Pathfinder 1E JollyDoc's Way Of The Wicked

carborundum · Feb 25, 2019

Oh, quick question while you're on the line. Vampires can basically just spam dominate every round until it works. How did you deal with that?
Thanks for the update! My group is currently partying in Daveryn

Joe Jolly · Feb 25, 2019

Well, the enemies they faced were pretty powerful and decent Will saves. Worked well for minor NPC’s, but otherwise it was more worthwhile to engage in more violent forms of persuasion

carborundum · Feb 25, 2019

So, basically assume they can control anyone minor outside the big set piece areas. Kind of like planning for divination and arcane sight. Let it go

Thanks!

Joe Jolly · Mar 29, 2019

23 Kuthona, 4718 - 17 Calistril, 4718 - Tightening The Noose

Following the reopening of the shipping lanes between Talingarde and the mainland, gold started flowing into the kingdom’s coffers once again. Yet the Dannisters did not rest upon their laurels. There was still much to do in preparation for the probable reemergence of Princess Bellinda.

First on their list was to deal with the insubordinate Duke Hadrian of Ghastenhall. Since sending his emissary instead of coming himself to pay respects to the newly crowned King, he had remained in his castle, stubbornly refusing to repeated demands for an audience. He still payed his taxes, and every new public decree passed down from Matharyn was immediately implemented, but when his representatives were pressed as to why he would not come to the capital, repeated excuses were made about his health. Finally, Tardaesha had had enough. If the other nobles believed that such slights could be given without consequence, they might be emboldened enough to begin questioning her authority, and that she could not have. One evening, on the stroke of midnight, Tardaesha commanded Kelvin to transport the lot of them directly into the middle of Hadrian’s throne room. Instead, they appeared outside the locked front gates of the castle.
“A forbiddance spell,” Kelvin observed, mildly impressed. “The man has planned ahead.”
Impatiently, Tardaesha hammered on the door. When a small viewport slid aside, she snapped at the guard.
“King Timeon of Talingarde demands to be see the Duke!”
The guard slid the panel shut, and then after several long minutes, the gates opened.

The royal entourage swept into the throne room, where Duke Hadrian sat upon his chair. He stood as his guests entered, and bowed low. Roger, his glamored armor masking his undead visage, stepped forward.
“Your rightful King has done you the great honor of paying you a personal visit, an honor you have not returned. What have you to say for yourself?”
The Duke was all politeness and grace. He explained that, while he was of course loyal to the Throne, the question of Timeon’s legitimacy still prevented him from publicly acknowledging the ascension. Dakota fumed at this, and it was only her sister’s firm hand that prevented her from rushing forward and tearing the Duke’s throat out. Instead, Tardaesha stepped up.
“We understand you have a nephew of marriageable age,” she smiled. “Your heir, isn’t he?”
The Duke looked wary.
“Yes, Count Hector,” he replied. “He is in his early teens, but he already grows restless with this cloistered life.”
Tardaesha grinned. “I’m sure you aware that Queen Dakota has recently given birth to a daughter?”
Hadrian returned the smile. “Of course! I hope my baby gift arrived on time.”
“Yes, it was lovely,” Dakota said through gritted teeth.
“Obviously, Little Heaven is not old enough to wed,” Tardaesha continued, “but she can most assuredly be betrothed. If your Hector were to one day wed the crown princess, that would put you in direct line of succession. What say you?”
Hadrian looked pensive for several long moments, then broke out into a broad smile.
“I say, ‘All Hail the King!”

___________________________________________________________________

Since the duergar of Zhaansen-Kryr had aided the Dannisters at the Battle of Valtaerna, it seemed only natural to assume they would once more offer their support to the new regime. However, when Kelvin made a diplomatic visit to Thane Zargen Arzun (who had successfully poisoned his father in a coup), though the dark dwarf readily agreed to another alliance, the wizard sensed that he was holding something back. As a gesture of good will, Kelvin invited the Thane and a small entourage to accompany him back to Matharyn. The Thane agreed, and Kelvin teleported the entire group back to the Capital.

