plane of Fire hiding a portal to Stygia. She also mentioned the fire portal having some sort of proximity triggered magic that produced elementals when people got close to it. Priestess: I’m admiring the irony of the Hell that is a plane of Ice being protected by a gate to the plane of fire. Joybell: Can you think of anyone in town capable of setting something like that up? Priestess: In town? Orryk: Well, no one came this far to put it outside of Erlin. It could be someone who came to town five or six years ago. Or someone who had a major life change five or six years ago. Priestess: There was a guy I ran into in a library about that time. He had just come here from New Arvai. He was interested in books about the planes -- but he seemed new to magic and like he was looking for information outside of his experience. Orryk: Maybe he had a new friend giving him advice. Was he human? Priestess: Yeah. He seemed like a decent guy at the time. Joybell: Did you get a name? Priestess: No. Joybell: Which library was this in? Priestess: Donni’s Library. Joybell: What do they have in their collection? Priestess: They’re the best library in town for information about magic and the planes. Fiona: What did he look like? Maybe we can look for him. Priestess: He was one of the most non-descript people I’ve ever seen. Almost as though he was cultivating it -- average haircut, average clothing. Joybell: At what point does that become a fieldmark? Do you know anything about the T’multin family? Priestess: They are schemesters and sociopaths. Joybell: When did they start their pyramid scheme? Priestess: I don’t know when they started. I do know that when the people of Promontory, with the help of the Guard, when to throw them out, they searched their house. They didn’t find nearly as much money as they should have. Joybell: How many zeroes were missing? Priestess: Four or five of them. All in gold. Joybell: One thousand to ninety thousand. I actually would have expected more… Fiona: Ten thousand to nine-hundred thousand Joybell: They don’t teach math in paladin school. Fiona, to the priestess: Both of the portals are now closed. Priestess: How? Fiona: Dispel magic. Priestess: I might have been tempted to use her [pointing to Joybell] hammer. Joybell: That option was on the table. We thanked the priestess and left, heading back to the Golden Gallant. Meanwhile, Team Chaos was talking about what to do. Thneed wanted to talk to some of the families who’d gotten ripped off by the T’multins -- maybe sticking with the out of town gem merchants ruse. They could approach people with the line that they wanted to help them get their money back. They headed toward the gates of Promontory, which were not all that far from Janya’s Fancy House -- they just had to go up the last couple of switchbacks. The neighborhood of Promontory looked like a very old fort on top of the hill with a large stone and metal portcullis-style gate. The guards appeared to know the people who lived in Promontory -- many people were going in without showing a voucher. Others were stopped. Around the gate, indeed along the switchbacks the whole way up, were various shops and restaurants and bars (Janya’s among them). There were four guards on the ground in front of the gate. The group could also see some number in a crenellated walk above the portcullis. They headed back to the Golden Gallant where they met up with Team Order and we all got dinner and shared information about the T’multins and the angry former fancy house owner and the sketchy guy in the library. Taman: I find your priest very sketchy because she complimented the devil worshipper’s method of hiding the portal. Also she ushered you all into a private room. Mo pointed out that if we could find the T’multin’s house, he could put a clairvoyance in it. With that thought in mind, as soon as we finished dinner we decided to go out for a walk in Sunlit. Mo, in an effort to make the party less conspicuous, cast invisibility on Scooby -- Joybell walked along with the rest of the party. Mo then wandered a bit away from the party, disheveling himself up and putting some dust on his robes and found someone on the street to talk to. Mo: Hi! I just got into town and am looking for my business partner, one of the T’multins. I invested everything I have. I need to talk to him about my money. (GM: Mo just ran into the most helpful idiot in town -- Nat 20 on the local knowledge check, Nat 1 on seeing through Mo’s subterfuge.) Person: If you invested all of your money, you need a lot of help. I’ll take you there. Mo: Why? Person: They’re frauds. Mo: What do you mean, they’re frauds? I’ve invested thousands… Person: They’re frauds. I’ll take you there. Mo used a message spell to tell