Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #2) [Session 45: Rajalmin's Agent]
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8144342" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p>Session 22: Oni Coming Out of the Woodwork</p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p></p><p>Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)</p><p>Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)</p><p>Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)</p><p>Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)</p><p>Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion)</p><p></p><p>GM - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p>(Note: This session was held on Discord.)</p><p></p><p></p><p>24 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 85) (immediately after)</p><p></p><p>We ended the previous session still in the middle of our investigation of the dead of Jarek Turnstone. We had just learned from Jarek’s sister, Tamna Goldbrew (nee Turnstone), that her father was showing some of the signs that we’d identified as possibly being a marker of someone having been <em>replaced</em> by whatever it is that is duplicating and replacing people. And her father has the ear of the Turnstone clan elder. Which could be really bad given that the Turnstones are mainly driving the feud with the Stonebrights.</p><p></p><p>We started by continuing that conversation with Tanma.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: If I suggested that your father had somehow been replaced by someone or something who looked just like him, but didn’t have his memories or personality -- whether by magic or monster or simply a very excellent ability to impersonate someone, would you think that was possible?</p><p>Tamna: That could be possible, yes.</p><p>Elderron: If it was the case, how would you feel?</p><p>Tamna: Sad. Distressed. If they can get to my father, they can get to anyone.</p><p>Elderron: Would you help us try to find out if he has, in fact, been replaced by a duplicate?</p><p>Tamna: I can get us an audience with my uncle, Eskin Turnstone. He’s the clan elder and he could arrange for a test with my father.</p><p>Vinya: How long would it take to get that set up?</p><p>Tamna: I can talk to them today. I’ll let you know.</p><p>Vinya: You can get a message to us at the Stonebright clanhold.</p><p>Tamna: How’s Ullard holding up?</p><p>Vinya: He’s stressed. Quite resolute about standing trial. He was very determined about coming back for the good of the Stronghold.</p><p></p><p>We then thanked her and left.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: Should we go talk to….</p><p>Elderron: Yes.</p><p></p><p>We went to the guardhouse to talk to Captain Tulkon Silversmile.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: You told us about your uncle acting oddly for a while before he went missing. Would you believe it possible that your uncle was replaced by something that duplicated him by some means? Would that make sense to you?</p><p>Captain: That actually makes a lot of sense.</p><p>Vinya: It seems like there was some amount of duplication of people going on around when Ullard Stonebright called off his betrothal to Tamna and left Torm Brinnom and Jarek Turnstone’s died. Among other things it seems like there were two arguments going on at the same time between Jarek and Ullard -- one outside the Stonebright clanhold and one outside the Turnstones. Ullard reports that Jarek wasn’t acting like himself when they argued. Tamna said that Jarek told her Ullard wasn’t acting like himself. Two different arguments.</p><p>Captain: naughty word!</p><p>Elderron: Something’s definitely fishy.</p><p></p><p>We told him about Tamna saying that her father hadn’t been acting like himself for a few years and that he has the ear of his brother, the Turnstone clan elder.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: I’m envisioning Tamna’s father influencing selection of the judges, then disappearing. And then the judges in the trial sitting before anyone has a chance to notice that one of them is acting oddly.</p><p>Marxine: There’s got to be a short list of who’s likely to be selected for this. Dwarves in other clans well-respected for their integrity and honesty. Probably elders.</p><p>Captain: Yeah. I can make a good guess who the judges will be.</p><p>Vinya: It would probably be a good idea to ask the people close to those most likely judges if they’ve been acting oddly. And also just to keep them protected so that they don’t get replaced at the eleventh hour.</p><p></p><p>We then went back to the Stonebright clanhold to talk to Ullard. He wouldn’t know if anyone in the Stonebright clan had been acting oddly, because he’s been gone for 30 years. But he said we could talk to his cousin Affird.