The next day, a grand ceremony was held announcing both the betrothal of Princess Heaven to Count Hector of Ghastenhall, and the alliance between Talingarde and the Kindgom of Zhaansen-Kyr. The former was met with cheers and celebration, while the latter received a smattering of applause, mixed with subdued boos and hisses. After the ceremony was concluded, Tardaesha, on behalf of King Timeon, received a request for an audience from Thane Turin Brightmetal. The old dwarf lived in the Lord’s Quarter of Ghastenhall, from where he ran a successful metal commodities trading company. He held no official noble title nor position of importance, but it was well known that he was a direct descendent of the old Ansgarian kings, and was afforded tremendous respect from the dwarves scattered throughout Talingarde. Once behind closed doors, the surly-looking dwarf proved to be very vocal. He of course was disgusted about the alliance with the duergar, but that was secondary. He informed Timeon that his people had always been treated fairly by House Darius, but the problem was that the dwarves were not followers of Iomedae. Their worship of Father Mountain had been banned in Talingarde, and some of his people had even been imprisoned for following the old rituals. When the Dannisters had proclaimed that all religions could be openly worshipped once more, Brightmetal had been cautiously optimistic. Now, however, with the duergar alliance announced, he feared the worst for his people, so he had come to see the King with a proposal.

Thane Turin expressed, in no uncertain terms, that he wished the establishment of an independent dwarven kingdom and a guarantee of dwarven freedom to worship. He would also love to see the duergar purged from the island. In return, Brightmetal agreed to accept an arrangement where the dwarven kingdom would serve and pay homage to the High King in Matharyn, who would stay out of their day to day affairs. Tardaesha was intrigued by the offer, and the promise of dwarven arms and armor to equip their troops greatly appealed to her. An arrangement was made, andThane Thurin called a great convocation of the dwarven people. From all across Talingarde, dwarves gathered at Ghastenhall. After days of negotiation, titles were handed out and a new dwarven kingdom was founded. Dwarven soldiers agreed to aid the Dannisters in raiding Zhaansen-Kryr. And even more than that, Thane Turin had concocted a plan to wipe the duergar from Talingarde once and for all. He advised the Dannisters to use their “friendship” with Prince Zargun to infiltrate and throw open the gates of the duergar stronghold. The dwarves would then storm the place and answer the ancient dark grudges between dwarf and duergar in a single night of slaughter.

And so it was that Zhaansen-Kryr was seized and restored to dwarven hands. The dwarves renamed it Khaazen-Turin (literally,The Vault of Turin) and made it the capital of their empire. A new dwarven kingdom was birthed in the mountains, ultimately subservient to the Asmodean king in Matharyn.

___________________________________________________________________

In the years since the Dannisters had had a chance encounter with the Yutak warrior, White Tusk, the ambitious young man had risen to become a great chief among his people, still advised by the shaman, Joseph Calls-Fire-From-Water. Though the Dannisters knew the Yutak could not field an army strong enough to aid the war effort, the nomadic hunters would be very useful as scouts and early-warning spies along the Talingarde coast. Tardaesha sent Grumblejack and Katarina to the northern folk with gifts and offers of good will. White Tusk remembered the Dannisters, and greeted them as friends. He listened to their words and considered them at length. Then he made his own request.

The Yutak had always been neutral in politics of the south, but White Tusk was not a typical chieftain. He dreamt of something more than an empire of ice and whale blubber. He wanted nothing less than to gain a title and land. In particular, he had seen the trad-ing town and fortress of Estyllis, the most northern Talingarde holding on the eastern coast and part of the Watch Wall, and been much impressed with its castle of stone. The last adult Baron of Estyllis, Lord Jasper IV, had died fighting the Fire-Axe. His five year-old son, Jasper V, sat on the baronial seat of Estyllis, his lands truly governed by the Bishop Clivarus, an Iomedaen priest and cousin of the baron.

Katarina saw no problem with the request. That very night, she crept into the castle and smothered Clivarus in his sleep, making it look as if he had died from natural causes. The following day, she made a public declaration in the name of King Timeon, that Jasper V would be taken back to Matharyn to be raised in the royal household until he came of age. Until that time, White Tusk would be appointed as steward of Estyllis. As Kat took her leave of the town, White Tusk promised that he would speak to the other chiefs and shamans on behalf of the Dannisters, but had little doubt they would fall in line and support his request. Kat turned Jasper over to Grumblejack. The ogre and his new bride would take the boy and raise him far from civilization, teaching him the ways of Asmodeus. When he finally did come of age, he would be a prize asset to the New Order.

Quartz · Mar 29, 2019

An update! We are not worthy!

