Against the Shadows VII - A Faded Glory Story Hour (Re-Updated - 5/17)
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Session 20 (Part Two)
Is That All You Got?
Rowan’s arrow took one guard neatly through the eye; he fell with a slight gurgle. Of the two remaining, one stopped with his gladius halfway from the sheath and slowly raised his hands in surrender. The other emitted a short, almost feminine scream and dashed from the room. Rosë bounded after him, axe raised, and a much louder, but much shorter scream soon echoed off the walls. Cragen grasped the last guard by the front of his tunic and slammed him into the wall. Bones crunched and the man slumped to the floor. Sextus shot the dwarf a withering look and mumbled, “Bloodthirsty dwarf, the man was surrendering.”
The room seemed to be the guard chamber for a prison pit. A quick search showed recent inhabitation of the pit, but no sign of any prisoners. Quintus look at Valyria, “She’s not here.”
Rook’s mage nodded and replied, “We will hold the breach. I will send you a magical missive if we run into trouble…search quickly!”
The party issued from the dead-end room. Cragen lingered for a few moments, calling on a minor miracle to stabilize the Shadowblade he had bashed earlier. They quickly moved from chamber to chamber, making short work of the feeble resistance they encountered. Several opponents lived long enough to shout the alarm, but no concerted defense was mounted. Rowan exchanged worried looks with Quintus…this was too easy!
They penetrated further, past spartan living chambers, privies and practice rooms. They swept aside half-a-dozen guards, but fully expected scores. They entered a dining chamber and noted the flutter of a charcoal-colored cloak disappearing through a door across the room. Caution and sharp eyes paid off as Rowan detected a well-oiled pit trap just beyond the door. ‘Damn pits!’
The ranger wedged the swinging door open with a dagger while Rosë bridged the opening with a bench. Sharpened metal stakes glinted evilly six or seven paces below. Several Shadowblades started sniping at the party from two partially opened doors across the room and Rowan moved across to engage with his bow. Sextus started singing to inspire his companions; Quintus held a spell to launch at any likely targets and Cragen acted as a rearguard.
As Rowan notched an arrow, one of the doors opened all the way, disgorging familiar, and hated form. The pit-fighter charged across the room, lowered his broad shoulders and smashed his body into the ranger’s midsection. Rowan staggered back, felt air under his feet and dropped into the pit. He managed to grasp the edge of the pit and prevent himself from dropping onto the spikes.
(DM’s Note: Hooray for bull rush! Rowan had a bow out, so was not entitled to an AoO. The bull rush pushed him into the pit, but he made his reflex save and strength check to grab and hang onto the edge of the pit.)
Rosë howled with rage, swung his axe over his head and charged across the makeshift bridge. The pit-fighter brought his ranseur up and ripped the tines through the Brigante’s flank. The impact caused the barbarian to lose his balance and tumble into the pit as well. Amazingly, he also managed to grab the lip of the pit and hang on for dear life. The makeshift bridge, dislodged by the violence, tumbled into the pit with a clatter. Quintus pumped several Magic Missiles into their formidable foe, but Sextus missed badly with a bolt. Cragen gauged his chances of clearing the pit with a jump and shook his head, rapping his hammer on his shield in frustration.
Rowan and Rosë hung from the edge of the pit, side-by-side, while the pit-fighter loomed above them, grinning beneath his plumed Berylian helm. He raised his weapon and prepared to skewer the pair. Rosë made a desperate grab for the ranger’s sheathed gladius and cried out in pain as the ranseur denied him both the sword and his grip. The barbarian fell. Fortunately, the bench prevented many of the spins from reaching Rosë’s flesh, but several pierced him.
Rowan struggled to pull himself up, but a painful jab and a hobnailed boot sole confounded him. Somehow, he managed to maintain his grip and avoided joining Rosë at the bottom of the increasingly crowded pit. Shadowblade thugs, emboldened by the pit-fighter’s success, moved to support him. One dropped as Sextus threaded a crossbow bolt through the doorway. Cragen hefted another bench and began dragging it towards the pit.