</p><p></p><p>When Affird came to talk to us we told him that we were looking into the murder of Jarek Turnstone because we wanted to make sure that justice was done.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: One thing we’ve found as we’ve been talking to people is that a lot of people associated with the case, and with the stronghold in general, have been acting strangely and not like themselves. Has there been anyone like that here?</p><p>Affird: Our elder’s husband. He had a bad memory and was acting strangely a few years ago. The memory has mostly gotten better. But his personality seems permanently changed.</p><p>Vinya: What happened?</p><p>Affird: Ekrit was the one who handled a few of the early responses to the Turnstone’s initial complaints. They appeared to be deliberately very insulting. Tanlot doesn’t allow him to do that sort of thing anymore.</p><p>Vinya: Would he have her ear as far as important clan affairs go?</p><p>Affird: Not anymore.</p><p>Vinya: Would it be possible for you to believe that Ekrit had been somehow replaced by someone who looked just like him but was not in fact him?</p><p>Affird: That makes a terrifying amount of sense. You should tell Tanlot. I’ll see if I can arrange a meeting.</p><p></p><p>At that point it was about dinner time so we ate at the clanhold with Ullard and Affird and other cousins of theirs in the same age group. We were served roast meat with roasted vegetables and potatoes. And beer.</p><p></p><p>During dinner Vinya asked the person sitting next to her if there was a sage or wise person in town we could talk to.</p><p></p><p>Vinya’s dinner partner: Well, Tylrok Hammerhammer is the smartest person I know.</p><p>Vinya: Thanks!</p><p></p><p>A lot of the conversation at the table was Ullard’s cousins trying to draw him out about what he was doing the last 30 years while he was going. He wasn’t super talkative about it and tried to dodge their questions. Elderron, Aldalomiel and Elama got the sense that he didn’t think his family would understand what he’d been doing or what he’d experienced. Elderron passed that information to Vinya, quietly. So Vinya started deflecting them by talking about the stuff we’d seen on the trip here from Lonoj -- meeting the dragon, and talking to the Stone Giants and the well that gave true answers to questions, and the hydra we fought on the boat. That successfully deflected their interest.</p><p></p><p>After dinner, Affird went to Marxine and told her that Tanlot would be able to talk to us in half an hour in the same room we’d spoken to her in before.</p><p></p><p>We went to talk to her after spending half an hour getting spiffed up -- Vinya put on her dress gi, Elderron put on his fine clothes with his owl cufflinks, etc.</p><p></p><p>When the time for the meeting came, we met with Tanlot in the same meeting room, which was a rectangular room with a round table with twelve chairs around it.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: If we suggested to you that some people in the stronghold had been replaced by other people who looked just like them, whether by magic or excellent impersonation or whatever, would that be something you could believe?</p><p>Elderron: Let me be more direct. Can you think of anyone who’s been acting like they weren’t themselves in the last several years?</p><p>Tanlot: My husband. Five years ago he had a bunch of things fall out of his memory.</p><p>Vinya: Did his personality change?</p><p>Elderron: Perhaps old projects were abandoned and new ones taken up.</p><p>Tanlot: Not the projects abandoned but his memory was very bad. And his personality…</p><p>Vinya: It’s likely that whatever is doing this may be able to pick up on social cues to either pick up things they ought to be remembering, or to fake remembering them. But the personality changes are likely to be permanent.</p><p>Tanlot: That does describe my husband.</p><p>Vinya: With people possibly being duplicated, we’re worried about the integrity of Ullard’s trial.</p><p>Tanlot: That’s a concern</p><p></p><p>At about that time in the conversation, all of us but Elderron noticed mist flowing under the two doors to the room. It coalesced and formed into blue-skinned, horned humanoid-shaped things -- Elderron recognized them as Oni (or ogre-magi).</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, because of the flail of warning that Marxine carries, even Elderron wasn’t surprised. He just wasn’t sure what he wasn’t being surprised by. There was one at either end of the room with us in the middle.</p><p></p><p>Elderron let us know quickly that they were Oni and had some magical powers, including shapeshifting into humanoids. They eat people. They also, from time to time, work as mercenaries in groups.