Session 41: Lots of Devils. That Poor Town.
Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid (Circle of Stars)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin
GM - Everyone Else
(Note: This session was held on Discord. Also note that deponent was having extreme internet trouble on account of a power outage and having to use a hot-spot created by her phone, with very dodgy signal, to be online at all.)
13 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 164)(immediately after)
As we started leaving Elthir, the town a day’s travel upstream from Brush Bend, Marxine named her horse Comrade 2.
We rode as fast as we could on the road to Brush Bend. It was still daytime, though afternoon, when we left Elthir. There was a cloud of smoke in the distance that we could see. We could also smell the smoke and the sulfur. As the light faded and the dark (nearly new moon) night settled in, we continued going, though we had to slow down some, to keep the horses on the road and safe. We could see a glow in the sky over the town -- nothing as extreme as a pillar of fire, but definitely lit up in an unnatural way -- that kept us going in the right direction.
Despite slowing down, we were moving fast and with every intention of just blasting into town and dealing with whatever we found there. Then Vinya heard in her head a familiar voice -- that of Thorin, the deva she has a romantic relationship with, though he’s off on assignment in other places, possibly other planes.
Thorin: Devils like ambushes, you know.
Vinya thought about that for a second then slowed up a bit.
Vinya, to the party: Guys, we might want to consider scouting a bit and seeing what the situation is. Whatever is doing this might well be prepared for whoever would be coming to save the town.
Marxine: I’m not as worried about our lives as about saving the town.
Vinya: I’m okay with that. But we can’t save them if we’re dead.
Marxine: I don’t want to spend a day scouting and wasting time.
Vinya: Me either. But maybe Oda can do a flyover and Aldalomiel and I can sneak close and see what the situation is.
Marxine: Okay.
When we got about a half mile away from the town, Elderron sent Oda to scout and report back. Oda flew over the town then came back and communicated to Elderron that parts of the city are demolished and smoldering, but some buildings still stand. There was a well of laval that was 30’ across. All he could see moving around were devils. There were a lot of devils with tails and beards and purple skin carrying glaives. A smaller lot of devils with barbs on their skin. He saw a couple going in and out of two intact buildings that looked like they were wrapped in chains. He didn’t see any corpses on the ground.
Vinya: I’ve gotten a warning from a deva, umm, friend of mine that this might be an ambush.
Elama: How do you know a deva? What’s a deva?
Vinya: Ummm...Devas are celestials. We were at the Chiaroscuro Temple together.
Elama: What was a deva doing at the monastery?
Vinya: I’m not totally sure. But I think I told you about the Zariel cabal there. He brought some planetars, big green guys, and they busted it up. He had to leave after that.
After some thought, Elderron recognized the devils involved from Oda’s impressions. The devils wrapped in chains are Chain Devils -- they are jailers and torturers. The ones with purple skin, beards and glaives are Beard Devils -- they’re infantry. The ones with barbs on their skin are Barbed Devils -- they’re guards and notoriously alert with darkvision that goes way further than anyone in the party’s (120’). He passed this information along to the party.
Elderron: Don’t attack them with fire or poison. It won’t do anything. Cold’s not great either. And it’s tough to get spells to work on them at all, so keep that in mind when choosing what to cast on them.
Marxine: The intact buildings are probably where they’re holding the villagers.
Vinya: I’m sorry, Marxine. We need a strategy or plan here. Something to draw the Barbeds and Beards away from those buildings so we can get the villagers out.
Elderron: Oda also saw a 30’ wide well-like structure that looked like a pool of cooling lava. I think that’s a portal to the hells.
Aldalomiel: We could find a spot around the edge of the town and pick off the Barbeds with ranged attacks without drawing too much attention.
Marxine: Drawing attention away from the building is good. Some of us could get the villagers out while the rest of us do that. Maybe Elderron, Elama, and I could make a fuss while Vinya and Aldalomiel get the villagers out of danger. If we can get them out of the city, they can find their way to someplace safe.
