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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: 8302561" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p>Session 46: Making Deals With Devils Is Stupid As Well As Bad</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 began where we left off, right outside the T’multin house, with a still warm crater in the street outside and five people doing some sort of spell or ritual to summon them inside the house.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: Taman, didn’t you leave the back door open?</p><p>Taman: Yes! I did.</p><p></p><p>We sorted out our plan of attack.</p><p></p><p>Taman: Kick in the back door. Kill anyone who resists.</p><p></p><p>We decided that was good.</p><p></p><p>Mo pulled a giant weasel out of his bag of tricks. He named it Jamie Dimon and had it come with us. Orryk summoned an air elemental with the censer. Thneed cast pass without trace and we went over the wall on the back side of the house, near the carriage gate.</p><p></p><p>Due to Thneed’s spell, we were all really sneaky, even Joybell didn’t clank or clatter on the way in.</p><p></p><p>We could see that the windows were lit, but we couldn’t see any details, or even any movement, as we walked toward the back door. Orryk convinced Joybell to leave Scooby outside, which she did.</p><p></p><p>Taman opened the door, then ran across the mudroom and opened the door straight across from it.</p><p></p><p>We entered at a double door on the lower right. Taman’s straight across run led him to the door that ultimately went to the ritual room with the pentagram on the floor. Peeking inside, he saw the non-descript man he’d seen before and caught glimpses of some of the people he’d seen in the room earlier. He closed the door quietly, then let us know that the people were in there.</p><p></p><p>Once we were all ready, Taman kicked open the door and ran directly to the non-descript man and held his sword to his throat.</p><p></p><p>Taman: Surrender, Knaves!</p><p></p><p>Orryk entered the room, recommending to all of us that we not kill them. The air elemental hit the nondescript guy just before Orryk got to him. Orryk then hit him and stunned him with a punch. He then turned and used his fists of unbroken air to hit the woman from the fancy house (Yorla). She got blown back into the wall and knocked unconscious, dropped like the noncombatant she was.</p><p></p><p>In addition to the nondescript man and Yorla, there was a noble looking lady and two guys with shortswords. The guys with swords didn’t look like combatants either -- just like townies walking around with swords on their hips because people wear swords as a matter of course.</p><p></p><p>Jamie Dimon, the giant weasel, ran past the noble lady and attacked one of the regular dudes, climbing up his leg and clinging to him and scrambling over him.</p><p></p><p>Mo viciously mocked the noble looking lady.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Are you the help?</p><p></p><p>She stood there looking slack-jawed and stunned, like she’d never been so insulted in all her life.</p><p></p><p>Fiona moved into the doorway of the room and cast a mind-spike on the non-descript man -- so she’d know where he was for the next hour as long as she maintained concentration on it.</p><p></p><p>Thneed entered the room and aimed an arrow at the chest of the noble-looking lady.</p><p></p><p>Thneed: I suggest you get on the floor.</p><p></p><p>The noble lady kneeled.</p><p></p><p>The dude with Jamie Dimon scrambling over him and biting him flailed at the weasel. The other regular dude held his hands up, looking pretty freaked out.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Fantastic! This is going swimmingly!</p><p></p><p>Joybell walked into the room radiating paladinly disapproval and maternal disappointment, in a three-foot-tall package.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: What is going on in here? Why are you summoning devils?</p><p></p><p>The noble lady and the guy with his hands up looked over at the stunned non-descript guy, without saying a word.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Well, why are you following him? Don’t be horrible people.</p><p></p><p>Taman used the Rope of Entanglement on the stunned nondescript guy and Orryk put the Dimensional Shackles we’ve had since forever on him.</p><p></p><p>When the stunned guy shook it off a few seconds later he was tied up and shackled and prevented from teleporting or plane shifting. Mo shoved his Embernook armband into the guy’s mouth.</p><p></p><p>Then he called off Jamie Dimon.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Hold off. That guy may have money.</p><p></p><p>Fiona, looking around the room: Huh. Restrained, shackled, peeing on the floor, unconscious.</p><p></p><p>The runes in the circle glowed slightly red and Fiona couldn’t tell if the circle was powering up or powering down. So she cast a dispel magic on it and the whole circle powered down -- some of the runes went completely dark.</p><p></p><p>Thneed opened one of the other doors to the room and started quickly peeking around. She’d entered the room between the ritual room and the door and she saw nothing of particular interest in the room.</p><p></p><p>Thneed: i’m going to go get the police.</p><p>Mo: Don’t split the party.</p><p></p><p>So instead we perp-walked the whole crew out to the front wall and lined them up against the wall, searching all of them as we did so. (Before taking the noble-looking lady outside, Thneed found some clothing in one of the bedrooms and let her change her urine stained garments.)</p><p></p><p>We found 18,000 gold and 1600 platinum -- probably the money that the people of Promontory and the Guard hadn’t found when trying to get restitution for the victims of the T’multin’s pyramid scheme. The nondescript man also had a staff and a cloak. There was some Elven Chain in another room.</p><p></p><p>We also found some papers on the nondescript man -- a letter with his name on it: Orman.</p><p></p><p>The guard was apparently on the way to the house (the crater forming and devils roaming the city will get their attention). By the time we had everyone lined up against the wall, Thneed saw guards, including Captain Althorn, looking at the smoldering crater in the road and waved them over.</p><p></p><p>Thneed, pointing to our prisoners: The problem’s over there.