Taman to follow him. Taman caught his eye and clapped silently. We all followed, quite a bit back so as not to be an obvious wad of strange people tagging along. Mo was taken to a two story house (at least two stories above the ground). It looked reasonably prosperous, with a coach house and everything. There was a six-foot high stone fence around the property with an iron-barred gate at the front. The fence looked quite climbable and more for privacy than security. The gate was the only place where we could see the house. The yard was unkempt and the house didn’t look particularly well cared for, though it wasn’t in any sort of disrepair either. We could see some lights in windows on the ground floor. Mo, to the helpful idiot: Look, friend. I think I need to deal with this on my own. We’ve known each other a long time. Person: Good luck. Mo then tried the gate and found it locked. Mo: The gate is locked. I’ll have to try again in the morning. He and the helpful idiot then left, in different directions. Mo joined the rest of the party a few moments later and we returned to the Golden Gallant, which was not far from the T’multin house. We hoped that we’d worked quickly enough that we were ahead of news getting around that we were making inquiries. If the T’multins were responsible for the Stygia gate, we had some hope that they didn’t realize it yet. Once in our room, Mo cast Clairvoyance -- he played a song on his pipe that started to sound like 1990’s dialup internet, then made his birdman goggles with his hands. He didn’t see anything. The sensor simply didn’t show up inside the house. He recognized that they were blocking being scryed upon -- Fiona was aware of a spell called Mordenkainen’s Private Sanctum that can make a whole building impossible to scry. The private sanctum can be made permanent -- either with high ritual magic or by casting the spell on the same location every day for a year. So it was possible that the house had the private sanctum on it before the T’multins moved in. Thneed suggested continuing the gem merchant facade -- offering a business deal and playing ourselves as obvious marks. Mo suggested using polymorph to turn into something. We decided to go with Mo’s idea, on the grounds that Thneed’s would still be available if it didn’t would. So Mo blew out a cloud of smoke that pooled around his feet then swirled up to his head. As the smoke dissipated a raccoon, Bandit, stepped out. Taman helped Bandit over the fence. Mo proceeded through the yard to the house and scrambled up to the windowsills - but he couldn’t see anything through the windows. Even with his raccoon intelligence, he realized that the windows had been obscured. He could see light, but only blurry shapes. He couldn’t hear anything. He went through the breezeway between the house and the carriage house to the back yard. He found a back door to the house. He scampered across the forty feet or so of yard between the back of the house and the back wall. Once over the wall and in an alley (not where the rest of the party was), he dropped the polymorph and tried to cast a dimension door spell to get inside the back door. The spell simply didn’t work -- he didn’t move at all. Mo started heading toward the rest of the party Mo, to Taman with a message spell as he approached: I can’t see or hear anything. Meet up. I tried dimension door. It didn’t work. Taman, to Mo through the spell: I’ll go. Before the rest of the party knew what was going on (because we weren’t privy to the conversation through the spell), Taman vaulted over the wall. Mo cast invisibility on him as he went. Taman crossed the yard to the house and found a window that didn’t have light shining through it. That window was locked. He went around to the back door and picked that lock -- successfully opening the lock. Before he opened the door he ran back to the wall where the party was gathered and popped his head over it. Taman, invisible: Door’s open. Who’s going in? Mo, with a message spell in order to be quieter: Don’t go in. Joybell, whispering: We have a gallon of oil of etherealness. Slather up. We went back to the Golden Gallant where Taman, still invisible, slathered up with one of the vials of oil of etherealness -- so he was then both ethereal and invisible. He went back to the house on his own, walking through the city streets like a ghost. He was able to get in the house with no problems and walked around inside scouting the place. The layout was a pretty normal layout for a house of that size. He made his way into a room where he saw a handful of people, five of them. One was a very non-descript male human, who appeared to have deliberately dressed in the most common or average clothing styles that everyone in