</p><p></p><p>Alda put a hunter’s mark on the one nearest her, then drew her sword and moved to attack it -- hitting with both of her attacks. Elama moved between Tanlot and the same one Aldalomiel attacked and cast sanctuary on Tanlot, then cast sacred flame on the one she was blocking from Tanlot. Elderron misty stepped away from the Oni, all the way to the wall of the room, then cast toll the dead on the one that Aldalomiel and Elama were fighting.</p><p></p><p>Vinya planted the rod of alertness near where she was at the opposite side of the room - creating an aura of light that gave everyone some protection and allowed us to see invisible things. Then she got between the Oni and Tanlot and did her patient defense. Marxine got next to Vinya, between the same Oni and Tanlot, and attacked with the maul, getting a good hit.</p><p></p><p>The one Aldalomiel was next to attacked her and the other one attacked Marxine. Both, fortunately, missed. We did, however, see them healing some of the damage that had been done to them.</p><p></p><p>Tanlot moved to be as far away from them as possible -- against the wall in the middle of the room.</p><p></p><p>Aldalomiel moved so she had flanking with Elama, then drew her second sword and attacked three times, hitting with every strike. Elama took a step away from the Oni.</p><p></p><p>Elama: Sacred flame in the face!</p><p></p><p>But unfortunately, it saved.</p><p></p><p>Elderron shot a lightning bolt at the one on Aldalomiel but altered it in the casting so it did fire damage. Unfortunately something in the changing of the spell made it a little weak so it didn’t do as much damage as it might have done.</p><p></p><p>Vinya missed with her two quarterstaff attacks but then used an ability that she’d just worked out -- a searing arc strike. Fire shot out from her hands in an arc and damaged the Oni. Marxine moved to get flanking with Vinya getting a critical hit!</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, even with both of them having taken fire damage, they both still healed as they attacked us.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: Fire doesn’t do it, y’all!</p><p></p><p>Aldalomiel was hit once, as was Marxine -- fortunately only once on each of them.</p><p></p><p>Vinya tried to tell Tanlot to get under the table, where she’d be harder for them to get to, but she was at least a little frozen in fear and stayed where she was.</p><p></p><p>Because Elama had stepped away to cast sacred flame, Aldalomiel no longer had flanking with her -- but she still was able to get a critical hit on it, as well as a regular hit. She did loads of damage. Elama dropped a shatter spell on the one on Aldalomiel -- there was a huge crashing noise and the Oni dropped. The Stonebright guards would have undoubtedly heard that. Elderron cast another altered lightning bolt -- this one did cold damage -- on the remaining Oni. Vinya punched it three times and got one hit. Marxine, having gotten into a groove with her swing, got two very consistent hits.</p><p></p><p>The one on Marxine and Vinya got a hit -- doing a lot of damage to Vinya. We kept an eye on the one that had been dropped by the Shatter spell -- it did not regenerate or get back to its feet. Whew!</p><p></p><p>Aldalomiel moved her hunter’s mark to the other Oni, then she dropped her swords and fired two shots with her bow -- which dropped it.</p><p></p><p>We all stayed alert and watched to make sure they weren’t going to regenerate. They didn’t.</p><p></p><p>Vinya went to Tanlot to make sure she was okay -- she said she was.</p><p></p><p>Elama opened the door to the room and saw guards coming down the hall.</p><p></p><p>Elama: Come in. We were attacked by blue, horned things.</p><p></p><p>We suggest the guards go look for Tanlot’s husband. They couldn’t find him.</p><p></p><p>Vinya asked one of them to please go get Captain Silversmile. Tanlot nodded and waved one of them off to do that. Vinya sat down and started to meditate, starting a short rest, but the Captain Silversmile and two other guards arrived about half an hour later.</p><p></p><p>Captain: Apologies for it taking so long. We’re short-handed tonight. One of our guards didn’t show up for his shift.</p><p>Vinya: These things attacked us while we were talking to Tanlot. There are probably more in the stronghold. We need to talk to the Turnstones.</p><p>Captain: Tanlot, you okay?</p><p>Tanlot: ::waves him off::</p><p></p><p>Elderron told us that the Oni have magical abilities -- they can shapechange, turn invisible, and have a gaseous form.</p><p></p><p>We asked if the Captain can go with us to the Turnstones with some proof of these creatures. We headed out quickly to go to the Turnstones with the Captain. At the Turnstone clanhold, Captain Silversmile got us all in to talk to Eskin Turnstone, the clan elder, in a quiet and private room.</p><p></p><p>Eskin: I spoke with Tanma and was expecting you tomorrow.</p><p>Vinya: While we were talking to Tanlot this evening we were attacked by blue-skinned things called Oni. Elderron can tell you all about them if you want the information.