</p><p></p><p>Captain Althorn gestured for a guard to manacle Orman, the nondescript guy, but Orryk left the dimensional shackles on nonetheless.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: HI, Captain!! I mentioned the fire portal earlier. I didn’t mention there was also a portal to one of the Hells, Stygia. To summon devils. So we tracked them down to here. They summoned devils earlier [pointing to the crater]. We killed those.</p><p></p><p>With the guard present, we talked to the townsmen, one of whom was Lord T’multin (the one Jamie Dimon had attacked) and the noble-looking lady, Lady T’multin, about why they were summoning devils. They felt that they had been wronged when they were kicked out of Promontory. Orman had convinced them that he could help.</p><p></p><p>We knew Yorla, the former fancy house owner, felt wronged because she’d lost her business. We didn’t know what the townsman who’d surrendered before we attacked him was upset about.</p><p></p><p>Mo, to that townsman: You! What’s your story?</p><p></p><p>The townsman told us that he’d been an innkeeper in Sunlit. He’d lost his inn and now had a dumpier place in the Feedlots. He ranted about conspiracies against him and the government favoring the people who’d displaced him and general unfairness.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: If you were truly wronged, I’m sure there are better ways to deal with it than summoning devils.</p><p></p><p>Joybell showed Captain Althorn the circle in the ritual room. She also showed him the gold we’d found on Orman.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: We think this is the money y’all didn’t find that belongs to the people they defrauded.</p><p>Captain: We’ll take the money to return it to the families. But you can keep any interesting items or stuff you found.</p><p></p><p>He said that while looking at the pile with the staff, the cloak, a book written in infernal, and the elven chain. We also found a pair of boots, a scroll and a thing that looked like a gigantic brass eyeball in the house.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: How the hell did they get elven chain?</p><p>Orryk: Same way Mo did.</p><p>Joybell: Well, fair enough.</p><p></p><p>Orryk pulled out the Orrery - it just spun without picking a direction.</p><p></p><p>Joybell, to Lady T’multin: Was the circle there when you bought the house?</p><p>Lady T’multin: It was part of the revenge.</p><p>Joybell, incensed: Revenge for what??! You don’t get to take revenge on your victims! You defrauded them! What is wrong with you?!</p><p></p><p>Before we left for the guardhouse, we helped the Captain interrogate Orman. We learned that he was with a gang (To Be Named Later) in New Arvai. He attempted to sell information that someone high up in New Arvai’s power structure wanted kept quiet. The person had very specific tastes, considered depraved and nasty, even by the standards of a city that is well known for consorting with demons and devils. He found himself imprisoned and looking at an inevitable, unpleasant death. He reached out for help, and Levistus answered. He woke up here in Erlin, without having any memory of traveling the distance between the cities.</p><p></p><p>Mo: What did you hope to accomplish?</p><p>Orman: Eventually, I wanted revenge on the people who imprisoned me.</p><p>Orryk: How did you create the portals?</p><p>Orman: I have a book that I got from Levistus.</p><p></p><p>We figured from all we’d learned that Orman was a warlock of Levistus - but he also apparently had some skills and training as a thief.</p><p></p><p>As we helped the guard take the prisoners to the guard house, we warned Captain Althorn about Orman’s connection with Levistus, and about his magical abilities. We wanted to make sure they were able to handle magical prisoners.</p><p></p><p>On the way Joybell, who was furious at all of these devil worshippers, fussed at Orman. All the way to the guardhouse and into his cell.</p><p></p><p>Then she warned Captain Althorn that he had a prisoner who’d made a deal with a devil who specializes in getting people out of prisons and other confinement.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Good luck holding him.</p><p></p><p>We left the guard with their prisoners, with the blessing of Captain Althorn, and returned to the Golden Gallant with the things we found.</p><p></p><p>We went to one of our rooms, finally resting, and Fiona identified the items we’d found.</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Spell Scroll of Glibness - (Note: Mo chortled when this was identified). This is an 8th level bard spell. (Mo)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cloak of Protection +1 to AC, +1 to all saves.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Staff of Swarming Insects (Mo) - produces insect swarms and giant insects. (Another contributor to Mo’s Magnificent Magical Menagerie)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Boots of the Path - does something like find the path</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Eye of the Beholder - it does an anti-magic field</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Warlock’s Pact of the Tome book</li> </ul><p>After identifying the items, we went to bed after a very long day. The night passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>30 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 120)</p><p></p><p>The next morning we were woken by a very very loud and insistent knock on one of the hotel room doors. It turned out to be Captain Althorn, looking frazzled. We asked if his prisoner had gone missing. He told us his whole prison was missing, at least the small building in the Feedlots they were using to house Orman separate from the rest of the prison population. All there was in its place was a crater with Orman’s body at the bottom of it.</p><p></p><p>Althorn was a little wound up.</p><p></p><p>The separate building that they’d put Orman in, under guard, was now a crater. One of the guards who’d been watching him reported that there was a crater that spread out under the building and the building collapsed into it. The guard saw an icy hand come out of the burning crater. It reached out and took a small clay-like worm out of the body of the warlock and dragged it away, down into the portal at the bottom of the crater.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: You need to have that guard make drawings of this and post it all over town. This is why you don’t make deals with devils, people!