Quintus stood stock-still…visions of failure and humiliation flashed through his head, only to be pushed out by a desperate plan. The sorcerer’s fingers wiggled and a rope appeared, suspended in mid-air, above the pit. He took a running start, leapt, grabbed the rope, swung across the pit, released the rope and latched onto the surprised pit-fighter like a hungry tick on a fat hound!
(DM’s Note: The sequence of rolls by our sorcerer to accomplish this feat was truly astounding. He made the DEX check needed to grab the rope, I gave him a 1-in-6 chance to avoid the AoO provoked by his action (he made it), then he rolled natural “20” on two consecutive grapple checks. Needless to say, he was immediately awarded a “hero point”!)
The pit-fighter staggered back and dropped his weapon as he tried to tear Quintus off of him. The stubborn sorcerer hung on, refusing to be dislodged and trying to stick his thumb in his opponent’s eye. Meanwhile, Rowan took advantage of the respite to crawl out of the pit and draw his blade, just in time to meet the rush of a trio of thugs moving up to support their leader. Cragen got a new bench-bridge in place while Rosë carefully propped the bench in the pit at an angle to attempt an escape from the hole.
The pit-fighter stopped trying to unseat Quintus in favor of beating the sorcerer into submission. Several punishing blows from the man’s leather and metal wrapped hands soon had the elder Scipio reeling. Rowan quickly dropped a Shadowblade and engaged another. Cragen carefully moved across the makeshift bridge to support the ranger and Rosë, bleeding and battered, finally extricated himself from the pit.
The enemy leader finally broke free from Quintus by main strength. The sorcerer, barely standing, didn’t have the ability to stop him. After a quick assessment of the situation, the pit-fighter swept up his ranseur, shouted “Hold them!” and disappeared through an open doorway. The reconstituted party made quick work of the remaining Shadowblades and set off in pursuit.
Blood spatters made following their quarry fairly easy, but looking for traps slowed their pace. Several forays into Shadowblade hideouts whetted their appetite for caution!
They entered a well-appointed anteroom with two exits. The blood trail led towards one, but a high-pitched scream echoed from the other. The smell of something burning also wafted from the second exit. The party moved through, grim-faced and weapons at the ready. They entered a plush living area with canopied bed, ornate writing desk, carved bureau and other finery. A cloud of smoke issued from a covered brazier. Their attention was drawn, however, to a pair of struggling figures on the bed.
The old mage that had taunted and bested them before lay face-up on the bed. Underneath him, her legs locked around his waist, an arm around his throat and a long poniard at his jugular, was a dirty and disheveled, but still defiant Drusilla. She dug the point of the blade into his flesh a bit and another high-pitched scream broke from his lips. Wary of earlier deceits, the party advanced slowly and cautiously.
A detect magic from Sextus pinpointed several weak emanations from the mage’s person, but revealed no illusion. Rowan and Cragen moved forward to take possession of the wizard, hauling him roughly from atop the remaining Cassuvius daughter. “Make sure he can’t cause any trouble”, Quintus growled through gritted teeth. “But keep him alive.”
After a short conference, the ranger and dwarf settled for beating him unconscious and breaking all of his fingers. “He canna’ cast if he canna’ use ‘is fingers, laddie,” Cragen intoned cheerfully. They finished by divesting him of anything that looked remotely valuable and binding him tightly. Quintus moved to comfort the now-weeping girl and Sextus examined the smoldering brazier.
“By the Light!” The bard used the tip of his blade to pull a sheaf of burning papers from the container and quickly put the flames out. Most were burned beyond recognition, but he could still make out some script on several. The younger Scipio bent closer and began to read. Rowan looked around, “Where’s Rosë?”
*************
Several chambers away, the Brigante stood with a raised torch. He had followed the pit-fighter’s blood trail into a small library, but could find no trace of him. The barbarian itched for revenge against the man that had bested him thrice and wanted someone, or something, to pay. Dozens of moldering tomes, numerous scrolls and sheaves of paper lined the walls. His lips pulled back in a sneer as he shrugged off his pack and began rummaging through it.