Joe Jolly · Jun 10, 2019

17 Calistril, 4718 - 2 Desnus, 4719 - Demons and Dragons

One cold, winter morning, as Timeon held court to listen to the day-to-day tedium of ruling a kingdom, which bored his bride Dakota to tears, one of the courtiers abruptly shouldered his way to the front of the assemblage.
“Bow, mortals!” he cried, throwing wide his arms. “Beg for mercy! For the Court of the Two Queens has come!”
As his words echoed throughout the throne room, his form began to shimmer and fade from view, revealing a monstrous, dog-headed behemoth, with a pair of lobster-clawed arms in addition to two normal appendages. There was a brilliant flash of fire, sulfur and brimstone in the middle of the chamber, and as the smoke from it cleared, three more glabrezu demons strode forward, flanking a pair of huge, red-skinned women, whose torsos ended in serpentine coils, and whose six arms all wielded vicious-looking swords of various shapes and sizes. The twin demons coiled around one another, and when they spoke, it was in unison with one voice.
“So the Devil God and his running dog bitch Naburus want a mortal realm of their own do they? And you... you must be their mortal dupes. If this realm is worth stealing, maybe we should take it for our own. Slaves! Skin these wretched mortals alive. And bring me that crown. The Two Queens will soon be the only law in this cursed land.”

The other courtiers began running, screaming, in all directions for the nearest exits. When some of them drew too near the demons, they were unceremoniously cut down in their tracks. Dakota instantly grabbed Timeon and lifted him effortlessly from the throne before shoving him through the hidden door concealed behind it. S’Zara, the elder of the two mariliths by one minute, slithered across the throne room floor towards Kelvin. The Dannister wizard casually waved one hand and time stopped for everyone save himself, Dakota and Tardaesha. The reprieve allowed his siblings to properly gird themselves for battle, and once they had done so, he waved his hand again. S’Zara continued her charge, but Kelvin was not where he’d been only a moment before. Instead he stood upon a high balcony, where he wove a spell of disjunction about their enemies. Instantly all of their magical wards were stripped away, leaving them all too vulnerable. Katarina took that opportunity to leap from the shadows and onto the back of one of the glabrezus, driving her blades into it repeatedly until it fell twitching to the floor.

S’Zara looked around, perplexed at the sudden absence of her quarry. It was only then that she realized she had larger concerns. Tardaesha now stood directly in front of her, and Dakota flanked her on one side, with Roger on the other.
“Well played,” she smiled as the deadly trio moved in for the kill.

Kelvin conjured a disembodied, gigantic fist of force and sent it hurtling towards Iggerath, the second marilith. The fist punched and pummeled her, whirling around her and disorienting her. As she spun to try and attack it, Dakota sent a deadly barrage of arrows into her chest and back. She collapsed in a heap next to her sister.

Kat returned to the shadows and watched as her companions mopped up the rest of the glabrezus. While they were preoccupied, she slipped quietly to one of the fallen mariliths and surreptitiously dipped the Hadean signet ring into the pooled blood.

___________________________________________________________________

The mercenary soldiers of Talingarde’s new “army” were becoming restless. The army was a loaded gun. The truth was that twenty thousand thieves, cutthroats and criminals were never going to simply settle down and become peaceable farmers. It was a fine thing to say that they were going to Talingarde to start a new life. The truth, most of those men were not going to be happy pushing a plough. Far more likely was that they would eventually return to their previous livelihood as bandits and legbreakers. The only difference – on the mainland, there was a well disciplined military to keep them in check. In Talingarde, the military had largely been either slaughtered or fled. The mercenaries were the military.

It was Leothyn Barca who came up with the solution.
“These men don't want to work the land,” Barca observed during a privy council meeting. “They want to be thugs. Fine. Let them. Just make sure they are our thugs.
Draw up a list of all the chieftains, commanders, ring-leaders and so forth of this rabble you call an army. Make those men lesser landed nobility, their station dependent on how many men they lead. The rank and file become their soldiers. The men aren't farming. They're guarding farmers who will provide their money and livelihood. If only the kingdom had a region that was completely devastated and almost empty of nobility...”

As it turned out, there was such a region. The Borderlands from Balentyne to Daveryn was where the majority of the fighting during the Fire-axe's campaign had taken place.
“Send the restless part of your army there to settle and rebuild,” Barca suggested. “That should keep them from turning bandit. And as nobles and soldiers, they'll be armed and ready should you need them again. Of course the region will need to be cleared of monsters as well. More’s the pity.”