</p><p>Orryk: None of the people who did are here. Are you just lecturing?</p><p>Joybell: Apparently! Yes!</p><p></p><p>Captain Althorn had two requests for us -- the first was to break the summoning circle that ate the prison. The second was to deal with the devils that were roaming the city, after having emerged from the summoning circle.</p><p></p><p>We decided to go deal with the circle first -- turning off the tap, so to speak. Thneed did her check for fiends while we were on the way, so we’d know if we were approaching a fiend fortress. . She detected three groups -- one in Promontory, one between Sunlit and Het’s Ell, and one in the Harbor.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Someone’s gonna have to vouch us into Promontory.</p><p></p><p>Fiona, as we walked there: If this circle was created by Levistus himself, it might be beyond me.</p><p></p><p>The prison, a single room, single cell affair for special prisoners, was near the Feedlots and Gate Bridge. We went to the crater, much bigger than the one outside the T’multin house. It looked a little like a sinkhole, but with rubble down in the bottom. It looked like an underground nuclear test site.</p><p></p><p>But the ground was blackened and there were large runes in infernal around the circle.</p><p></p><p>Taman: This is the lesson we learned; Don’t take prisoners.</p><p>Thneed: There might have been a spell cast so that whenever he died this would happen. He might have found a way to kill himself. If we’d killed him, we might have been there when this happened.</p><p>Mo: You never know until you try.</p><p>Thneed: Technically, yes….but…</p><p></p><p>Fiona activated the wings of flying, preparing to fly to the edge of the dispel magic spell’s range over the circle. The rest of us backed away, but before we did so Mo inspired her.</p><p></p><p>Mo: You’ve got this! We have faith in you.</p><p></p><p>From 115 feet in the air, Fiona cast the most powerful dispel magic spell she could manage. Joybell stood by, closer than the others, with the warhammer at the ready, in case something happened.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, what happened, was that some (but not all) of the runes went dark and the circle became inert. When Fiona landed and the others gathered up, Joybell asked if it could be recreated or if it was really permanently dead. Fiona thought that it could be recreated, but only by someone who could make five foot high letters with lava.</p><p></p><p>Well, alrighty then.</p><p></p><p>Captain Althorn gave us each a voucher to get into Promontory, though we went first to Het’s Ell (toward Sunlit) because it was closer. As we went we discussed the order we wanted to tackle the groups of devils in -- over Mo’s objections, we decided to take them in the order we could get to them most efficiently, which unfortunately left the working folks in the Harbor for last, after the rich people in Promontory.</p><p></p><p>When we started getting close to the area Thneed thought they were in, we listened for screaming and watched for people running away. Orryk had Omnath flying up above the houses looking for them. We didn’t have to go too far into Sunlit before Omnath spotted some barbed devils and a bone devil. He guided Orryk in the right direction.</p><p></p><p>We came around a corner and found one bone devil and three barbed devils.</p><p></p><p>Joybell gave one of the civilians on the street, one who hadn’t yet seen the devils, a silver piece and asked him to run off and find Captain Althorn and ask him to tell people to stay inside and not be in danger. She gave the person her name and told him she’d last seen Captain Althorn down in the Feedlots.</p><p></p><p>Thneed put her hunter’s mark on the bone devil and shot him twice, getting a critical hit with one of them. Orryk moved closer and shot it with his short bow.</p><p></p><p>At that point, the bone devil flew up over the building and into an alley. From her position, Thneed could see it pick up a civilian and hold it up like a shield.</p><p></p><p>Fiona cast magic missile on the bone devil, taking advantage of the fact that the missiles wouldn’t hit the civilian. Taman took a shot at it with one of his magic arrows - he didn’t hit the devil, but he didn’t hit the civilian either.</p><p></p><p>The barbed devils moved toward us, passing some civilians in the street. And conveniently bunching up so that Mo could try and cast hypnotic pattern on them. That worked beautifully -- despite them having a special, innate resistance to magic, all three of them were hypnotized by the pretty lights. Then he sent Jamie Dimon to attack the bone devil.</p><p></p><p>Joybell rode hard on Scooby toward the bone devil, yelling for the civilians to run away as she passed, then scooted around the devil to attack it from the back, drawing down the energy of a divine smite when she hit it.</p><p></p><p>Most of the civilians listened to Joybell and ran away.</p><p></p><p>Thneed cast a new spell, setting some arrows down on the ground in a circle so that if any of the barbed devils woke up and stepped into the circle, they’d get shot by one of the arrows.</p><p></p><p>Orryk attacked the bone devil with the sword of the medic and then with a punch. The punch was the blow that got through and let him stun the devil.</p><p></p><p>Fiona cast a guiding bolt -- doing a lot of damage, which was worthwhile even though we already had advantage on our attacks against it. Taman ran up to the devil and attacked with his rapier, dropping it.</p><p></p><p>The civilian the devil had been holding as a shield or hostage fell to the ground mostly uninjured. He limped away down the alley.</p><p></p><p>With the bone devil dead, and the civilian no longer in danger, we focused fire on the barbed devils one at a time and took them out without much trouble.</p><p></p><p>We started heading toward the Switchback Terraces on the way to Promontory -- we figured out that between Fiona with her wings and the broom of flying ferrying people (and Orryk running straight up, cutting across the switchbacks) we were able to get up there pretty quickly. The guards at the gate to Promontory appeared to be studiously ignoring anything crazy that might be going on beyond their gates. They gave a quick glance to the chits that Captain Althorn had given us and let us in, pointing us in the direction of the screaming they were doing nothing about.