We decided on that as something of a plan. Once the villagers were safe we could work on closing that gate -- both Elama and Elderron had dispel magic available. If that failed, Marxine and the hammer of unmaking could have a go at it.
The road led into the village, past a few destroyed buildings to the heart of the village -- some ruins and rubble and five standing buildings. We stopped outside of that Oda did another flyover, with Elderron watching through his eyes. He was able to identify the two buildings that the Chain Devils were moving between, which let Aldalomiel and Vinya know where to go. He also saw that the Beard Devils were widely spaced out, but loosely in a line facing the road from Elthir (the direction we were coming). The Barbed Devils were also widely spaced out behind them (from our point of view). The two “prison buildings” were further beyond them.
Vinya: Give us a couple of minutes to get into position before you start making a fuss.
Marxine: I’m more concerned about the villagers survival than ours.
Vinya: Understood. But we can’t save them if we’re dead.
Marxine: Right.
During those minutes, Elderron cast mage armor and mirror image on himself.
Aldalomiel cast pass without trace and she and Vinya headed around the village to a position as close as feasible to the two buildings we suspected were being used as prisons. We went around so that we were near the building closest to the portal (the well of lava) -- about fifty feet from the building and sixty from the portal.
Aldalomiel moved toward the building -- but stayed within thirty feet of Vinya so she’d stay in the pass without trace. That left her still a few feet from the corner of the building. She could see some windows in the walls -- they were low, because halfling buildings are typically at least partly dug into the ground. Unfortunately she couldn’t see inside from her position. She pulled her bow.
When they figured Aldalomiel and Vinya were in a good position, Elderron cast haste on Marxine. Marxine, about 120 feet away from some of the Beard Devils, moved up seventy feet and tried to get their attention on her. Then she cast shield of faith. (Note: The two parts of the party were unable to see each other. At this juncture it is plausible that Aldalomiel and Vinya could hear the fuss Marxine was making.)
Elama moved forward as well -- she hoped to cast call lightning, but the night was too dark for her to see well enough to do that, so instead she just ran as fast as she could and ended up about ten feet from Marxine.
Vinya, in the other part of the town with Aldalomiel, moved past Aldalomiel to the wall of the building and peeked in through one of the windows. She could see some halflings cowering against one of the walls and a couple of chains loose on the floor moving in a serpent-like manner apparently independently. She opened the window as far as she could without it making noise -- which was about 6 inches and not enough to really work with, alas. She then readied her short bow and held a shot for any devil she could get a shot at.
Over on the other side of town, six wads of fire came shooting out of the darkness at Marxine from beyond the Bearded Devils she could just see in the darkness. All of them missed.
Marxine: Shoot better! I thought devils had night vision.
Elderron moved and dashed to get closer to, but still behind, Elama and Marxine.
The Bearded Devils moved up, clustering around Marxine and Elama. Most of them chose to dodge rather than attacking, but one attacked Marxine with its glaive from 10 feet away. Fortunately it missed.
Over at the prison building, Aldalomiel went around the corner of the building to where we expected a door to be, based on what Elderron had seen through Oda. The door wasn’t locked. She cracked it open and saw a chain devil inside. She snuck through the open door as best she could. Once inside she dropped the pass without trace and cast hunter’s mark on the chain devil and shot it twice, hitting it once.
Outside with the mass of Bearded Devils, Elama cast call lightning and threw a lightning bolt at a couple of devils. One of them wasn’t dodging, but as Elderron had told us, it’s hard to get magic to affect them. Marxine moved right up to and attacked one of the bearded devils, attacking three times because of the haste on her.
In the prison, the Chain Devil turned to Aldalomiel. Chains unwrapped from its torso and swung toward her. Two of them wrapped around her, leaving her not only injured but also grappled and restrained.
Vinya looked in the window and saw the devil there. She fired four sunbolts at it, hitting three times, then moved back to where she couldn’t be seen through the window.
