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
Savannah Knights (mild update 06-10-05)
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="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 18443" data-attributes="member: 63"><p>Friday night, around 9 pm, Cai Maxwell picks up the phone, tightening his grip with a smile. He can feel the plastic of the receiver crack slightly under the strength of his grasp. Across the apartment, Iscalio is having an argument with his fox. Cai grumbles and puts the phone to his ear.</p><p></p><p>“Yes? Maxwell here. . . . Who’s this? . . . Why’d you call me then? You should be calling Finagle. . . . Oh, well good. I was wondering what the hell that psycho said to the Dragon. . . . Yeah, yeah, I’ll be there in an hour.”</p><p></p><p>Cai hangs up, then shouts to Iscalio. “Put your drugs away and get ready to go to work.”</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Chapter Nine: Haunted Past</strong></span></p><p></p><p>Everyone assembles at the Oglethorpe House entrance to the Faerie World, and Finagle (who lives in the Bureau) comes out through the gate to get them. He says that his next-door neighbor, Brian Greenman, just finished translating the tape of Bureau Paladin Michael Dunne insulting wealthy Dragon businessman Dornankanir in Draconic, which occurred just yesterday, a few hours before Gina Perez was murdered by “Legion.”</p><p></p><p>When they get to Brian’s room, however, the fat gamer is clicking away with not a care in the world, browsing the internet (our DM didn’t say so, but I bet he was at Eric’s Message boards). The party—Jenny, Tagin, Cai, Iscalio, Finagle, and Madeline—walk in and ask for the tape. Brian seems not to know what they’re talking about, but after a little reminding, he remembers that he was supposed to give them the tape, but . . . he can’t remember where he put it.</p><p></p><p>The group searches around for a few minutes, then realize that there’s a strange smell in the air, like burnt plastic. They track the smell to the bottom of Brian’s trashcan, where the tape sits melted in a pile of paper ashes. Brian, of course, doesn’t recall anything happening. A thorough search of the room for clues reveals nothing, especially not any more copies of the tape or the translation. But Brian is most dismayed by the fact that the translation files on his computer were deleted. Tagin makes a few jokes in poor taste at Brian’s expense, but stops when the rest of the group starts to give him suspicious stares.</p><p></p><p>They go to talk to the Chief, who is in his office conferring with Autumn Yeiotana about Michael’s mental health—which, for the record, is confused, but there is clearly no sign of current mind control. The Chief is as irritated as they are about the destruction of evidence, but he says he’ll have desk workers handle that. There’s another suspect they should check out, another Dragon, this one who lives in Atlanta. Since they’re going to have another job in Atlanta in just two days, the Bureau is going to put them up for the weekend in a Hilton. The Chief gives them the specifics of their mission today and sends them off, telling them Keira will contact them Saturday, tomorrow night.</p><p></p><p>The Knights head out, talking about their mission and what all went on in the past few days, especially since Tagin was on special assignment in Hong Kong with Brian. Tagin admits that Brian’s got a few screws loose, but he doesn’t think the guy purposefully burned his own tape.</p><p></p><p><em>Dramatis Personae et Recapis:</em></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Jenny Windgrave (21 year-old Native American theater arts student at SCAD and bonded with the ghost of her ancestor Pataman), played by me. Paladin 2</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Iscalio Maxwell (19 year-old albino Druid, bonded to Lancaster Cornwall, a man who died thinking he was a fox). Druid 2</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cai Maxwell (25 year-old brother of Iscalio and owner of a small martial arts studio; he’s the party’s muscle). Fighter 2</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Madeline West (22 year-old photography major at SCAD, bonded with Salem witch trial victim Catherine). Wild Sorceress 2</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Chuck Tagin-Eve, real name unknown (21 year-old guy who hacked his way into SCAD so he could get free lodging, food, etc.). Rogue 2, hacking skill +14</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Finagle P. Luckshore (16 year-old kid genius [and you know how annoying they can be], bonded with the ghost of his inventor uncle). Wizard 2</li> </ul><p></p><p>One day ago, Tagin went to Hong Kong and discovered that whoever’s been killing Dragons apparently talked to some Siren, and that the killer is already dead. The party puzzles over whether that was metaphorical in that Dragons are being killed because of someone who has already died, or whether an actual dead thing has come back to kill Dragons, or whether it was just an outright lie.