</p><p></p><p>(Taman's player: These guards deserve names.</p><p>Joybell's player: Helmut and Kurt.)</p><p></p><p>We made our way into the old and spiffy part of the city.</p><p></p><p>Before long we saw three flying devils with big pitchforks, big muscles, and leathery wings. Thneed did ranger naughty word to try and pull up whatever knowledge she had about them.</p><p></p><p>Thneed: They’re big devils. I don’t like them.</p><p></p><p>Orryk told us that they were horn devils and that they often act as enforcers for various high ranking devils in the hierarchy of the hells. All of them were flying over the roofs of the buildings holding civilians as hostages -- the civilians were held casually, by the ankles or the wrists, about 40 feet off the ground.</p><p></p><p>Thneed took a couple of shots at the nearest one, after she put her hunter’s mark on it. She took extra care to aim to miss the hostage. Fiona cast a guiding bolt on one of them and got a critical crit on it and did a frightening lot of damage. And left the devil glowing.</p><p></p><p>Orryk ran up on top of the building with the devil Thneed and Fiona had been shooting hovering over it and dodged. Taman put his hunter’s mark on the same one and shot with the magic arrows, hitting twice and doing a lot of damage.</p><p></p><p>One of the other horn devils dropped its civilian, from 40 feet up, so it probably died, and landed behind a building. Another one dropped its civilian, who we could see landed very very badly and died instantly, and attacked Taman -- it missed with two attacks with its pitchfork. It would have hit with a whip of it’s sharp tail, but Taman’s luck and Mo’s cutting words kept it from hitting.</p><p></p><p>The one we’d been damaging flew down and landed near Taman, hitting him with its pitchfork.</p><p></p><p>Joybell cheered silently that they’d come down to where she could fight them. She dropped the one that we’d been focusing fire on with her first blow then rode over to the one on the other side of Taman, but missed with that attack.</p><p></p><p>None of us could see what was up with the one that had landed behind the building, so Mo cast shatter on the one on Joybell and Taman. Then he sent Jamie Dimon in to attack it.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Get him, Jamie! He might have some money!</p><p></p><p>The weasel ran up to the feet of the devil, but was unable to attack immediately.</p><p></p><p>Some of the remaining civilians broke out of their terrified paralysis and ran away, but some stayed stunned with horror.</p><p></p><p>Thneed moved her hunters mark to the one on Joybell and Taman and shot it twice. Fiona, still with the wings of flying, flew up over the tops of the buildings and saw the one lurking behind the building. She tried to cast mind spike on it, but it saved, so while she did some damage she did not get a lock on it to know where it was.</p><p></p><p>Orryk ran back down the building he’d just run up and threw two daggers at the one Joybell and Taman were fighting then punched at it with his fists of unbroken air. Taman moved his hunters mark to it and stabbed with the rapier, doing an awful lot of damage.</p><p></p><p>The devil on Taman and Joybell attacked Taman twice with his pitchfork. Taman avoided a critical hit from the pitchfork with a lucky dodge. Unfortunately ,the tail hit, doing some sort of damage that left him with a bleeding wound.</p><p></p><p>The one behind the building flew up into the air and attacked Fiona. Mo used his cutting words to cause one blow with the pitchfork into a miss, but the second hit her. They were about 40 feet up in the air fighting with one another.</p><p></p><p>Joybell missed twice with the warhammer, having gotten off step by dropping the one with her first blow a moment earlier. She moved slightly to be close enough to Taman to protect him with her shield.</p><p></p><p>Mo: I need a bottle of the hard stuff.</p><p></p><p>A giant, glowing whiskey bottle appeared over the head of the one flying with Fiona, but missed. Then Mo shot the devil with his crossbow, hitting but only barely. Jamie Dimon did more damage with its attack on the one on the ground with Taman and Joybell.</p><p></p><p>Thneed moved across the road, shooting the one on Joybell and Taman on the way and hitting twice. She used her war cleric ability to take another shot, but unfortunately that one missed.</p><p></p><p>Orryk moved up on the one on the ground -- he missed with the medic’s blade, unfortunately, but again he got a hit with his punch.</p><p></p><p>Taman’s bleeding wound practically gushed blood -- we wondered if the devil’s sharp tail had perhaps hit an artery. Then he attacked the devil and hit it well before he used his rogue training to disengage from the enemy and run away to where Thneed was.</p><p></p><p>The devil that was now on Orryk and Joybell attacked Joybell. Fortunately, it wasn’t able to hit her. The one that was in the air on Fiona sensed weakness in Taman, perhaps smelling all the blood, so it landed and attacked him. Taman’s luck prevented a critical hit. Then a pitchfork hit him --Taman’s own innate luck kept it from hitting him in a critical spot. Mo was able to use his cutting words to reduce the damage.</p><p></p><p>Joybell took two swings with the warhammer, missing with both of her blows. Again. Then she moved away, leaving Orryk with that one and going to protect Taman. Immediately after that, Mo used healing words on him.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Hey, buddy. You’ve got a lot of blood there.</p><p></p><p>The spell sealed up the bleeding wound and restored some of Taman’s strength. Then Mo crossbowed the one on Orryk for a few points and Jamie Dimon gnawed on it for a few more.</p><p></p><p>Thneed, who suddenly found herself with a devil right in front of her, ran away (risking an opportunity attack, which fortunately missed), then she took a shot at the one on Orryk, since her hunter’s mark was already on that one. She hit it once, then used her war cleric ability to shoot it again.</p><p></p><p>Fiona hit the one that had attacked her, which was now right up with Joybell and Taman, with a shadowbolt. It saved from the damage, but still took a lot of damage.</p><p></p><p>Orryk had Omnath breathe a cone of dust on the one on Joybell and Taman, but it saved. Then he attacked the one he was fighting with his medic’s blade, dropping it. He used the blade’s ability to heal Taman, then he ran over and attacked the one on Joybell and Taman but missed it.