Outside, one of the Barbed Devils finally moved close enough that the party could see it. It attacked Elama but missed with both of its attacks. The rest of the Barbed Devils, still in the darkness and out of sight, threw wads of fire at Elama. Only two of the fire-wads hit, but they both hit her solidly.
Lamie: Ow!
The damage disrupted her concentration on the call lightning spell.
Elderron cast a fireball, which he modified to do radiant damage and have an intelligence save, on most of the Beard Devils and the one Barbed Devil that had moved close. One of the Beard Devils dropped and it appeared that many of them took damage from that. Then he moved just a bit, so he was a little less bunched up with Elama and Marxine.
Two of the Beard Devils were on Lamie. One of them hit her. She dropped it with her retaliatory lightning strike. Another of the Beard Devils attacked her -- both with its glaive and with its beard, but they didn’t hit. One of them attacked Elderron, but all it managed to do was break one of his mirror images. Another one missed Elderron because of the mage armor. The rest all attacked Marxine and all missed. The slow effect from the Rod of Litrices worked on a couple of them, who were suddenly moving like they’d walked into a wall of molasses.
In the prison, Aldalomiel was restrained and grappled by the Chain Devil, and the barbed chains cut into her, causing her to lose the hunter’s mark she’d placed on the devil. She turned into her starry archer form. She was able to shoot at it with her bow, hitting once, and to fire a radiant bolt at it, which also hit.
Outside, Marxine found herself in a target-rich environment. Two of the Beard Devils were under a slow effect from the Rod of Litrices. Marxine stepped away from the two slowed ones and attacked the ones on Elama. She dropped one of them with her first hit and another with her next two hits.
Elama could see a Barbed Devil coming toward her fast, so she cast shield of faith on herself. Then she went to one of the Beard Devils on Elderron and slashed it with her sword.
The Chain Devil in the prison attacked Aldalomiel again, doing a considerable amount of damage. The other Chain Devil surprised Vinya by coming around the corner of the building and attacking her--she was lightly damaged but also grappled and restrained.
Vinya shot four sunbolts at the Chain Devil holding her. Two of them hit, one very solidly. But it didn’t do anything to get her free of the devil’s chains.
Outside, Elama was in melee with a Barbed Devil. It missed her with its claws but hit with its tail that pierced her through her armor. Fortunately, she was able to keep the shield of faith active. The other three threw wads of fire, to unknown effect.
Elderron cast blight on the undamaged Beard Devil next to him -- it managed to avoid some of the effects but was still badly damaged.
The Beard Devil on Elderron responded with an attack -- but not a successful one. It badly missed one of the mirror images. The other two remaining Beard Devils advanced on Marxine -- both of them missed their attacks on her, but they didn’t get slowed by the Rod of Litrices.
Aldalomiel, in the prison on the other side of the village, was slashed and torn by the cruel chains that held her. She cast cure wounds on herself, because she was getting pretty badly hurt. Then she fired a radiant bolt from her starry form at the Chain Devil, but missed.
Marxine moved away from the two Beard Devils on her, risking the opportunity attacks (both of which missed anyway, though the Devils didn’t get slowed by the Rod), and went to the one on Elderron. She hit it three times and dropped it.
Elderron: Thank you!
Elama attacked twice on the Barbed Devil she was fighting, hitting once.
In the prison, the Chain Devil holding Aldalomiel hit her again. Vinya, despite being restrained and grappled, was missed. Emboldened by this, Vinya tried to wriggle out of the chains, but was unable to do so.
The Barbed Devil on Elama would have gotten a crit on her, but she was able to use the bulette shield to negate that, though she still took a normal hit. The other three threw wads of fire and missed.
Elderron fired a scorching ray, modified to do radiant damage, at the Barbed Devil on Elama and got two hits.
The two remaining Bearded Devils attacked Marxine. Once again, both of them missed. One of them got slowed again.
And there we ended. The next session will begin with Aldalomiel at the top of the round. There are five rounds remaining on Marxine’s haste spell.