___________________________________________________________________

Master Mallory Hawthorne, true to his word, summoned Katarina to a clandestine meeting at an out of the way inn in Matharyn late one evening. There, he paid his debt for being appointed to the council by notifying Kat that there was a underground resistance growing throughout the country, and one of its main cells was operating right in the city! Hawthorne had sent his own son, Gregory, to infiltrate the rebels, and he gave Kat the location of the safe house.

Katarina proceeded to stake out the supposed safe house. For three nights she did not sleep nor eat, but finally her patience was rewarded. She saw two men enter the house, stay for a time and then leave. This process repeated every three days. One of the men was always the same, an older gentleman who looked strangely familiar to Kat, thought she could not place him. She observed this exchange for over two weeks before finally trailing the older man back to the Church of Iomedae. She waited again until he left the church three nights later, then stole inside and carefully searched his quarters. The man’s name was Father Marius DeMascas, and he was an inquisitor. He looked familiar because he was the twin brother of Father Dorian DeMascas, who was the former king’s bodyguard and had died at his side at the hands of the Knot. Marius had been tasked by Solomon Tyrath, Bellinda’s High Inquisitor, with fomenting revolution and discontent against the new royal regime. Kat discovered several letters intended for other rebel cells, and she inscribed an invisible arcane mark on each of them so that the recipients could be scryed upon.

Over the next several weeks, Kat journeyed to Varyston, which turned out to be the location of a particularly large rebel cell. By infiltrating the faction, she found further incriminating evidence of their plans to foment full scale revolt, including several images of a white unicorn, Bellinda’s personal symbol. She reported all of these findings to her siblings, and one moonless evening, on what came to be known as the Night of Long Knives, Tardesha sent their mercenary forces to Varyston, where the murdering marauders burned the entire city to the ground. The same night, the safe house in Matharyn was raided, and all its collaborators were dragged to the streets before being burned alive on great pyres before the temple of Asmodeus. Marius DeMascas’ death was made to look like a suicide, and a letter was planted in his belongings implementing him in the round-up of the rebels. After that night, there was no more talk of revolt in Talingarde.

___________________________________________________________________

The sounds of destruction reverberated throughout the royal palace of Matharyn.
‘This is it,’ Kelvin thought to himself. ‘Bellinda has finally come.’
The wizard quickly stopped the flow of time around him and made his way to the throne room, where the sounds seemed to have been emanating from. When he entered the vast chamber, he saw that the roof had been torn completely off, allowing sunlight to spill down in brilliant shafts. Kelvin instinctively drew away from the light, which shown even brighter, reflected as it was from the burnished gold scales of the massive dragon that reared in the center of the room. Kelvin could tell it was female, which puzzled him, because Bellinda’s draconic heritage sprang from a silver dragon. Then his eye was drawn to the armored figure which stood before the dragon, black blade in hand. It was Roger, and he was alone. Frowning grimly, Kelvin turned from the ruined chamber. He had to alert the others before Roger was torn to shreds.

“I AM HERE TO AVENGE EIRAMANTHUS!”
The great gold wyrm’s voice boomed throughout castle.
“HE WAS MY MATE, IN BODY AND IN SPIRIT! BLOOD CALLS TO BLOOD!”
“Just to let you know,” Roger snickered from beneath his great helm, “you weren’t the only one.”
The dragon’s eyes blazed with fury, and she launched herself at the anti-paladin. Her claws tore thru his armor as if it were made of parchment, and her enormous fangs pierced his cold flesh like swords of fire. Roger knew he couldn’t stand toe to toe with her. He just had to hold her off for a few more seconds until the others arrived. He hoped...

___________________________________________________________________

Kelvin, Tardaesha, Drax, Hillary and Dakota gathered in a circle, hands joined. The vampires all had heavy, hooded shrouds draped about them as protection from the sunlight they knew would be streaming down into the throne room. Kelvin spoke a word and they vanished, reappearing one heartbeat late in the center of the destroyed chamber. Roger was down on one knee, his sword held defensively above him as the dragon reared up for a killing blow. Before she could strike, however, Tardaesha flew at the wyrm, her own dark blade flashing. The unholy power of Asmodeus flowed through her as she smote the dragon, opening a gash in its neck that cut almost halfway thru. The dragon shrieked, blood geysering from the wound. Before Tardaesha could press her attack, the great wyrm vanished.

“She’s teleported!” Kelvin shouted. “Gather to me! I can find her!”
The others rushed back to his side as he closed his eyes in concentration.
“Got her!” Kelvin hissed. “We go, now, while she’s still wounded!”