*************
Sextus glanced up, brows knit with worry. “I can’t make out much of these, but it looks like instructions from Maythrax to his underlings, directing them to continue to spread rumors about Antoinine Sestius and Maythrax being one…ordering them to continue the deception to keep the Merchant’s Council and the ‘Reds” guessing. Have we been on a wild goose chase the whole time?”
Quintus cursed under his breath and look at Drusilla again. Thoughts raced through his head. ‘Is it truly her? Or is this another deception?’
She looked well enough beneath the dirt and grime, although numerous bruises, old and new, were in evidence. Rowan knelt beside her, fingers flashing, as he conversed with her in Handspeak.
(DM’s Note: After her throat was cut by the gnolls, Drusilla was unable to speak. Healing magics had not affect on her lost voice, so Rowan started teaching her Handspeak, a language often used by rangers and woodsman. I should also note that the party was amazingly suspicious of EVERYTHING at this juncture…they kept waiting for an illusion to fail or for Drusilla to grow fangs and attack them!)
Quintus banished his momentary indecision and began barking orders.
“Cragen and Sextus, find Rosë…and bring whatever you can salvage from those papers. Rowan, you and I will toss this room and see what we can find. We will leave in five turns of the minute glass.”
The younger Scipio and the dwarf located the barbarian just as he hurled a torch into the oil-drenched library. Half-a-dozen empty flasks littered the stone floor at Rosë’s feet. The bard cried out in horror as flames roared through the shelves. The diminutive Sextus turned on the hulking Brigante.
“What in the name of all the Hells is wrong with you! The knowledge in those books could be priceless!”
Sextus tried to push into the room to salvage something, but billowing smoke drove him back. Choking back tears, he continued to upbraid Rosë. The smoke thickened, pushing the trio back further as the raging fire started pulling oxygen from the air. Coughing and wheezing, Sextus staggered back to the bedchamber.
“We have to leave now! The idiot barbarian is trying to kill us by burning the place down!”
A cloud of acrid smoke began rolling into the room, adding credence to Sextus’s orders. The party fled.
(DM’s Note: Lighting large fires in enclosed underground spaces is very bad…they actually came pretty close to a TPK from lack of oxygen. In addition, Sextus, Cragen and Quintus were furious with Rosë for burning down the library. Rosë’s response? “Books are bad!”)
The smoke followed them through half the complex before dissipating and everyone’s eyes and lungs were burning by the time they reached Valyria’s breach. The ship’s mage arched an eyebrow at their soot-covered appearance, Drusilla and the bound mage.
“What happened to you?”
“Don’t ask,” growled the furious Sextus as he stalked past.
Valyria patted Drusilla gently on the cheek and narrowed her eyes at the unconscious wizard.
“Maythrax?”
Quintus grunted and nodded while Rowan led them back to the skiff. They quickly bundled everyone in and began pulling for the mouth of the sea cave. The sorcerer received a mental warning from Severus just as they cleared the opening.
Three cutters, filled with armed men and riding low in the water, greeted them. Valyria chattered a series of strange clicks and the head of some manner of marine creature poked it’s head from the water and chattered back. Beams from several fog-cutter lanterns pierced the pre-dawn gloom, illuminating their small boat and a shout echoed across the water.
“Halt in the name of the Merchant’s Council and prepare to be boarded!”
Valyria looked at Quintus helplessly and slowly nodded her head.
To Be Continued…
Next: Session 21 (Part One) – Heroes or Scapegoats?
Is That All You Got?
Rowan’s arrow took one guard neatly through the eye; he fell with a slight gurgle. Of the two remaining, one stopped with his gladius halfway from the sheath and slowly raised his hands in surrender. The other emitted a short, almost feminine scream and dashed from the room. Rosë bounded after him, axe raised, and a much louder, but much shorter scream soon echoed off the walls. Cragen grasped the last guard by the front of his tunic and slammed him into the wall. Bones crunched and the man slumped to the floor. Sextus shot the dwarf a withering look and mumbled, “Bloodthirsty dwarf, the man was surrendering.”