</p><p></p><p>Then, of course, there’s the clue they got from Gina Perez and the ghost Margaret Thomas. When Gina Perez was killed (by a Bureau-style arcane blade, it looks like), the ghost in the house bonded with her long enough to scrawl in blood the name “Legion.”</p><p></p><p>And, of course, none of this seems to fit with the suspect they’re currently heading to Atlanta to interrogate, who neither dead nor a legion, nor who oughta be carrying a Bureau light weapon.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Sexton lives in a relatively abandoned church in a seldom-visited corner of Atlanta. The Bureau gives the Dragon his privacy usually and makes sure no one bothers him because they like Sexton as he is now. Sexton, or at least he claims, is not a Dragon. He remains perpetually in human form, roaming his abandoned church and answering pretty much any question with “I’m not a Dragon. I’m not . . . I’m not one of those demonic. . . . I’m not a Demon!”</p><p></p><p>He’s generally a peaceful fellow, and has the form of a 98-pound weakling, balding, with the look of a Medieval monk to him. The Bureau’s not sure where he came from or when he decided to stick to being a human, but he’s been in Atlanta for at least a few decades, since soon after the church was built in the 30s. The only way they know he’s a Dragon is from scrying and by the power of his magical aura, though they cannot tell what type of Dragon he is.</p><p></p><p>The party takes a gate to Atlanta and checks into their hotel, then lounges about for a few hours, deciding to see Sexton in the early evening, because it’s best not to potentially provoke an obviously insane magical beast in broad daylight when thousands of Atlanta citizens would be able to witness the battle. Still, they need to be back before 10, when Keira is scheduled to visit them.</p><p></p><p>They take two Bureau cars—a minivan (driven by Cai) and a Cadillac (driven by Madeline)—to the church grounds. The church, which resembles a small stone cathedral, sits in a small wooded grove at least a mile from any residential area. It all looks very gothic, with gargoyles on the roof leering down, and shadows all over the place. No one, it seems, comes here on Sundays.</p><p></p><p>[Meta: At this point in the game, most of the party felt that they hadn’t been accomplishing much, meaning that they hadn’t been killing enough things. Jessie decided to give us a gratuitous fight to keep the hack ‘n’ slashers happy, but it didn’t turn out too well.]</p><p></p><p>They park outside the grounds and begin to walk through the trees toward the church. Iscalio makes some very crass jokes about Christian preachers and their gay love for choirboys upsetting (in character) Jenny and (out of character) the DM. Then, as they near the church, a cry comes from atop the church, high pitched, eager, and nasal. </p><p></p><p>“Smite the unbelievers!”</p><p></p><p>The knights look up to see a group of four tiny gargoyles, each maybe a foot or two long, diving from the top of the church. Another cry comes from the far side of the church, and they guess that there are more gargoyles on the way.</p><p></p><p>Cai blasts one out of the sky with his shotgun, and Iscalio waits until the gargoyles get close enough for an entangle spell in the trees to trap them. It gets the remaining three, and Finagle quickly runs toward them. Jenny shouts for him to not kill them until they know why they attacked. Finagle nods as he approaches the three little stone monsters dangling by Spanish moss from the trees.</p><p></p><p>The second swarm arrives from around the edge of the church, consisting of six more, these larger and fiercer. Again comes, “Smite the unbelievers!” and again it is answered by a shotgun blast. Tagin takes a potshot at one and misses, then takes cover by the entangled gargoyles, hoping to use them as hostages. Madeline casts sleep on the swarm, and one gargoyle thuds to the ground with a cracking shatter, while the one next to it gently glides to the ground near Madeline, hitting the ground with only a snore. </p><p></p><p>Jenny, short of ranged weapons, decides to try to talk to the gargoyles and find out why they attacked, but Finagle’s busy tranquilizing one with his dart gun (“I want a pet gargoyle if I can’t get a gremlin”), and Tagin is holding another at knife point, telling it to call off its friends.