Dramatis Personae:
Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid (Circle of Stars)
Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)
Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)
Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)
Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin
GM - Everyone Else
(Note: This session was held on Discord. Also note that deponent was having extreme internet trouble on account of a power outage and having to use a hot-spot created by her phone, with very dodgy signal, to be online at all.)
13 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 164)(immediately after)
As we started leaving Elthir, the town a day’s travel upstream from Brush Bend, Marxine named her horse Comrade 2.
We rode as fast as we could on the road to Brush Bend. It was still daytime, though afternoon, when we left Elthir. There was a cloud of smoke in the distance that we could see. We could also smell the smoke and the sulfur. As the light faded and the dark (nearly new moon) night settled in, we continued going, though we had to slow down some, to keep the horses on the road and safe. We could see a glow in the sky over the town -- nothing as extreme as a pillar of fire, but definitely lit up in an unnatural way -- that kept us going in the right direction.
Despite slowing down, we were moving fast and with every intention of just blasting into town and dealing with whatever we found there. Then Vinya heard in her head a familiar voice -- that of Thorin, the deva she has a romantic relationship with, though he’s off on assignment in other places, possibly other planes.
Thorin: Devils like ambushes, you know.
Vinya thought about that for a second then slowed up a bit.
Vinya, to the party: Guys, we might want to consider scouting a bit and seeing what the situation is. Whatever is doing this might well be prepared for whoever would be coming to save the town.
Marxine: I’m not as worried about our lives as about saving the town.
Vinya: I’m okay with that. But we can’t save them if we’re dead.
Marxine: I don’t want to spend a day scouting and wasting time.
Vinya: Me either. But maybe Oda can do a flyover and Aldalomiel and I can sneak close and see what the situation is.
Marxine: Okay.
When we got about a half mile away from the town, Elderron sent Oda to scout and report back. Oda flew over the town then came back and communicated to Elderron that parts of the city are demolished and smoldering, but some buildings still stand. There was a well of laval that was 30’ across. All he could see moving around were devils. There were a lot of devils with tails and beards and purple skin carrying glaives. A smaller lot of devils with barbs on their skin. He saw a couple going in and out of two intact buildings that looked like they were wrapped in chains. He didn’t see any corpses on the ground.
Vinya: I’ve gotten a warning from a deva, umm, friend of mine that this might be an ambush.
Elama: How do you know a deva? What’s a deva?
Vinya: Ummm...Devas are celestials. We were at the Chiaroscuro Temple together.
Elama: What was a deva doing at the monastery?
Vinya: I’m not totally sure. But I think I told you about the Zariel cabal there. He brought some planetars, big green guys, and they busted it up. He had to leave after that.
After some thought, Elderron recognized the devils involved from Oda’s impressions. The devils wrapped in chains are Chain Devils -- they are jailers and torturers. The ones with purple skin, beards and glaives are Beard Devils -- they’re infantry. The ones with barbs on their skin are Barbed Devils -- they’re guards and notoriously alert with darkvision that goes way further than anyone in the party’s (120’). He passed this information along to the party.
Elderron: Don’t attack them with fire or poison. It won’t do anything. Cold’s not great either. And it’s tough to get spells to work on them at all, so keep that in mind when choosing what to cast on them.
Marxine: The intact buildings are probably where they’re holding the villagers.
Vinya: I’m sorry, Marxine. We need a strategy or plan here. Something to draw the Barbeds and Beards away from those buildings so we can get the villagers out.
Elderron: Oda also saw a 30’ wide well-like structure that looked like a pool of cooling lava. I think that’s a portal to the hells.
Aldalomiel: We could find a spot around the edge of the town and pick off the Barbeds with ranged attacks without drawing too much attention.
Marxine: Drawing attention away from the building is good. Some of us could get the villagers out while the rest of us do that. Maybe Elderron, Elama, and I could make a fuss while Vinya and Aldalomiel get the villagers out of danger. If we can get them out of the city, they can find their way to someplace safe.