The room seemed to be the guard chamber for a prison pit. A quick search showed recent inhabitation of the pit, but no sign of any prisoners. Quintus look at Valyria, “She’s not here.”
Rook’s mage nodded and replied, “We will hold the breach. I will send you a magical missive if we run into trouble…search quickly!”
The party issued from the dead-end room. Cragen lingered for a few moments, calling on a minor miracle to stabilize the Shadowblade he had bashed earlier. They quickly moved from chamber to chamber, making short work of the feeble resistance they encountered. Several opponents lived long enough to shout the alarm, but no concerted defense was mounted. Rowan exchanged worried looks with Quintus…this was too easy!
They penetrated further, past spartan living chambers, privies and practice rooms. They swept aside half-a-dozen guards, but fully expected scores. They entered a dining chamber and noted the flutter of a charcoal-colored cloak disappearing through a door across the room. Caution and sharp eyes paid off as Rowan detected a well-oiled pit trap just beyond the door. ‘Damn pits!’
The ranger wedged the swinging door open with a dagger while Rosë bridged the opening with a bench. Sharpened metal stakes glinted evilly six or seven paces below. Several Shadowblades started sniping at the party from two partially opened doors across the room and Rowan moved across to engage with his bow. Sextus started singing to inspire his companions; Quintus held a spell to launch at any likely targets and Cragen acted as a rearguard.
As Rowan notched an arrow, one of the doors opened all the way, disgorging familiar, and hated form. The pit-fighter charged across the room, lowered his broad shoulders and smashed his body into the ranger’s midsection. Rowan staggered back, felt air under his feet and dropped into the pit. He managed to grasp the edge of the pit and prevent himself from dropping onto the spikes.
(DM’s Note: Hooray for bull rush! Rowan had a bow out, so was not entitled to an AoO. The bull rush pushed him into the pit, but he made his reflex save and strength check to grab and hang onto the edge of the pit.)
Rosë howled with rage, swung his axe over his head and charged across the makeshift bridge. The pit-fighter brought his ranseur up and ripped the tines through the Brigante’s flank. The impact caused the barbarian to lose his balance and tumble into the pit as well. Amazingly, he also managed to grab the lip of the pit and hang on for dear life. The makeshift bridge, dislodged by the violence, tumbled into the pit with a clatter. Quintus pumped several Magic Missiles into their formidable foe, but Sextus missed badly with a bolt. Cragen gauged his chances of clearing the pit with a jump and shook his head, rapping his hammer on his shield in frustration.
Rowan and Rosë hung from the edge of the pit, side-by-side, while the pit-fighter loomed above them, grinning beneath his plumed Berylian helm. He raised his weapon and prepared to skewer the pair. Rosë made a desperate grab for the ranger’s sheathed gladius and cried out in pain as the ranseur denied him both the sword and his grip. The barbarian fell. Fortunately, the bench prevented many of the spins from reaching Rosë’s flesh, but several pierced him.
Rowan struggled to pull himself up, but a painful jab and a hobnailed boot sole confounded him. Somehow, he managed to maintain his grip and avoided joining Rosë at the bottom of the increasingly crowded pit. Shadowblade thugs, emboldened by the pit-fighter’s success, moved to support him. One dropped as Sextus threaded a crossbow bolt through the doorway. Cragen hefted another bench and began dragging it towards the pit.
Quintus stood stock-still…visions of failure and humiliation flashed through his head, only to be pushed out by a desperate plan. The sorcerer’s fingers wiggled and a rope appeared, suspended in mid-air, above the pit. He took a running start, leapt, grabbed the rope, swung across the pit, released the rope and latched onto the surprised pit-fighter like a hungry tick on a fat hound!