</p><p></p><p>The only two real combatants on the field, the brothers Maxwell, wait for the two remaining gargoyles to close. They fly by and scratch the two of them with stony claws, and one lands on Iscalio to try to bite at his back. The bat-winged beast (about two feet long, with a five foot wingspan) digs its claws into Iscalio’s shoulders and gnaws into his back with its teeth. Iscalio tries to get it off, but his brother comes to the rescue and slashes off the creature’s wings with his katana. The gargoyle falls away in agony and writhes on the ground. </p><p></p><p>Madeline tries to shoot the gargoyle sleeping next to her with her wrist crossbow, but the tiny bolt just bounces off the skin (an odd mixture of leathery hide and stone). Grumbling, she gets out her car keys, grabs the gargoyle’s limp arm, and drags it toward the Cadillac.</p><p></p><p>Back at the tree, Jenny shouts at the one Tagin’s holding at knifepoint, “Why are you attacking us? We’re not unbelievers. See,” she holds up the cross on her necklace, “I’m a Christian too.”</p><p></p><p>The gargoyle shakes it head and glares at her, gibbering in its high-pitched, squealy voice. “No! You’re trying to trick us! You use magic! Unbelievers! We smite those who use magic!”</p><p></p><p>The one remaining flying gargoyle is too far away to be hurt by Cai’s shotgun blast, and it dives in while Cai tries to reload, smashing him in the face. Iscalio command a nearby tree to catch the creature, but its branch doesn’t snake out fast enough, and the gargoyle swoops upward again. </p><p></p><p>From the street, the ominous sound of a Cadillac’s engine starting echoes through the trees. With a squeal of tires, the car lurches forward, then back, forward, then back, each time accompanied by the sound of rock crunching beneath tires. Two rounds of forward-and-back running over of a gargoyle later, Madeline will emerge to admire her handiwork.</p><p></p><p>One of the entangled gargoyles in the tree escapes and starts to fly away, but Tagin tackles it before it can get far off the ground, and he holds a pistol to the back of its head. In a fine Samuel L. Jackson impersonation, he says, “Try that again.” Jenny, of course, has to make sure that he won’t shoot the creature, because it just looks like the gargoyles are misguided. Tagin agrees not to kill the gargoyle, and with his bargaining position weakened a bit, he can no longer intimidate the gargoyle into sitting still. It claws his hand and scrambles away, taking to the air.</p><p></p><p>It gets about ten feet up before Cai and Iscalio both shoot it down (Cai is adept at fighting with either shotgun or katana, keeping the inactive weapon tucked under his arm for easy reach). The only remaining active gargoyle cries out in righteous indignation, “My brother!” and dive-bombs the brothers. The two Maxwells dodge, and so the gargoyle flies for Jenny and Finagle.</p><p></p><p>Finagle is busy getting his new pet out of the tree, so Jenny tries to stop the attacker. It hits her in the chest and knocks the wind out of her, making sure to stay close so no one will try to shoot it.</p><p></p><p>Everyone tries to run up to help the “stupid paladin” who “can’t even fight a stupid gargoyle on her own,” and who “wants everyone to play nice.” (grumble grumblebloodthirstysavagesgrumble grumble) Tagin ends up ripping the thing off her and driving his dagger into its back, and Iscalio shoots it before Jenny gets any notions of trying to heal the wounded creature. Only later would Jenny see the crushed and shattered gargoyle laying under the tires of Madeline’s Cadillac, a sight which disturbed her far more than any of the actual combat.</p><p></p><p>Jenny chastises everyone for making a racket and shooting firearms in a residential area, but Cai shrugs it off and Finagle ignores her as he tends to his new pet, which he names “Herbie.” Aside from Herbie, two gargoyles remain alive, one in a tree and one asleep. Finagle charms the tree one to be a look out for them, and even though the gargoyle doesn’t like magic, it agrees to.</p><p></p><p>They finally get inside the church and find Sexton exactly as they expected him. A thirty-something man with premature male pattern baldness, dressed as a priest, polishing a tall standing candelabra. The church has two long rows of benches, with aisles in the middle and along either side. The pulpit sits at the far end, across from the entry doors. In cubbies behind and to the sides of the pulpit are stairs leading up to the 2nd floor balconies which overhang along each side. The windows are tall and narrow glass, with only a little stained glass on the far wall behind the pulpit. </p><p></p><p>Sexton is frustratingly unhelpful. Despite numerous approaches, he says nothing of use. They ask if he knows anything about Dragons, and he replies that he’s not a Dragon. They reply that they know that he is a Dragon, and he gets agitated, shaking his head in denial, repeating that he’s not a Dragon. He’s not a demon. Jenny detects evil on him, but he’s not being evil right now, so nothing shows up. </p><p></p><p>While the party continues to interrogate him, the knights’ ghosts check around, looking for other evidence. There’s no treasure hoard, no stray Dragon scales lying around, nothing incriminating at all. Also no food, which confuses the party, leading them to think perhaps he’s actually a zombie. Much prodding, poking, and sniffing of this deluded man later, the DM finally admits that Dragons don’t have to eat if they don’t want to, especially if they’re not out pillaging much. Oh.