</p><p></p><p>Taman attacked the one that was on him, the last one, after moving his hunter’s mark over, and did a terrifying amount of damage with his sneak attack, but the devil was still standing.</p><p></p><p>It attacked Taman. Joybell held her shield ready to protect him from the tail, ignoring the two attacks with the pitchfork, which both missed. Between her shield and Mo’s cutting words, the tail missed as well.</p><p></p><p>Joybell then got her attack. She missed with her first one then <em>finally</em> got a hit with her second one. Full with the pleasure and satisfaction of having finally hit something, Joybell summoned down the biggest divine smite she could manage and with that she was able to just barely drop the devil.</p><p></p><p>We ran to check out the three civilians that the devils had dropped. Two of them were dead, as we suspected, but the third was barely alive and bleeding out. Joybell gave him a little bit of healing by laying on hands -- just enough to stabilize him and keep him safe until he could get more assistance than we had time to provide.</p><p></p><p>We ended there, before heading off to the Harbor to fight the last group.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8302561, member: 7016699"] Session 46: Making Deals With Devils Is Stupid As Well As Bad 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 began where we left off, right outside the T’multin house, with a still warm crater in the street outside and five people doing some sort of spell or ritual to summon them inside the house. Orryk: Taman, didn’t you leave the back door open? Taman: Yes! I did. We sorted out our plan of attack. Taman: Kick in the back door. Kill anyone who resists. We decided that was good. Mo pulled a giant weasel out of his bag of tricks. He named it Jamie Dimon and had it come with us. Orryk summoned an air elemental with the censer. Thneed cast pass without trace and we went over the wall on the back side of the house, near the carriage gate. Due to Thneed’s spell, we were all really sneaky, even Joybell didn’t clank or clatter on the way in. We could see that the windows were lit, but we couldn’t see any details, or even any movement, as we walked toward the back door. Orryk convinced Joybell to leave Scooby outside, which she did. Taman opened the door, then ran across the mudroom and opened the door straight across from it. We entered at a double door on the lower right. Taman’s straight across run led him to the door that ultimately went to the ritual room with the pentagram on the floor. Peeking inside, he saw the non-descript man he’d seen before and caught glimpses of some of the people he’d seen in the room earlier. He closed the door quietly, then let us know that the people were in there. Once we were all ready, Taman kicked open the door and ran directly to the non-descript man and held his sword to his throat. Taman: Surrender, Knaves! Orryk entered the room, recommending to all of us that we not kill them. The air elemental hit the nondescript guy just before Orryk got to him. Orryk then hit him and stunned him with a punch. He then turned and used his fists of unbroken air to hit the woman from the fancy house (Yorla). She got blown back into the wall and knocked unconscious, dropped like the noncombatant she was. In addition to the nondescript man and Yorla, there was a noble looking lady and two guys with shortswords. The guys with swords didn’t look like combatants either -- just like townies walking around with swords on their hips because people wear swords as a matter of course. Jamie Dimon, the giant weasel, ran past the noble lady and attacked one of the regular dudes, climbing up his leg and clinging to him and scrambling over him. Mo viciously mocked the noble looking lady. Mo: Are you the help? She stood there looking slack-jawed and stunned, like she’d never been so insulted in all her life. Fiona moved into the doorway of the room and cast a mind-spike on the non-descript man -- so she’d know where he was for the next hour as long as she maintained concentration on it. Thneed entered the room and aimed an arrow at the chest of the noble-looking lady. Thneed: I suggest you get on the floor. The noble lady kneeled. The dude with Jamie Dimon scrambling over him and biting him flailed at the weasel. The other regular dude held his hands up, looking pretty freaked out. Mo: Fantastic! This is going swimmingly! Joybell walked into the room radiating paladinly disapproval and maternal disappointment, in a three-foot-tall package. Joybell: What is going on in here? Why are you summoning devils? The noble lady and the guy with his hands up looked over at the stunned non-descript guy, without saying a word. Joybell: Well, why are you following him? Don’t be horrible people. Taman used the Rope of Entanglement on the stunned nondescript guy and Orryk put the Dimensional Shackles we’ve had since forever on him. When the stunned guy shook it off a few seconds later he was tied up and shackled and prevented from teleporting or plane shifting. Mo shoved his Embernook armband into the guy’s mouth. Then he called off Jamie Dimon. Mo: Hold off. That guy may have money. Fiona, looking around the room: Huh. Restrained, shackled, peeing on the floor, unconscious. The runes in the circle glowed slightly red and Fiona couldn’t tell if the circle was powering up or powering down. So she cast a dispel magic on it and the whole circle powered down -- some of the runes went completely dark. Thneed opened one of the other doors to the room and started quickly peeking around. She’d entered the room between the ritual room and the door and she saw nothing of particular interest in the room. Thneed: i’m going to go get the police. Mo: Don’t split the party. So instead we perp-walked the whole crew out to the front wall and lined them up against the wall, searching all of them as we did so. (Before taking the noble-looking lady outside, Thneed found some clothing in one of the bedrooms and let her change her urine stained garments.) We found 18,000 gold and 1600 platinum -- probably the money that the people of Promontory and the Guard hadn’t found when trying to get restitution for the victims of the T’multin’s pyramid scheme. The nondescript man also had a staff and a cloak. There was some Elven Chain in another room. We also found