</p><p></p><p>Elderron gave them the information he has on Oni. Focusing on the fact that they eat babies.</p><p></p><p>Eskin: <<looked sad>></p><p>Vinya: Would you find it possible to believe that some people in the stronghold had been replaced by duplicates that look just like them?</p><p>Eskin: That makes a surprising amount of sense, actually.</p><p>Elderron: Have you seen Ult Turnstone?</p><p>Eskin: At dinner. Let’s go look for him…</p><p></p><p>We went with Eskin to Ult’s home within the Turnstone clanhold. We were greeted by some house servants who were cleaning up. At Erskin’s request they let us in and told us that the last time they saw Ult, he was going to his chambers. Eskin asks them to wake him and bring him down.</p><p></p><p>A few minutes later they came back, surprised, because he’s not there. They saw him less than an hour earlier. (Note: It had been more than an hour since we were attacked with Tanlot at the Stonebright clanhold.)</p><p></p><p>Vinya: So he’s not one of the two who attacked us at Stonebright’s.</p><p></p><p>Captain Silversmile was very displeased at the thought.</p><p></p><p>Elderron: Do you think Tamna is in danger?</p><p>Eskin: Please check in on her. I’ll have our guards looking for Ult in the clanhold.</p><p></p><p>We went with Captain Silversmile and his guards to the Goldbrew clanhold. While we were on the way, Vinya had a thought and asked if one of the guards could please be sent to the Stonebrights to ask them to have someone keep an eye on Ullard. Captain Silversmile agreed that was a good idea and sent one of the guards to do that.</p><p></p><p>At the Goldbrews, we got to speak with Tamna pretty quickly and found her fine and confused to see us again.</p><p></p><p>Tamna: I was going to send you a message in the morning. I arranged a meeting with Eskin Turnstone.</p><p></p><p>We explained the situation to her and she said that she’d be careful. We left a couple of guards to keep an eye on her.</p><p></p><p>We went back to the Turnstones to help with the search for Ult, and to let Eskin know that his niece was okay. We were met at the gate by Tanlot Stonebright. She was holding an unrolled scroll and had a dozen of the Stonebright guards with her. They were standing 40 to 50 feet away, not letting her out of her sight.</p><p></p><p>She handed the scroll to Marxine.</p><p></p><p>Tanlot: Can you read this?</p><p></p><p>Marxine couldn’t but fortunately Aldalomiel had been working on learning giantish and was able to. It said:</p><p></p><p>We have a deal. I will pay you and your brothers 10,000 gold each, for a total of 70,000 gold, and magically empower your glaives, and I’m sure the stronghold has other magics for the taking--they’re yours.</p><p></p><p>This is a long-term project, I know, but it will be worth it to you in the long run.</p><p></p><p>Signed,</p><p>Rajalmin</p><p></p><p>Marxine had the sense that “Rajalmin” was a fiendish name, but she couldn’t dial it in better than that.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: There were seven of them. We’ve killed two. That leaves five.</p><p></p><p>Elderron took a few minutes to cast detect magic before we knocked at the gate of the Turnstone clanhold. Vinya had see invisible going (from the Rod of Alertness). Elderron was hoping that detect magic would let him see something that was polymorphed. Neither of them saw anything out of the way.</p><p></p><p>We went back to the Stonebrights to find Ullard. We asked him to stay with us for the night, so we could be sure to keep him safe.</p><p></p><p>Captain Silversmile said that he was going to send a message to the Hammerhammer sage, so he’d be expecting us first thing in the morning. He also said that he’d contact the short-list of possible judges to check if they were okay.</p><p></p><p>Oda spent the night flying around over the stronghold, listening for screaming or commotion.</p><p></p><p>We took a tense and stressed long rest, but the night passed without incident.</p><p></p><p></p><p>25 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 86)</p><p></p><p>Breakfast in the Stonebright clanhold was quiet -- most people weren’t talking much. Toward the end of breakfast, Tanlot came into the dining room.</p><p></p><p>Tanlot: I received word last night that Ult, or whatever was pretending to be him, returned to the Turnstone’ clanhold last night. They were able to kill him, but at the cost of several of their guards.</p><p>Vinya, horrified: Oh, I’m so sorry!! We should have stayed there. Has your husband returned?</p><p>Tanlot: No. And Captain Silversmile says his guard has not returned.