town seemed to be wearing. One was a woman who appeared to be trying to act like and look like a noble. One was the woman Taman had seen arguing with the half-orc bouncer at the fancy house, Yorla. There were also two other male humans. They were doing some sort of funky ritual to do with a large circle carved into the wooden floor. He’d just earlier that day seen one just like it at the cave south of town. Taman immediately left the house and used the stone of sending to talk to Joybell. Taman: Holy naughty word! There’s a devil circle inside. Let's go! Am still ethereal, dammit! Joybell relayed this to the others. Joybell: I don’t know if he means let's go in or let’s leave. Mo told her what to say in response. (Note: My notes do not record what Mo told her to say.) Taman returned to the Golden Gallant about the time that the oil of etherealness wore off. Taman: Five people. The chick from the bar, Yarla, who was arguing with Mr. T. And a perfectly average guy. They were in the middle of doing something with a circle on the floor. Thneed: If they’re opening a gate...not just summoning a devil but opening a door… Thneed detected for fiends and found that there were approximately three. Or maybe four. (DM error/waffling) Thneed: Approximately three and a half. They were between the Golden Gallant and the T’multin house. Orryk summoned an air elemental with the censer. Mo pulled a baboon, Rafiki, from the bag of tricks. Mo: If he survives, he can be a buddy for Clyde. Taman poured a bottle of holy water over his head and cast protection from evil and good on himself. Joybell laid hands on Taman, herself, and Scooby. (We were all still somewhat injured from fighting the fire elementals at the gate early in the day.) Taman: This means they know we’re doing stuff -- whether because we were asking after them or because we destroyed the circle. Orryk: Joybell spilled the beans. Joybell: I did not! I did not mention the devil circle at all. I was very careful. You did! All of these things, and the conversation, happened while we were rushing out of the inn and heading toward the T’multin house. Joybell and Orryk were in the front of the party. As we proceeded, we made a turn and at the end of the street we saw four devils -- one large one and three smaller ones. There were also a smattering of innocent civilians in the street. The smaller ones were pretty humanoid looking, but with thorns. The larger one had a long stinger like a skeletal scorpion. Thneed was able to identify these as three barbed devils and one bone devil. She told us that the barbed devils grapple people and throw fireballs. Both kinds are immune to fire, resistant to cold, and resistant to spells they had to make a save for. Thneed, on seeing the devils, moved into position and started shouting for the civilians to get out of the way. Then she shot an arrow at the closest bone devil. Mo looked to see if he could use a plant growth spell, but there weren’t any plants for the spell to work on. So instead he moved up 30 feet and cast hypnotic pattern on the bone devil and two of the barbed devils. Unfortunately all of them saved. Then he inspired Thneed. Orryk sent the air elemental, which moves incredibly fast, right up into the face of the bone devil, but it was unable to attack after flying so fast. Joybell, who saw that she was not going to be able to attack either, rode Scooby until she was next to one of the civilians (so she could protect them if they were attacked) and dodged. Joybell, as she rode, shouting: Go! Go!! Get out of here! Taman moved up next to her. Fiona moved up, trying to get into spell range, and dodged. The bone devil attacked the air elemental that was right in front of its face. The elemental was hit by a claw but missed by the huge stinger. Three of the civilians, seeing the devil attacking and the air elemental and hearing Thneed and Joybell shouting for them to get clear, froze in place and whimpered piteously. Three of them ran away screaming, including the one that had been next to Joybell. One of the barbed devils backed away from the air elemental, which was able to take an opportunity attack against it and hit solidly. It attacked the air elemental with a thrown fireball, but that missed. Another barbed devil threw fire at the air elemental and hit solidly. The third threw its fireball at Orryk, hitting him squarely, but doing no damage at all, because Orryk. Orryk grinned. Thneed moved up to where she could cast her hunters mark on the barbed devil that attacked Orryk -- then she took a shot at it. Mo moved up and shot the same one with his crossbow, then he inspired Joybell. Mo: Keep these civilians safe. Orryk ran forward and took two shots with his bow on the devil that had