some papers on the nondescript man -- a letter with his name on it: Orman. The guard was apparently on the way to the house (the crater forming and devils roaming the city will get their attention). By the time we had everyone lined up against the wall, Thneed saw guards, including Captain Althorn, looking at the smoldering crater in the road and waved them over. Thneed, pointing to our prisoners: The problem’s over there. Captain Althorn gestured for a guard to manacle Orman, the nondescript guy, but Orryk left the dimensional shackles on nonetheless. Joybell: HI, Captain!! I mentioned the fire portal earlier. I didn’t mention there was also a portal to one of the Hells, Stygia. To summon devils. So we tracked them down to here. They summoned devils earlier [pointing to the crater]. We killed those. With the guard present, we talked to the townsmen, one of whom was Lord T’multin (the one Jamie Dimon had attacked) and the noble-looking lady, Lady T’multin, about why they were summoning devils. They felt that they had been wronged when they were kicked out of Promontory. Orman had convinced them that he could help. We knew Yorla, the former fancy house owner, felt wronged because she’d lost her business. We didn’t know what the townsman who’d surrendered before we attacked him was upset about. Mo, to that townsman: You! What’s your story? The townsman told us that he’d been an innkeeper in Sunlit. He’d lost his inn and now had a dumpier place in the Feedlots. He ranted about conspiracies against him and the government favoring the people who’d displaced him and general unfairness. Joybell: If you were truly wronged, I’m sure there are better ways to deal with it than summoning devils. Joybell showed Captain Althorn the circle in the ritual room. She also showed him the gold we’d found on Orman. Joybell: We think this is the money y’all didn’t find that belongs to the people they defrauded. Captain: We’ll take the money to return it to the families. But you can keep any interesting items or stuff you found. He said that while looking at the pile with the staff, the cloak, a book written in infernal, and the elven chain. We also found a pair of boots, a scroll and a thing that looked like a gigantic brass eyeball in the house. Joybell: How the hell did they get elven chain? Orryk: Same way Mo did. Joybell: Well, fair enough. Orryk pulled out the Orrery - it just spun without picking a direction. Joybell, to Lady T’multin: Was the circle there when you bought the house? Lady T’multin: It was part of the revenge. Joybell, incensed: Revenge for what??! You don’t get to take revenge on your victims! You defrauded them! What is wrong with you?! Before we left for the guardhouse, we helped the Captain interrogate Orman. We learned that he was with a gang (To Be Named Later) in New Arvai. He attempted to sell information that someone high up in New Arvai’s power structure wanted kept quiet. The person had very specific tastes, considered depraved and nasty, even by the standards of a city that is well known for consorting with demons and devils. He found himself imprisoned and looking at an inevitable, unpleasant death. He reached out for help, and Levistus answered. He woke up here in Erlin, without having any memory of traveling the distance between the cities. Mo: What did you hope to accomplish? Orman: Eventually, I wanted revenge on the people who imprisoned me. Orryk: How did you create the portals? Orman: I have a book that I got from Levistus. We figured from all we’d learned that Orman was a warlock of Levistus - but he also apparently had some skills and training as a thief. As we helped the guard take the prisoners to the guard house, we warned Captain Althorn about Orman’s connection with Levistus, and about his magical abilities. We wanted to make sure they were able to handle magical prisoners. On the way Joybell, who was furious at all of these devil worshippers, fussed at Orman. All the way to the guardhouse and into his cell. Then she warned Captain Althorn that he had a prisoner who’d made a deal with a devil who specializes in getting people out of prisons and other confinement. Joybell: Good luck holding him. We left the guard with their prisoners, with the blessing of Captain Althorn, and returned to the Golden Gallant with the things we found. We went to one of our rooms, finally resting, and Fiona identified the items we’d found. [LIST] [*]Spell Scroll of Glibness - (Note: Mo chortled when this was identified). This is an 8th level bard spell. (Mo) [*]Cloak of Protection +1 to AC, +1 to all saves. [*]Staff of Swarming Insects (Mo) - produces insect swarms and giant insects. (Another contributor to Mo’s Magnificent Magical Menagerie) [*]Boots of the Path - does something like find the path [*]Eye of the Beholder - it does an anti-magic field [*]The Warlock’s Pact of the Tome book [/LIST] After identifying the items, we went to bed after a very long day. The night passed without incident. 30 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 120) The next morning we were woken by a very very loud and insistent knock on one of the hotel room doors. It turned out to be Captain Althorn, looking frazzled. We asked if his prisoner had gone missing. He told us his whole prison was missing, at least the small building in the Feedlots they were using to house Orman separate from the rest of the prison population. All there was in its place was a crater with Orman’s body at the bottom of it. Althorn was a little wound up. The separate building that they’d put Orman in, under guard, was now a crater. One of the guards who’d been watching him reported that there was a crater that spread out under the building and the building collapsed into it. The guard saw an icy hand come out of the burning crater. It reached out and took a small clay-like worm out of the body of the warlock and dragged it away, down into the portal at the bottom of the crater. Joybell: You need to have that guard make drawings of this and post it all over town. This is why you don’t make deals with devils, people! Orryk: None of the people who did are here. Are you just lecturing? Joybell: Apparently! Yes! Captain Althorn had two requests for us -- the first was to break the summoning circle that ate the prison. The second was to deal with the devils that were roaming the city, after having emerged from the summoning circle. We decided to go deal with the circle first -- turning off the