</p><p></p><p>But then Jenny asks if he knows anything about the name “Legion.” This causes a big reaction out of the man, getting him to raise his voice and talk as if to someone else, maybe in a hallucination or a memory. He looks down at his hands, shaking his head and then covering his eyes, saying loudly, “No, I’m not a demon! Leave me alone. I’m . . . I’m not!”</p><p></p><p>The party decides he’s a dead end, just an excuse for the DM to let us kill some gargoyles. Just to be safe, after they leave, Tagin sneaks back in and stakes out the place for a few hours, getting the juicy news that Sexton made sure to clean every single candelabra in the joint. Finally, disgusted, Tagin calls the hotel and asks for Madeline to pick him up, since he doesn’t want to walk through Atlanta at 1 in the morning. </p><p></p><p>That evening, while Tagin is away, Keira McCormick shows up at the hotel the knights are staying at. She has with her Dalavar Kineil, the half-Elf telepath Tagin worked with in Hong Kong (Dalavar’s actually from New Orleans). Sunday afternoon, Maxmilian Dorman, known to them as the Dragon Dornankanir, will be at a fundraiser in Atlanta, and they’ll be working bodyguard duty.</p><p></p><p>Jessie ends the session then, letting us discuss our ideas. She also has a unique request for the next game session. She wants for us to bring all the Hot Wheels we still have from our youth. </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>[Meta: Though the story here didn’t quite reveal it, Iscalio’s player Blake did begin to get on Jessie’s nerves with his constant anti-Christian jokes. Jessie is religious and sensitive when people insult her faith. Worse yet, Blake didn’t seem to care that much, not understanding why she’d be offended. Jessie just asked him to try to tone it down for the next session.</p><p></p><p>Between this game and the next, Jessie asked me as part as my duty as boyfriend and fellow DM to help her prepare. We bought poster board, markers, a yardstick, and a bunch of Hotwheels. She had trouble finding one particular one she needed, but she wouldn’t tell me what it was she needed, so I couldn’t help her. Seems Hotwheels are more interested in making tanks and Indy 500 racers than actual cars. Sure, we could have had lots of tractors and airplanes and construction cranes, but those just wouldn’t fit for a nice car chase through Atlanta traffic. Heh heh heh.]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="RangerWickett, post: 18443, member: 63"] Friday night, around 9 pm, Cai Maxwell picks up the phone, tightening his grip with a smile. He can feel the plastic of the receiver crack slightly under the strength of his grasp. Across the apartment, Iscalio is having an argument with his fox. Cai grumbles and puts the phone to his ear. “Yes? Maxwell here. . . . Who’s this? . . . Why’d you call me then? You should be calling Finagle. . . . Oh, well good. I was wondering what the hell that psycho said to the Dragon. . . . Yeah, yeah, I’ll be there in an hour.” Cai hangs up, then shouts to Iscalio. “Put your drugs away and get ready to go to work.” [size=3][b]Chapter Nine: Haunted Past[/b][/size] Everyone assembles at the Oglethorpe House entrance to the Faerie World, and Finagle (who lives in the Bureau) comes out through the gate to get them. He says that his next-door neighbor, Brian Greenman, just finished translating the tape of Bureau Paladin Michael Dunne insulting wealthy Dragon businessman Dornankanir in Draconic, which occurred just yesterday, a few hours before Gina Perez was murdered by “Legion.” When they get to Brian’s room, however, the fat gamer is clicking away with not a care in the world, browsing the internet (our DM didn’t say so, but I bet he was at Eric’s Message boards). The party—Jenny, Tagin, Cai, Iscalio, Finagle, and Madeline—walk in and ask for the tape. Brian seems not to know what they’re talking about, but after a little reminding, he remembers that he was supposed to give them the tape, but . . . he can’t remember where he put it. The group searches around for a few minutes, then realize that there’s a strange smell in the air, like burnt plastic. They track the smell to the bottom of Brian’s trashcan, where the tape sits melted in a pile of paper ashes. Brian, of course, doesn’t recall anything happening. A