We decided on that as something of a plan. Once the villagers were safe we could work on closing that gate -- both Elama and Elderron had dispel magic available. If that failed, Marxine and the hammer of unmaking could have a go at it.
The road led into the village, past a few destroyed buildings to the heart of the village -- some ruins and rubble and five standing buildings. We stopped outside of that Oda did another flyover, with Elderron watching through his eyes. He was able to identify the two buildings that the Chain Devils were moving between, which let Aldalomiel and Vinya know where to go. He also saw that the Beard Devils were widely spaced out, but loosely in a line facing the road from Elthir (the direction we were coming). The Barbed Devils were also widely spaced out behind them (from our point of view). The two “prison buildings” were further beyond them.
Vinya: Give us a couple of minutes to get into position before you start making a fuss.
Marxine: I’m more concerned about the villagers survival than ours.
Vinya: Understood. But we can’t save them if we’re dead.
Marxine: Right.
During those minutes, Elderron cast mage armor and mirror image on himself.
Aldalomiel cast pass without trace and she and Vinya headed around the village to a position as close as feasible to the two buildings we suspected were being used as prisons. We went around so that we were near the building closest to the portal (the well of lava) -- about fifty feet from the building and sixty from the portal.
Aldalomiel moved toward the building -- but stayed within thirty feet of Vinya so she’d stay in the pass without trace. That left her still a few feet from the corner of the building. She could see some windows in the walls -- they were low, because halfling buildings are typically at least partly dug into the ground. Unfortunately she couldn’t see inside from her position. She pulled her bow.
When they figured Aldalomiel and Vinya were in a good position, Elderron cast haste on Marxine. Marxine, about 120 feet away from some of the Beard Devils, moved up seventy feet and tried to get their attention on her. Then she cast shield of faith. (Note: The two parts of the party were unable to see each other. At this juncture it is plausible that Aldalomiel and Vinya could hear the fuss Marxine was making.)
Elama moved forward as well -- she hoped to cast call lightning, but the night was too dark for her to see well enough to do that, so instead she just ran as fast as she could and ended up about ten feet from Marxine.
Vinya, in the other part of the town with Aldalomiel, moved past Aldalomiel to the wall of the building and peeked in through one of the windows. She could see some halflings cowering against one of the walls and a couple of chains loose on the floor moving in a serpent-like manner apparently independently. She opened the window as far as she could without it making noise -- which was about 6 inches and not enough to really work with, alas. She then readied her short bow and held a shot for any devil she could get a shot at.
Over on the other side of town, six wads of fire came shooting out of the darkness at Marxine from beyond the Bearded Devils she could just see in the darkness. All of them missed.
Marxine: Shoot better! I thought devils had night vision.
Elderron moved and dashed to get closer to, but still behind, Elama and Marxine.
The Bearded Devils moved up, clustering around Marxine and Elama. Most of them chose to dodge rather than attacking, but one attacked Marxine with its glaive from 10 feet away. Fortunately it missed.
Over at the prison building, Aldalomiel went around the corner of the building to where we expected a door to be, based on what Elderron had seen through Oda. The door wasn’t locked. She cracked it open and saw a chain devil inside. She snuck through the open door as best she could. Once inside she dropped the pass without trace and cast hunter’s mark on the chain devil and shot it twice, hitting it once.
Outside with the mass of Bearded Devils, Elama cast call lightning and threw a lightning bolt at a couple of devils. One of them wasn’t dodging, but as Elderron had told us, it’s hard to get magic to affect them. Marxine moved right up to and attacked one of the bearded devils, attacking three times because of the haste on her.
In the prison, the Chain Devil turned to Aldalomiel. Chains unwrapped from its torso and swung toward her. Two of them wrapped around her, leaving her not only injured but also grappled and restrained.
Vinya looked in the window and saw the devil there. She fired four sunbolts at it, hitting three times, then moved back to where she couldn’t be seen through the window.