The Knot teleported once more, reappearing in a cavern the size of a cathedral. The gold dragon crouched there, waiting...and she was not alone. Four individuals stood around her. One was a priest dressed in the full regalia of Iomedae. He dropped his hand from the dragon’s completely healed neck just as the Knot arrived. Another man wore robes emblazoned with the insignia of the White Unicorn...Bellinda’s crest. A beautiful woman in full plate armor that shone like the sun stood immediately before the dragon, a great golden sword in her hands and angelic wings sprouting from her back. Lastly, a huge bear, stood on its hand legs, clad in armor, with a massive axe gripped in its almost human-looking hands.
“I knew you’d follow me,” the dragon chuckled. “Just as I’d planned. Now, as I promised, you will pay for your crimes and I will consign your wicked souls to Hell!”

Moving with a speed that belied her size, the dragon pounced like a cat, pinning Kelvin beneath her bulk and then seizing him in her jaws. She gripped him with both foreclaws and ripped his body in two. The wizard dissipated into a cloud of noxious, yellow mist. Roger rushed in, but the dragon’s head whipped towards him, biting him savagely. Tardaesha closed from the other side, striking quickly before darting back out of reach. Hillary saw the were-bear and the angel closing in. She focused on the lycanthrope, opening her third eye as she wove a hex in the air. The beast stopped in mid-stride and collapsed to the ground, snoring in deep slumber. Before Hillary could try the same thing on the angel, the white-robed sorcerer used his own magic to hurl rays of scorching flame at the witch. Then the angel was among them. The holy power that emanated from her drove the undead members of the Knot back, the light burning them. She raised one hand, and searing fire burned there. She hurled it first at Hillary, and then at Tardaesha. It burned their flesh as if the sun itself had alighted upon them.

Dakota fell back from the angel’s assault and melted into the shadows. She saw that the dragon was bearing down on Hillary, and she loosed a barrage of arrows, trying to distract the beast. Though all of her shots struck home, and the dragon wept blood from its wounds like tears, it never slowed. Hillary turned just as the wyrm struck her. She fell beneath its claws, crumbling to dust as her spirit was forced back to its phylactery.

Roger scowled as he watched Hillary discorporate. He knew from previous experience that it would be some time before her body reformed. He had no intention of going thru that painful process again. The dragon was enraged, but she was also grievously injured. Her anger had blinded her to her own peril.
‘More’s the pity,’ Roger thought.
He rushed towards the dragon, deftly dodging great swings of her tail and the beating of her wings as he closed in. She began to rear up as he approached, but with a final lunge, he drove Helbrand straight into her chest and found himself drenched in her golden blood as her heart exploded.

Tardaesha, her burned flesh slowly starting to regenerate, moved away from the angel and towards the sorcerer, whom she saw was preparing to cast another spell. She reached the man before he could finish the incantation, and cut him to ribbons in the blink of an eye. She turned and saw that Roger and Dakota had cornered the priest. Just as they closed in for the kill, however, the man conjured a sphere of golden energy around him, which encompassed Dak and Roger as well. In an instant, all of their magical wards and protections failed.
“Clever,” Tardaesha hissed.
She watched as Dakota backed out of the sphere and aimed her bow.
“But my sister is more clever still.”
Dak fired, again and again. The priest’s own defenses had likewise been suppressed, and he was just as susceptible to being pin-cushioned by arrows as the next mortal. He went down under the barrage.

Roger was still inside the anti-magic field when the reawakened werebear charged in and bowled right into him, burying its axe in his shoulder and almost severing his arm. Its powerful jaws clamped down on his other arm as he fought to raise Helbrand. As it bore him to the ground, the brute suddenly went stiff, and then limp as a sword blade abruptly sprouted from its chest.
“Your’e welcome,” Tardaesha grinned down at the liche as she offered him a hand up.

That only left the angel. She held her sword in a guarded position as the remaining members of the Knot circled her warily. Finally, she raised her blade.
“Know that you have been judged,” she intoned, “and there will come a time when your penance will come due.”
She vanished in a final flash of brilliant flame.

SolitonMan · Aug 5, 2019

Sooo...what happened next?!?

Joe Jolly · Aug 5, 2019

Hah! Working on it, I promise. I should only have about 4 updates left until the story is complete

SolitonMan · Aug 6, 2019

I have this AP and have been looking ahead, trying to gauge where your story is in the overall arc. I'm really excited to see where your group ends up!