(DM’s Note: The sequence of rolls by our sorcerer to accomplish this feat was truly astounding. He made the DEX check needed to grab the rope, I gave him a 1-in-6 chance to avoid the AoO provoked by his action (he made it), then he rolled natural “20” on two consecutive grapple checks. Needless to say, he was immediately awarded a “hero point”!)
The pit-fighter staggered back and dropped his weapon as he tried to tear Quintus off of him. The stubborn sorcerer hung on, refusing to be dislodged and trying to stick his thumb in his opponent’s eye. Meanwhile, Rowan took advantage of the respite to crawl out of the pit and draw his blade, just in time to meet the rush of a trio of thugs moving up to support their leader. Cragen got a new bench-bridge in place while Rosë carefully propped the bench in the pit at an angle to attempt an escape from the hole.
The pit-fighter stopped trying to unseat Quintus in favor of beating the sorcerer into submission. Several punishing blows from the man’s leather and metal wrapped hands soon had the elder Scipio reeling. Rowan quickly dropped a Shadowblade and engaged another. Cragen carefully moved across the makeshift bridge to support the ranger and Rosë, bleeding and battered, finally extricated himself from the pit.
The enemy leader finally broke free from Quintus by main strength. The sorcerer, barely standing, didn’t have the ability to stop him. After a quick assessment of the situation, the pit-fighter swept up his ranseur, shouted “Hold them!” and disappeared through an open doorway. The reconstituted party made quick work of the remaining Shadowblades and set off in pursuit.
Blood spatters made following their quarry fairly easy, but looking for traps slowed their pace. Several forays into Shadowblade hideouts whetted their appetite for caution!
They entered a well-appointed anteroom with two exits. The blood trail led towards one, but a high-pitched scream echoed from the other. The smell of something burning also wafted from the second exit. The party moved through, grim-faced and weapons at the ready. They entered a plush living area with canopied bed, ornate writing desk, carved bureau and other finery. A cloud of smoke issued from a covered brazier. Their attention was drawn, however, to a pair of struggling figures on the bed.
The old mage that had taunted and bested them before lay face-up on the bed. Underneath him, her legs locked around his waist, an arm around his throat and a long poniard at his jugular, was a dirty and disheveled, but still defiant Drusilla. She dug the point of the blade into his flesh a bit and another high-pitched scream broke from his lips. Wary of earlier deceits, the party advanced slowly and cautiously.
A detect magic from Sextus pinpointed several weak emanations from the mage’s person, but revealed no illusion. Rowan and Cragen moved forward to take possession of the wizard, hauling him roughly from atop the remaining Cassuvius daughter. “Make sure he can’t cause any trouble”, Quintus growled through gritted teeth. “But keep him alive.”
After a short conference, the ranger and dwarf settled for beating him unconscious and breaking all of his fingers. “He canna’ cast if he canna’ use ‘is fingers, laddie,” Cragen intoned cheerfully. They finished by divesting him of anything that looked remotely valuable and binding him tightly. Quintus moved to comfort the now-weeping girl and Sextus examined the smoldering brazier.
“By the Light!” The bard used the tip of his blade to pull a sheaf of burning papers from the container and quickly put the flames out. Most were burned beyond recognition, but he could still make out some script on several. The younger Scipio bent closer and began to read. Rowan looked around, “Where’s Rosë?”
*************
Several chambers away, the Brigante stood with a raised torch. He had followed the pit-fighter’s blood trail into a small library, but could find no trace of him. The barbarian itched for revenge against the man that had bested him thrice and wanted someone, or something, to pay. Dozens of moldering tomes, numerous scrolls and sheaves of paper lined the walls. His lips pulled back in a sneer as he shrugged off his pack and began rummaging through it.
*************
Sextus glanced up, brows knit with worry. “I can’t make out much of these, but it looks like instructions from Maythrax to his underlings, directing them to continue to spread rumors about Antoinine Sestius and Maythrax being one…ordering them to continue the deception to keep the Merchant’s Council and the ‘Reds” guessing. Have we been on a wild goose chase the whole time?”