</p><p></p><p>We got a description of the guard, Garton Anvilhand, and realized that we’d seen him as part of the guard contingent around when we were talking to Captain Silversmile. Elama cast locate object on something he was wearing. We started walking toward the Anvilhand clanhold and when we were a bit away, she started picking up the location of that object within the clanhold.</p><p></p><p>At the door of the Anvilhand clanhold, Elama asked for Garten.</p><p></p><p>Guard: He’s not here.</p><p>Marxine, in Dwarvish: Can we go in and ask if he’s okay?</p><p></p><p>We followed the locate object spell to Garten’s fairly plain room. It looked very very neglected -- like he hadn’t cared about his room or his surroundings for a while. The object Elama was raising was in a pile on a bedside table. We got the sense that he’d taken off his guard uniform, and perhaps the trappings of pretending to be Garten Anvilhands.</p><p></p><p>Vinya used the rod of alertness to cast see invisible, but she couldn’t see anything.</p><p></p><p>We thanked the Anvilhands and decided to go talk to the Hammerhammer sage.</p><p></p><p>And there we ended.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8144342, member: 7016699"] Session 22: Oni Coming Out of the Woodwork Dramatis Personae: Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave) Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest) Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul) Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster) Marxine Deepfoot - Dwarf Fighter (Champion) GM - Everyone Else (Note: This session was held on Discord.) 24 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 85) (immediately after) We ended the previous session still in the middle of our investigation of the dead of Jarek Turnstone. We had just learned from Jarek’s sister, Tamna Goldbrew (nee Turnstone), that her father was showing some of the signs that we’d identified as possibly being a marker of someone having been [I]replaced[/I] by whatever it is that is duplicating and replacing people. And her father has the ear of the Turnstone clan elder. Which could be really bad given that the Turnstones are mainly driving the feud with the Stonebrights. We started by continuing that conversation with Tanma. Vinya: If I suggested that your father had somehow been replaced by someone or something who looked just like him, but didn’t have his memories or personality -- whether by magic or monster or simply a very excellent ability to impersonate someone, would you think that was possible? Tamna: That could be possible, yes. Elderron: If it was the case, how would you feel? Tamna: Sad. Distressed. If they can get to my father, they can get to anyone. Elderron: Would you help us try to find out if he has, in fact, been replaced by a duplicate? Tamna: I can get us an audience with my uncle, Eskin Turnstone. He’s the clan elder and he could arrange for a test with my father. Vinya: How long would it take to get that set up? Tamna: I can talk to them today. I’ll let you know. Vinya: You can get a message to us at the Stonebright clanhold. Tamna: How’s Ullard holding up? Vinya: He’s stressed. Quite resolute about standing trial. He was very determined about coming back for the good of the Stronghold. We then thanked her and left. Vinya: Should we go talk to…. Elderron: Yes. We went to the guardhouse to talk to Captain Tulkon Silversmile. Vinya: You told us about your uncle acting oddly for a while before he went missing. Would you believe it possible that your uncle was replaced by something that duplicated him by some means? Would that make sense to you? Captain: That actually makes a lot of sense. Vinya: It seems like there was some amount of duplication of people going on around when Ullard Stonebright called off his betrothal to Tamna and left Torm Brinnom and Jarek Turnstone’s died. Among other things it seems like there were two arguments going on at the same time between Jarek and Ullard -- one outside the Stonebright clanhold and one outside the Turnstones. Ullard reports that Jarek wasn’t acting like himself when they argued. Tamna said that Jarek told her Ullard wasn’t acting like himself. Two different arguments. Captain: naughty word! Elderron: Something’s definitely fishy. We told him about Tamna saying that her father hadn’t been acting like himself for a few years and that he has the ear of his brother, the Turnstone clan elder. Vinya: I’m envisioning Tamna’s father influencing selection of the judges, then disappearing. And then the judges in the trial sitting before anyone has a chance to notice that one of them is acting oddly. Marxine: There’s got to be a short list of who’s likely to be selected for this. Dwarves in other clans well-respected for their integrity and honesty. Probably elders. Captain: Yeah. I can make a good guess who the judges will be. Vinya: It would probably be a good idea to ask the people close to those most likely judges if they’ve been acting oddly. And also just to keep them protected so that they don’t