thorough search of the room for clues reveals nothing, especially not any more copies of the tape or the translation. But Brian is most dismayed by the fact that the translation files on his computer were deleted. Tagin makes a few jokes in poor taste at Brian’s expense, but stops when the rest of the group starts to give him suspicious stares. They go to talk to the Chief, who is in his office conferring with Autumn Yeiotana about Michael’s mental health—which, for the record, is confused, but there is clearly no sign of current mind control. The Chief is as irritated as they are about the destruction of evidence, but he says he’ll have desk workers handle that. There’s another suspect they should check out, another Dragon, this one who lives in Atlanta. Since they’re going to have another job in Atlanta in just two days, the Bureau is going to put them up for the weekend in a Hilton. The Chief gives them the specifics of their mission today and sends them off, telling them Keira will contact them Saturday, tomorrow night. The Knights head out, talking about their mission and what all went on in the past few days, especially since Tagin was on special assignment in Hong Kong with Brian. Tagin admits that Brian’s got a few screws loose, but he doesn’t think the guy purposefully burned his own tape. [I]Dramatis Personae et Recapis:[/I] [list][*]Jenny Windgrave (21 year-old Native American theater arts student at SCAD and bonded with the ghost of her ancestor Pataman), played by me. Paladin 2 [*]Iscalio Maxwell (19 year-old albino Druid, bonded to Lancaster Cornwall, a man who died thinking he was a fox). Druid 2 [*]Cai Maxwell (25 year-old brother of Iscalio and owner of a small martial arts studio; he’s the party’s muscle). Fighter 2 [*]Madeline West (22 year-old photography major at SCAD, bonded with Salem witch trial victim Catherine). Wild Sorceress 2 [*]Chuck Tagin-Eve, real name unknown (21 year-old guy who hacked his way into SCAD so he could get free lodging, food, etc.). Rogue 2, hacking skill +14 [*]Finagle P. Luckshore (16 year-old kid genius [and you know how annoying they can be], bonded with the ghost of his inventor uncle). Wizard 2[/list] One day ago, Tagin went to Hong Kong and discovered that whoever’s been killing Dragons apparently talked to some Siren, and that the killer is already dead. The party puzzles over whether that was metaphorical in that Dragons are being killed because of someone who has already died, or whether an actual dead thing has come back to kill Dragons, or whether it was just an outright lie. Then, of course, there’s the clue they got from Gina Perez and the ghost Margaret Thomas. When Gina Perez was killed (by a Bureau-style arcane blade, it looks like), the ghost in the house bonded with her long enough to scrawl in blood the name “Legion.” And, of course, none of this seems to fit with the suspect they’re currently heading to Atlanta to interrogate, who neither dead nor a legion, nor who oughta be carrying a Bureau light weapon. Sexton lives in a relatively abandoned church in a seldom-visited corner of Atlanta. The Bureau gives the Dragon his privacy usually and makes sure no one bothers him because they like Sexton as he is now. Sexton, or at least he claims, is not a Dragon. He remains perpetually in human form, roaming his abandoned church and answering pretty much any question with “I’m not a Dragon. I’m not . . . I’m not one of those demonic. . . . I’m not a Demon!” He’s generally a peaceful fellow, and has the form of a 98-pound weakling, balding, with the look of a Medieval monk to him. The Bureau’s not sure where he came from or when he decided to stick to being a human, but he’s been in Atlanta for at least a few decades, since soon after the church was built in the 30s. The only way they know he’s a Dragon is from scrying and by the power of his magical aura, though they cannot tell what type of Dragon he is. The party takes a gate to Atlanta and checks into their hotel, then lounges about for a few hours, deciding to see Sexton in the early evening, because it’s best not to potentially provoke an obviously insane magical beast in broad daylight when thousands of Atlanta citizens would be able to witness the battle. Still, they need to be back before 10, when Keira is scheduled to visit them. They take two Bureau cars—a minivan (driven by Cai) and a Cadillac (driven by Madeline)—to the church grounds. The church, which resembles a small stone cathedral, sits in a small wooded grove at least a mile from any residential area. It all looks very gothic, with gargoyles on the roof leering down, and shadows all over the place. No one, it seems, comes here on Sundays. [Meta: At this point in the game, most of the party felt that they hadn’t been accomplishing much, meaning that they hadn’t been killing enough things. Jessie