tap, so to speak. Thneed did her check for fiends while we were on the way, so we’d know if we were approaching a fiend fortress. . She detected three groups -- one in Promontory, one between Sunlit and Het’s Ell, and one in the Harbor. Joybell: Someone’s gonna have to vouch us into Promontory. Fiona, as we walked there: If this circle was created by Levistus himself, it might be beyond me. The prison, a single room, single cell affair for special prisoners, was near the Feedlots and Gate Bridge. We went to the crater, much bigger than the one outside the T’multin house. It looked a little like a sinkhole, but with rubble down in the bottom. It looked like an underground nuclear test site. But the ground was blackened and there were large runes in infernal around the circle. Taman: This is the lesson we learned; Don’t take prisoners. Thneed: There might have been a spell cast so that whenever he died this would happen. He might have found a way to kill himself. If we’d killed him, we might have been there when this happened. Mo: You never know until you try. Thneed: Technically, yes….but… Fiona activated the wings of flying, preparing to fly to the edge of the dispel magic spell’s range over the circle. The rest of us backed away, but before we did so Mo inspired her. Mo: You’ve got this! We have faith in you. From 115 feet in the air, Fiona cast the most powerful dispel magic spell she could manage. Joybell stood by, closer than the others, with the warhammer at the ready, in case something happened. Fortunately, what happened, was that some (but not all) of the runes went dark and the circle became inert. When Fiona landed and the others gathered up, Joybell asked if it could be recreated or if it was really permanently dead. Fiona thought that it could be recreated, but only by someone who could make five foot high letters with lava. Well, alrighty then. Captain Althorn gave us each a voucher to get into Promontory, though we went first to Het’s Ell (toward Sunlit) because it was closer. As we went we discussed the order we wanted to tackle the groups of devils in -- over Mo’s objections, we decided to take them in the order we could get to them most efficiently, which unfortunately left the working folks in the Harbor for last, after the rich people in Promontory. When we started getting close to the area Thneed thought they were in, we listened for screaming and watched for people running away. Orryk had Omnath flying up above the houses looking for them. We didn’t have to go too far into Sunlit before Omnath spotted some barbed devils and a bone devil. He guided Orryk in the right direction. We came around a corner and found one bone devil and three barbed devils. Joybell gave one of the civilians on the street, one who hadn’t yet seen the devils, a silver piece and asked him to run off and find Captain Althorn and ask him to tell people to stay inside and not be in danger. She gave the person her name and told him she’d last seen Captain Althorn down in the Feedlots. Thneed put her hunter’s mark on the bone devil and shot him twice, getting a critical hit with one of them. Orryk moved closer and shot it with his short bow. At that point, the bone devil flew up over the building and into an alley. From her position, Thneed could see it pick up a civilian and hold it up like a shield. Fiona cast magic missile on the bone devil, taking advantage of the fact that the missiles wouldn’t hit the civilian. Taman took a shot at it with one of his magic arrows - he didn’t hit the devil, but he didn’t hit the civilian either. The barbed devils moved toward us, passing some civilians in the street. And conveniently bunching up so that Mo could try and cast hypnotic pattern on them. That worked beautifully -- despite them having a special, innate resistance to magic, all three of them were hypnotized by the pretty lights. Then he sent Jamie Dimon to attack the bone devil. Joybell rode hard on Scooby toward the bone devil, yelling for the civilians to run away as she passed, then scooted around the devil to attack it from the back, drawing down the energy of a divine smite when she hit it. Most of the civilians listened to Joybell and ran away. Thneed cast a new spell, setting some arrows down on the ground in a circle so that if any of the barbed devils woke up and stepped into the circle, they’d get shot by one of the arrows. Orryk attacked the bone devil with the sword of the medic and then with a punch. The punch was the blow that got through and let him stun the devil. Fiona cast a guiding bolt -- doing a lot of damage, which was worthwhile even though we already had advantage on our attacks against it. Taman ran up to the devil and attacked with his rapier, dropping it. The civilian the devil had been holding as a shield or hostage fell to the ground mostly uninjured. He limped away down the alley. With the bone devil dead, and the civilian no longer in danger, we focused fire on the barbed devils one at a time and took them out without much trouble. We started heading toward the Switchback Terraces on the way to Promontory -- we figured out that between Fiona with her wings and the broom of flying ferrying people (and Orryk running straight up, cutting across the switchbacks) we were able to get up there pretty quickly. The guards at the gate to Promontory appeared to be studiously ignoring anything crazy that might be going on beyond their gates. They gave a quick glance to the chits that Captain Althorn had given us and let us in, pointing us in the direction of the screaming they were doing nothing about. (Taman's player: These guards deserve names. Joybell's player: Helmut and Kurt.) We made our way into the old and spiffy part of the city. Before long we saw three flying devils with big pitchforks, big muscles, and leathery wings. Thneed did ranger naughty word to try and pull up whatever knowledge she had about them. Thneed: They’re big devils. I don’t like them. Orryk told us that they were horn devils and that they often act as enforcers for various high ranking devils in the hierarchy of the hells. All of them were flying over the roofs of the buildings holding civilians as hostages -- the civilians were held casually, by the ankles or the wrists, about 40 feet off the ground. Thneed took a couple of shots at the nearest one, after she put her hunter’s mark on it. She took extra care to aim to miss the hostage. Fiona cast a guiding bolt on one of them and