fireballed him. Then he spent a ki point for Patient Defense. The air elemental did two slams on one of the barbed devils, hitting it. Joybell rode up next to one of the civilians who was frozen in fear and yelled at him to snap out of it. Then she threw her javelin of lightning at the bone devil, hitting solidly. Taman ran over to the one that had attacked Orryk and attacked, but there was no one else fighting it so he wasn’t able to sneak up on it. Fiona moved up as far as she could and cast magic missile on the barb devil that Taman was fighting with. The bone devil moved up to attack Joybell, but missed with all of its attacks. One of the barbed devils did as well - or maybe it was attacking the civilian she was standing next to -- it was really impossible to tell. None of the three civilians were able to snap out of their terror and run away. All just cried and whimpered, staring in horror and terror at the devils. The barbed devil that was fighting with Taman attacked but missed. And the one that was fighting the air elemental backed away a bit and shot a fireball out it. Thneed shot the barbed devil Taman was fighting and hit it incredibly solidly (note: she did 43 points of damage, which was not even the maximum she can do). That dropped the barbed devil, which dissolved into a puddle of slime. Mo told Rafiki the baboon to grab one of the civilians. Rafiki ran off to do that, though it would take him several seconds to get to the civilian. The air elemental moved to fight the barbed devil that was attacking Joybell, then Orryk shot it in the back with his shortbow. Joybell attacked the bone devil and just missed and missed. Even Mo’s inspiration couldn’t help her. Taman moved, swiping along the blade of his rapier as he walked to activate his planar warrior ability, then attacked the bone devil for a lot of damage. Fiona fired a guiding bolt at the bone devil, but missed with the shot. The bone devil turned away from Joybell and attacked Taman -- he got lucky and was missed by a claw. Mo spoke some cutting words and prevented the stinger from hitting. The civilian near Joybell, and the bone devil, and a barbed devil, finally snapped out of his terror and ran away. The other two were unable to get their muscles working, except to cry and scream feebly. One of the barbed devils attacked Joybell and hit her. One of them threw fire at Tamana, but missed. However, we noticed that there was a bit of fire on some of the buildings. Rafiki started guiding one of the civilians out of the street and down a side alley. Mo himself, frustrated, unrolled the battle hammock and pushed the final civilian into it, then told the broom to fly around a corner into an alley. The air elemental made two slam attacks on the barbed devil. Orryk moved to ten feet away from the same barbed devil and hit it with his fists of unbroken air--hitting three times, one of which hit into a critical spot on the devil. Joybell attacked the bone devil and smote it, strongly, twice. (Note: She did a third level smite and a second level smite -- totalling 70 or so damage.) Taman then attacked and dropped the bone devil. His second attack hit the nearby barbed devil. Fiona cast a guiding bolt on the barbed devil on Joybell and Taman and the air elemental. Doing some nice damage and the next attack against it would be at advantage. The civilian with Rafiki apparently found that an agitated baboon was just another thing to be terrified by and stayed in place. Thneed moved up a bit closer and moved her hunter’s mark to the barbed devil on Joybell, Taman and the air elemental -- she hit it because of Fiona’s guiding bolt. Her second shot was better -- that dropped it. The devils attacked, to remarkably little effect. Rafiki pushed the civilian he was interacting with out of the street and into an alley. Then Mo tried to shoot the last barbed devil in the face with his crossbow, but he missed. The air elemental hit it. Orryk hit it with a critical blow with the medic’s blade, but it didn’t drop. Joybell rode over to it and hit it with two smiting blows, finally dropping it. Mo: I go to collect my broom and my monkey. We headed to the house -- which was about a 10 minute walk from where we were. The house looked pretty much the same as we’d seen earlier, except that there was a smoldering crater in the street outside the house. Fiona and Orryk knew that sometimes the portals appear at a location near, but not exactly on, the site of the circle. Apparently, the devils appeared here. And there we ended -- in the street outside the T’multin house. [/QUOTE]
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Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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