get replaced at the eleventh hour. We then went back to the Stonebright clanhold to talk to Ullard. He wouldn’t know if anyone in the Stonebright clan had been acting oddly, because he’s been gone for 30 years. But he said we could talk to his cousin Affird. When Affird came to talk to us we told him that we were looking into the murder of Jarek Turnstone because we wanted to make sure that justice was done. Vinya: One thing we’ve found as we’ve been talking to people is that a lot of people associated with the case, and with the stronghold in general, have been acting strangely and not like themselves. Has there been anyone like that here? Affird: Our elder’s husband. He had a bad memory and was acting strangely a few years ago. The memory has mostly gotten better. But his personality seems permanently changed. Vinya: What happened? Affird: Ekrit was the one who handled a few of the early responses to the Turnstone’s initial complaints. They appeared to be deliberately very insulting. Tanlot doesn’t allow him to do that sort of thing anymore. Vinya: Would he have her ear as far as important clan affairs go? Affird: Not anymore. Vinya: Would it be possible for you to believe that Ekrit had been somehow replaced by someone who looked just like him but was not in fact him? Affird: That makes a terrifying amount of sense. You should tell Tanlot. I’ll see if I can arrange a meeting. At that point it was about dinner time so we ate at the clanhold with Ullard and Affird and other cousins of theirs in the same age group. We were served roast meat with roasted vegetables and potatoes. And beer. During dinner Vinya asked the person sitting next to her if there was a sage or wise person in town we could talk to. Vinya’s dinner partner: Well, Tylrok Hammerhammer is the smartest person I know. Vinya: Thanks! A lot of the conversation at the table was Ullard’s cousins trying to draw him out about what he was doing the last 30 years while he was going. He wasn’t super talkative about it and tried to dodge their questions. Elderron, Aldalomiel and Elama got the sense that he didn’t think his family would understand what he’d been doing or what he’d experienced. Elderron passed that information to Vinya, quietly. So Vinya started deflecting them by talking about the stuff we’d seen on the trip here from Lonoj -- meeting the dragon, and talking to the Stone Giants and the well that gave true answers to questions, and the hydra we fought on the boat. That successfully deflected their interest. After dinner, Affird went to Marxine and told her that Tanlot would be able to talk to us in half an hour in the same room we’d spoken to her in before. We went to talk to her after spending half an hour getting spiffed up -- Vinya put on her dress gi, Elderron put on his fine clothes with his owl cufflinks, etc. When the time for the meeting came, we met with Tanlot in the same meeting room, which was a rectangular room with a round table with twelve chairs around it. Vinya: If we suggested to you that some people in the stronghold had been replaced by other people who looked just like them, whether by magic or excellent impersonation or whatever, would that be something you could believe? Elderron: Let me be more direct. Can you think of anyone who’s been acting like they weren’t themselves in the last several years? Tanlot: My husband. Five years ago he had a bunch of things fall out of his memory. Vinya: Did his personality change? Elderron: Perhaps old projects were abandoned and new ones taken up. Tanlot: Not the projects abandoned but his memory was very bad. And his personality… Vinya: It’s likely that whatever is doing this may be able to pick up on social cues to either pick up things they ought to be remembering, or to fake remembering them. But the personality changes are likely to be permanent. Tanlot: That does describe my husband. Vinya: With people possibly being duplicated, we’re worried about the integrity of Ullard’s trial. Tanlot: That’s a concern At about that time in the conversation, all of us but Elderron noticed mist flowing under the two doors to the room. It coalesced and formed into blue-skinned, horned humanoid-shaped things -- Elderron recognized them as Oni (or ogre-magi). Fortunately, because of the flail of warning that Marxine carries, even Elderron wasn’t surprised. He just wasn’t sure what he wasn’t being surprised by. There was one at either end of the room with us in the middle. Elderron let us know quickly that they were Oni and had some magical powers, including shapeshifting into humanoids. They eat people. They also, from time to time, work as mercenaries in groups. Alda put a hunter’s mark on the one nearest her, then drew her sword and moved to attack it -- hitting with both of her attacks. Elama moved between Tanlot and the same one Aldalomiel attacked and cast sanctuary on