got a critical crit on it and did a frightening lot of damage. And left the devil glowing. Orryk ran up on top of the building with the devil Thneed and Fiona had been shooting hovering over it and dodged. Taman put his hunter’s mark on the same one and shot with the magic arrows, hitting twice and doing a lot of damage. One of the other horn devils dropped its civilian, from 40 feet up, so it probably died, and landed behind a building. Another one dropped its civilian, who we could see landed very very badly and died instantly, and attacked Taman -- it missed with two attacks with its pitchfork. It would have hit with a whip of it’s sharp tail, but Taman’s luck and Mo’s cutting words kept it from hitting. The one we’d been damaging flew down and landed near Taman, hitting him with its pitchfork. Joybell cheered silently that they’d come down to where she could fight them. She dropped the one that we’d been focusing fire on with her first blow then rode over to the one on the other side of Taman, but missed with that attack. None of us could see what was up with the one that had landed behind the building, so Mo cast shatter on the one on Joybell and Taman. Then he sent Jamie Dimon in to attack it. Mo: Get him, Jamie! He might have some money! The weasel ran up to the feet of the devil, but was unable to attack immediately. Some of the remaining civilians broke out of their terrified paralysis and ran away, but some stayed stunned with horror. Thneed moved her hunters mark to the one on Joybell and Taman and shot it twice. Fiona, still with the wings of flying, flew up over the tops of the buildings and saw the one lurking behind the building. She tried to cast mind spike on it, but it saved, so while she did some damage she did not get a lock on it to know where it was. Orryk ran back down the building he’d just run up and threw two daggers at the one Joybell and Taman were fighting then punched at it with his fists of unbroken air. Taman moved his hunters mark to it and stabbed with the rapier, doing an awful lot of damage. The devil on Taman and Joybell attacked Taman twice with his pitchfork. Taman avoided a critical hit from the pitchfork with a lucky dodge. Unfortunately ,the tail hit, doing some sort of damage that left him with a bleeding wound. The one behind the building flew up into the air and attacked Fiona. Mo used his cutting words to cause one blow with the pitchfork into a miss, but the second hit her. They were about 40 feet up in the air fighting with one another. Joybell missed twice with the warhammer, having gotten off step by dropping the one with her first blow a moment earlier. She moved slightly to be close enough to Taman to protect him with her shield. Mo: I need a bottle of the hard stuff. A giant, glowing whiskey bottle appeared over the head of the one flying with Fiona, but missed. Then Mo shot the devil with his crossbow, hitting but only barely. Jamie Dimon did more damage with its attack on the one on the ground with Taman and Joybell. Thneed moved across the road, shooting the one on Joybell and Taman on the way and hitting twice. She used her war cleric ability to take another shot, but unfortunately that one missed. Orryk moved up on the one on the ground -- he missed with the medic’s blade, unfortunately, but again he got a hit with his punch. Taman’s bleeding wound practically gushed blood -- we wondered if the devil’s sharp tail had perhaps hit an artery. Then he attacked the devil and hit it well before he used his rogue training to disengage from the enemy and run away to where Thneed was. The devil that was now on Orryk and Joybell attacked Joybell. Fortunately, it wasn’t able to hit her. The one that was in the air on Fiona sensed weakness in Taman, perhaps smelling all the blood, so it landed and attacked him. Taman’s luck prevented a critical hit. Then a pitchfork hit him --Taman’s own innate luck kept it from hitting him in a critical spot. Mo was able to use his cutting words to reduce the damage. Joybell took two swings with the warhammer, missing with both of her blows. Again. Then she moved away, leaving Orryk with that one and going to protect Taman. Immediately after that, Mo used healing words on him. Mo: Hey, buddy. You’ve got a lot of blood there. The spell sealed up the bleeding wound and restored some of Taman’s strength. Then Mo crossbowed the one on Orryk for a few points and Jamie Dimon gnawed on it for a few more. Thneed, who suddenly found herself with a devil right in front of her, ran away (risking an opportunity attack, which fortunately missed), then she took a shot at the one on Orryk, since her hunter’s mark was already on that one. She hit it once, then used her war cleric ability to shoot it again. Fiona hit the one that had attacked her, which was now right up with Joybell and Taman, with a shadowbolt. It saved from the damage, but still took a lot of damage. Orryk had Omnath breathe a cone of dust on the one on Joybell and Taman, but it saved. Then he attacked the one he was fighting with his medic’s blade, dropping it. He used the blade’s ability to heal Taman, then he ran over and attacked the one on Joybell and Taman but missed it. Taman attacked the one that was on him, the last one, after moving his hunter’s mark over, and did a terrifying amount of damage with his sneak attack, but the devil was still standing. It attacked Taman. Joybell held her shield ready to protect him from the tail, ignoring the two attacks with the pitchfork, which both missed. Between her shield and Mo’s cutting words, the tail missed as well. Joybell then got her attack. She missed with her first one then [I]finally[/I] got a hit with her second one. Full with the pleasure and satisfaction of having finally hit something, Joybell summoned down the biggest divine smite she could manage and with that she was able to just barely drop the devil. We ran to check out the three civilians that the devils had dropped. Two of them were dead, as we suspected, but the third was barely alive and bleeding out. Joybell gave him a little bit of healing by laying on hands -- just enough to stabilize him and keep him safe until he could get more assistance than we had time to provide. We ended there, before heading off to the Harbor to fight the last group. [/QUOTE]
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Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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