decided to give us a gratuitous fight to keep the hack ‘n’ slashers happy, but it didn’t turn out too well.] They park outside the grounds and begin to walk through the trees toward the church. Iscalio makes some very crass jokes about Christian preachers and their gay love for choirboys upsetting (in character) Jenny and (out of character) the DM. Then, as they near the church, a cry comes from atop the church, high pitched, eager, and nasal. “Smite the unbelievers!” The knights look up to see a group of four tiny gargoyles, each maybe a foot or two long, diving from the top of the church. Another cry comes from the far side of the church, and they guess that there are more gargoyles on the way. Cai blasts one out of the sky with his shotgun, and Iscalio waits until the gargoyles get close enough for an entangle spell in the trees to trap them. It gets the remaining three, and Finagle quickly runs toward them. Jenny shouts for him to not kill them until they know why they attacked. Finagle nods as he approaches the three little stone monsters dangling by Spanish moss from the trees. The second swarm arrives from around the edge of the church, consisting of six more, these larger and fiercer. Again comes, “Smite the unbelievers!” and again it is answered by a shotgun blast. Tagin takes a potshot at one and misses, then takes cover by the entangled gargoyles, hoping to use them as hostages. Madeline casts sleep on the swarm, and one gargoyle thuds to the ground with a cracking shatter, while the one next to it gently glides to the ground near Madeline, hitting the ground with only a snore. Jenny, short of ranged weapons, decides to try to talk to the gargoyles and find out why they attacked, but Finagle’s busy tranquilizing one with his dart gun (“I want a pet gargoyle if I can’t get a gremlin”), and Tagin is holding another at knife point, telling it to call off its friends. The only two real combatants on the field, the brothers Maxwell, wait for the two remaining gargoyles to close. They fly by and scratch the two of them with stony claws, and one lands on Iscalio to try to bite at his back. The bat-winged beast (about two feet long, with a five foot wingspan) digs its claws into Iscalio’s shoulders and gnaws into his back with its teeth. Iscalio tries to get it off, but his brother comes to the rescue and slashes off the creature’s wings with his katana. The gargoyle falls away in agony and writhes on the ground. Madeline tries to shoot the gargoyle sleeping next to her with her wrist crossbow, but the tiny bolt just bounces off the skin (an odd mixture of leathery hide and stone). Grumbling, she gets out her car keys, grabs the gargoyle’s limp arm, and drags it toward the Cadillac. Back at the tree, Jenny shouts at the one Tagin’s holding at knifepoint, “Why are you attacking us? We’re not unbelievers. See,” she holds up the cross on her necklace, “I’m a Christian too.” The gargoyle shakes it head and glares at her, gibbering in its high-pitched, squealy voice. “No! You’re trying to trick us! You use magic! Unbelievers! We smite those who use magic!” The one remaining flying gargoyle is too far away to be hurt by Cai’s shotgun blast, and it dives in while Cai tries to reload, smashing him in the face. Iscalio command a nearby tree to catch the creature, but its branch doesn’t snake out fast enough, and the gargoyle swoops upward again. From the street, the ominous sound of a Cadillac’s engine starting echoes through the trees. With a squeal of tires, the car lurches forward, then back, forward, then back, each time accompanied by the sound of rock crunching beneath tires. Two rounds of forward-and-back running over of a gargoyle later, Madeline will emerge to admire her handiwork. One of the entangled gargoyles in the tree escapes and starts to fly away, but Tagin tackles it before it can get far off the ground, and he holds a pistol to the back of its head. In a fine Samuel L. Jackson impersonation, he says, “Try that again.” Jenny, of course, has to make sure that he won’t shoot the creature, because it just looks like the gargoyles are misguided. Tagin agrees not to kill the gargoyle, and with his bargaining position weakened a bit, he can no longer intimidate the gargoyle into sitting still. It claws his hand and scrambles away, taking to the air. It gets about ten feet up before Cai and Iscalio both shoot it down (Cai is adept at fighting with either shotgun or katana, keeping the inactive weapon tucked under his arm for easy reach). The only remaining active gargoyle cries out in righteous indignation, “My brother!” and dive-bombs the brothers. The two Maxwells dodge, and so the gargoyle flies for Jenny and Finagle. Finagle is busy getting his new pet out of the tree, so Jenny tries to stop the attacker. It hits her in the chest and knocks the wind out of