Outside, one of the Barbed Devils finally moved close enough that the party could see it. It attacked Elama but missed with both of its attacks. The rest of the Barbed Devils, still in the darkness and out of sight, threw wads of fire at Elama. Only two of the fire-wads hit, but they both hit her solidly.
Lamie: Ow!
The damage disrupted her concentration on the call lightning spell.
Elderron cast a fireball, which he modified to do radiant damage and have an intelligence save, on most of the Beard Devils and the one Barbed Devil that had moved close. One of the Beard Devils dropped and it appeared that many of them took damage from that. Then he moved just a bit, so he was a little less bunched up with Elama and Marxine.
Two of the Beard Devils were on Lamie. One of them hit her. She dropped it with her retaliatory lightning strike. Another of the Beard Devils attacked her -- both with its glaive and with its beard, but they didn’t hit. One of them attacked Elderron, but all it managed to do was break one of his mirror images. Another one missed Elderron because of the mage armor. The rest all attacked Marxine and all missed. The slow effect from the Rod of Litrices worked on a couple of them, who were suddenly moving like they’d walked into a wall of molasses.
In the prison, Aldalomiel was restrained and grappled by the Chain Devil, and the barbed chains cut into her, causing her to lose the hunter’s mark she’d placed on the devil. She turned into her starry archer form. She was able to shoot at it with her bow, hitting once, and to fire a radiant bolt at it, which also hit.
Outside, Marxine found herself in a target-rich environment. Two of the Beard Devils were under a slow effect from the Rod of Litrices. Marxine stepped away from the two slowed ones and attacked the ones on Elama. She dropped one of them with her first hit and another with her next two hits.
Elama could see a Barbed Devil coming toward her fast, so she cast shield of faith on herself. Then she went to one of the Beard Devils on Elderron and slashed it with her sword.
The Chain Devil in the prison attacked Aldalomiel again, doing a considerable amount of damage. The other Chain Devil surprised Vinya by coming around the corner of the building and attacking her--she was lightly damaged but also grappled and restrained.
Vinya shot four sunbolts at the Chain Devil holding her. Two of them hit, one very solidly. But it didn’t do anything to get her free of the devil’s chains.
Outside, Elama was in melee with a Barbed Devil. It missed her with its claws but hit with its tail that pierced her through her armor. Fortunately, she was able to keep the shield of faith active. The other three threw wads of fire, to unknown effect.
Elderron cast blight on the undamaged Beard Devil next to him -- it managed to avoid some of the effects but was still badly damaged.
The Beard Devil on Elderron responded with an attack -- but not a successful one. It badly missed one of the mirror images. The other two remaining Beard Devils advanced on Marxine -- both of them missed their attacks on her, but they didn’t get slowed by the Rod of Litrices.
Aldalomiel, in the prison on the other side of the village, was slashed and torn by the cruel chains that held her. She cast cure wounds on herself, because she was getting pretty badly hurt. Then she fired a radiant bolt from her starry form at the Chain Devil, but missed.
Marxine moved away from the two Beard Devils on her, risking the opportunity attacks (both of which missed anyway, though the Devils didn’t get slowed by the Rod), and went to the one on Elderron. She hit it three times and dropped it.
Elderron: Thank you!
Elama attacked twice on the Barbed Devil she was fighting, hitting once.
In the prison, the Chain Devil holding Aldalomiel hit her again. Vinya, despite being restrained and grappled, was missed. Emboldened by this, Vinya tried to wriggle out of the chains, but was unable to do so.
The Barbed Devil on Elama would have gotten a crit on her, but she was able to use the bulette shield to negate that, though she still took a normal hit. The other three threw wads of fire and missed.
Elderron fired a scorching ray, modified to do radiant damage, at the Barbed Devil on Elama and got two hits.
The two remaining Bearded Devils attacked Marxine. Once again, both of them missed. One of them got slowed again.
And there we ended. The next session will begin with Aldalomiel at the top of the round. There are five rounds remaining on Marxine’s haste spell.