Tanlot, then cast sacred flame on the one she was blocking from Tanlot. Elderron misty stepped away from the Oni, all the way to the wall of the room, then cast toll the dead on the one that Aldalomiel and Elama were fighting. Vinya planted the rod of alertness near where she was at the opposite side of the room - creating an aura of light that gave everyone some protection and allowed us to see invisible things. Then she got between the Oni and Tanlot and did her patient defense. Marxine got next to Vinya, between the same Oni and Tanlot, and attacked with the maul, getting a good hit. The one Aldalomiel was next to attacked her and the other one attacked Marxine. Both, fortunately, missed. We did, however, see them healing some of the damage that had been done to them. Tanlot moved to be as far away from them as possible -- against the wall in the middle of the room. Aldalomiel moved so she had flanking with Elama, then drew her second sword and attacked three times, hitting with every strike. Elama took a step away from the Oni. Elama: Sacred flame in the face! But unfortunately, it saved. Elderron shot a lightning bolt at the one on Aldalomiel but altered it in the casting so it did fire damage. Unfortunately something in the changing of the spell made it a little weak so it didn’t do as much damage as it might have done. Vinya missed with her two quarterstaff attacks but then used an ability that she’d just worked out -- a searing arc strike. Fire shot out from her hands in an arc and damaged the Oni. Marxine moved to get flanking with Vinya getting a critical hit! Unfortunately, even with both of them having taken fire damage, they both still healed as they attacked us. Vinya: Fire doesn’t do it, y’all! Aldalomiel was hit once, as was Marxine -- fortunately only once on each of them. Vinya tried to tell Tanlot to get under the table, where she’d be harder for them to get to, but she was at least a little frozen in fear and stayed where she was. Because Elama had stepped away to cast sacred flame, Aldalomiel no longer had flanking with her -- but she still was able to get a critical hit on it, as well as a regular hit. She did loads of damage. Elama dropped a shatter spell on the one on Aldalomiel -- there was a huge crashing noise and the Oni dropped. The Stonebright guards would have undoubtedly heard that. Elderron cast another altered lightning bolt -- this one did cold damage -- on the remaining Oni. Vinya punched it three times and got one hit. Marxine, having gotten into a groove with her swing, got two very consistent hits. The one on Marxine and Vinya got a hit -- doing a lot of damage to Vinya. We kept an eye on the one that had been dropped by the Shatter spell -- it did not regenerate or get back to its feet. Whew! Aldalomiel moved her hunter’s mark to the other Oni, then she dropped her swords and fired two shots with her bow -- which dropped it. We all stayed alert and watched to make sure they weren’t going to regenerate. They didn’t. Vinya went to Tanlot to make sure she was okay -- she said she was. Elama opened the door to the room and saw guards coming down the hall. Elama: Come in. We were attacked by blue, horned things. We suggest the guards go look for Tanlot’s husband. They couldn’t find him. Vinya asked one of them to please go get Captain Silversmile. Tanlot nodded and waved one of them off to do that. Vinya sat down and started to meditate, starting a short rest, but the Captain Silversmile and two other guards arrived about half an hour later. Captain: Apologies for it taking so long. We’re short-handed tonight. One of our guards didn’t show up for his shift. Vinya: These things attacked us while we were talking to Tanlot. There are probably more in the stronghold. We need to talk to the Turnstones. Captain: Tanlot, you okay? Tanlot: ::waves him off:: Elderron told us that the Oni have magical abilities -- they can shapechange, turn invisible, and have a gaseous form. We asked if the Captain can go with us to the Turnstones with some proof of these creatures. We headed out quickly to go to the Turnstones with the Captain. At the Turnstone clanhold, Captain Silversmile got us all in to talk to Eskin Turnstone, the clan elder, in a quiet and private room. Eskin: I spoke with Tanma and was expecting you tomorrow. Vinya: While we were talking to Tanlot this evening we were attacked by blue-skinned things called Oni. Elderron can tell you all about them if you want the information. Elderron gave them the information he has on Oni. Focusing on the fact that they eat babies. Eskin: <<looked sad>> Vinya: Would you find it possible to believe that some people in the stronghold had been replaced by duplicates that look just like them? Eskin: That makes a surprising amount of sense, actually. Elderron: Have you seen Ult Turnstone? Eskin: At dinner. Let’s go look for him… We went