her, making sure to stay close so no one will try to shoot it. Everyone tries to run up to help the “stupid paladin” who “can’t even fight a stupid gargoyle on her own,” and who “wants everyone to play nice.” (grumble grumblebloodthirstysavagesgrumble grumble) Tagin ends up ripping the thing off her and driving his dagger into its back, and Iscalio shoots it before Jenny gets any notions of trying to heal the wounded creature. Only later would Jenny see the crushed and shattered gargoyle laying under the tires of Madeline’s Cadillac, a sight which disturbed her far more than any of the actual combat. Jenny chastises everyone for making a racket and shooting firearms in a residential area, but Cai shrugs it off and Finagle ignores her as he tends to his new pet, which he names “Herbie.” Aside from Herbie, two gargoyles remain alive, one in a tree and one asleep. Finagle charms the tree one to be a look out for them, and even though the gargoyle doesn’t like magic, it agrees to. They finally get inside the church and find Sexton exactly as they expected him. A thirty-something man with premature male pattern baldness, dressed as a priest, polishing a tall standing candelabra. The church has two long rows of benches, with aisles in the middle and along either side. The pulpit sits at the far end, across from the entry doors. In cubbies behind and to the sides of the pulpit are stairs leading up to the 2nd floor balconies which overhang along each side. The windows are tall and narrow glass, with only a little stained glass on the far wall behind the pulpit. Sexton is frustratingly unhelpful. Despite numerous approaches, he says nothing of use. They ask if he knows anything about Dragons, and he replies that he’s not a Dragon. They reply that they know that he is a Dragon, and he gets agitated, shaking his head in denial, repeating that he’s not a Dragon. He’s not a demon. Jenny detects evil on him, but he’s not being evil right now, so nothing shows up. While the party continues to interrogate him, the knights’ ghosts check around, looking for other evidence. There’s no treasure hoard, no stray Dragon scales lying around, nothing incriminating at all. Also no food, which confuses the party, leading them to think perhaps he’s actually a zombie. Much prodding, poking, and sniffing of this deluded man later, the DM finally admits that Dragons don’t have to eat if they don’t want to, especially if they’re not out pillaging much. Oh. But then Jenny asks if he knows anything about the name “Legion.” This causes a big reaction out of the man, getting him to raise his voice and talk as if to someone else, maybe in a hallucination or a memory. He looks down at his hands, shaking his head and then covering his eyes, saying loudly, “No, I’m not a demon! Leave me alone. I’m . . . I’m not!” The party decides he’s a dead end, just an excuse for the DM to let us kill some gargoyles. Just to be safe, after they leave, Tagin sneaks back in and stakes out the place for a few hours, getting the juicy news that Sexton made sure to clean every single candelabra in the joint. Finally, disgusted, Tagin calls the hotel and asks for Madeline to pick him up, since he doesn’t want to walk through Atlanta at 1 in the morning. That evening, while Tagin is away, Keira McCormick shows up at the hotel the knights are staying at. She has with her Dalavar Kineil, the half-Elf telepath Tagin worked with in Hong Kong (Dalavar’s actually from New Orleans). Sunday afternoon, Maxmilian Dorman, known to them as the Dragon Dornankanir, will be at a fundraiser in Atlanta, and they’ll be working bodyguard duty. Jessie ends the session then, letting us discuss our ideas. She also has a unique request for the next game session. She wants for us to bring all the Hot Wheels we still have from our youth. [Meta: Though the story here didn’t quite reveal it, Iscalio’s player Blake did begin to get on Jessie’s nerves with his constant anti-Christian jokes. Jessie is religious and sensitive when people insult her faith. Worse yet, Blake didn’t seem to care that much, not understanding why she’d be offended. Jessie just asked him to try to tone it down for the next session. Between this game and the next, Jessie asked me as part as my duty as boyfriend and fellow DM to help her prepare. We bought poster board, markers, a yardstick, and a bunch of Hotwheels. She had trouble finding one particular one she needed, but she wouldn’t tell me what it was she needed, so I couldn’t help her. Seems Hotwheels are more interested in making tanks and Indy 500 racers than actual cars. Sure, we could have had lots of tractors and airplanes and construction cranes, but those just wouldn’t fit for a nice car chase through Atlanta traffic. Heh heh heh.] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Savannah Knights (mild update 06-10-05)
Top