with Eskin to Ult’s home within the Turnstone clanhold. We were greeted by some house servants who were cleaning up. At Erskin’s request they let us in and told us that the last time they saw Ult, he was going to his chambers. Eskin asks them to wake him and bring him down. A few minutes later they came back, surprised, because he’s not there. They saw him less than an hour earlier. (Note: It had been more than an hour since we were attacked with Tanlot at the Stonebright clanhold.) Vinya: So he’s not one of the two who attacked us at Stonebright’s. Captain Silversmile was very displeased at the thought. Elderron: Do you think Tamna is in danger? Eskin: Please check in on her. I’ll have our guards looking for Ult in the clanhold. We went with Captain Silversmile and his guards to the Goldbrew clanhold. While we were on the way, Vinya had a thought and asked if one of the guards could please be sent to the Stonebrights to ask them to have someone keep an eye on Ullard. Captain Silversmile agreed that was a good idea and sent one of the guards to do that. At the Goldbrews, we got to speak with Tamna pretty quickly and found her fine and confused to see us again. Tamna: I was going to send you a message in the morning. I arranged a meeting with Eskin Turnstone. We explained the situation to her and she said that she’d be careful. We left a couple of guards to keep an eye on her. We went back to the Turnstones to help with the search for Ult, and to let Eskin know that his niece was okay. We were met at the gate by Tanlot Stonebright. She was holding an unrolled scroll and had a dozen of the Stonebright guards with her. They were standing 40 to 50 feet away, not letting her out of her sight. She handed the scroll to Marxine. Tanlot: Can you read this? Marxine couldn’t but fortunately Aldalomiel had been working on learning giantish and was able to. It said: We have a deal. I will pay you and your brothers 10,000 gold each, for a total of 70,000 gold, and magically empower your glaives, and I’m sure the stronghold has other magics for the taking--they’re yours. This is a long-term project, I know, but it will be worth it to you in the long run. Signed, Rajalmin Marxine had the sense that “Rajalmin” was a fiendish name, but she couldn’t dial it in better than that. Vinya: There were seven of them. We’ve killed two. That leaves five. Elderron took a few minutes to cast detect magic before we knocked at the gate of the Turnstone clanhold. Vinya had see invisible going (from the Rod of Alertness). Elderron was hoping that detect magic would let him see something that was polymorphed. Neither of them saw anything out of the way. We went back to the Stonebrights to find Ullard. We asked him to stay with us for the night, so we could be sure to keep him safe. Captain Silversmile said that he was going to send a message to the Hammerhammer sage, so he’d be expecting us first thing in the morning. He also said that he’d contact the short-list of possible judges to check if they were okay. Oda spent the night flying around over the stronghold, listening for screaming or commotion. We took a tense and stressed long rest, but the night passed without incident. 25 Dorrinin 749 (Campaign day 86) Breakfast in the Stonebright clanhold was quiet -- most people weren’t talking much. Toward the end of breakfast, Tanlot came into the dining room. Tanlot: I received word last night that Ult, or whatever was pretending to be him, returned to the Turnstone’ clanhold last night. They were able to kill him, but at the cost of several of their guards. Vinya, horrified: Oh, I’m so sorry!! We should have stayed there. Has your husband returned? Tanlot: No. And Captain Silversmile says his guard has not returned. We got a description of the guard, Garton Anvilhand, and realized that we’d seen him as part of the guard contingent around when we were talking to Captain Silversmile. Elama cast locate object on something he was wearing. We started walking toward the Anvilhand clanhold and when we were a bit away, she started picking up the location of that object within the clanhold. At the door of the Anvilhand clanhold, Elama asked for Garten. Guard: He’s not here. Marxine, in Dwarvish: Can we go in and ask if he’s okay? We followed the locate object spell to Garten’s fairly plain room. It looked very very neglected -- like he hadn’t cared about his room or his surroundings for a while. The object Elama was raising was in a pile on a bedside table. We got the sense that he’d taken off his guard uniform, and perhaps the trappings of pretending to be Garten Anvilhands. Vinya used the rod of alertness to cast see invisible, but she couldn’t see anything. We thanked the Anvilhands and decided to go talk to the Hammerhammer sage. And there we ended. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #2) [Session 45: Rajalmin's Agent]
Top