Quintus cursed under his breath and look at Drusilla again. Thoughts raced through his head. ‘Is it truly her? Or is this another deception?’
She looked well enough beneath the dirt and grime, although numerous bruises, old and new, were in evidence. Rowan knelt beside her, fingers flashing, as he conversed with her in Handspeak.
(DM’s Note: After her throat was cut by the gnolls, Drusilla was unable to speak. Healing magics had not affect on her lost voice, so Rowan started teaching her Handspeak, a language often used by rangers and woodsman. I should also note that the party was amazingly suspicious of EVERYTHING at this juncture…they kept waiting for an illusion to fail or for Drusilla to grow fangs and attack them!)
Quintus banished his momentary indecision and began barking orders.
“Cragen and Sextus, find Rosë…and bring whatever you can salvage from those papers. Rowan, you and I will toss this room and see what we can find. We will leave in five turns of the minute glass.”
The younger Scipio and the dwarf located the barbarian just as he hurled a torch into the oil-drenched library. Half-a-dozen empty flasks littered the stone floor at Rosë’s feet. The bard cried out in horror as flames roared through the shelves. The diminutive Sextus turned on the hulking Brigante.
“What in the name of all the Hells is wrong with you! The knowledge in those books could be priceless!”
Sextus tried to push into the room to salvage something, but billowing smoke drove him back. Choking back tears, he continued to upbraid Rosë. The smoke thickened, pushing the trio back further as the raging fire started pulling oxygen from the air. Coughing and wheezing, Sextus staggered back to the bedchamber.
“We have to leave now! The idiot barbarian is trying to kill us by burning the place down!”
A cloud of acrid smoke began rolling into the room, adding credence to Sextus’s orders. The party fled.
(DM’s Note: Lighting large fires in enclosed underground spaces is very bad…they actually came pretty close to a TPK from lack of oxygen. In addition, Sextus, Cragen and Quintus were furious with Rosë for burning down the library. Rosë’s response? “Books are bad!”)
The smoke followed them through half the complex before dissipating and everyone’s eyes and lungs were burning by the time they reached Valyria’s breach. The ship’s mage arched an eyebrow at their soot-covered appearance, Drusilla and the bound mage.
“What happened to you?”
“Don’t ask,” growled the furious Sextus as he stalked past.
Valyria patted Drusilla gently on the cheek and narrowed her eyes at the unconscious wizard.
“Maythrax?”
Quintus grunted and nodded while Rowan led them back to the skiff. They quickly bundled everyone in and began pulling for the mouth of the sea cave. The sorcerer received a mental warning from Severus just as they cleared the opening.
Three cutters, filled with armed men and riding low in the water, greeted them. Valyria chattered a series of strange clicks and the head of some manner of marine creature poked it’s head from the water and chattered back. Beams from several fog-cutter lanterns pierced the pre-dawn gloom, illuminating their small boat and a shout echoed across the water.
“Halt in the name of the Merchant’s Council and prepare to be boarded!”
Valyria looked at Quintus helplessly and slowly nodded her head.
To Be Continued…
Next: Session 21 (Part One) – Heroes or Scapegoats?
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Hah!
When Quintus's player told me what he was going to attempt, I looked at him like he was insane and then said "Hey...it's heroic D & D, go for it!"
His action bought enough time for the others to get back into the battle and he actually managed to survive...no mean feat!
~ Old One
Darklone said:LOL! A grappling sorcerer
When Quintus's player told me what he was going to attempt, I looked at him like he was insane and then said "Hey...it's heroic D & D, go for it!"
His action bought enough time for the others to get back into the battle and he actually managed to survive...no mean feat!
~ Old One
Silly barbarians...
I thought they were going to set Rose on fire for burning the library. Sources of information in this campaign are few and far between and who knows what kind of intersting info they might have found in the library (well, I know, but I am not saying
).
Add to that the danger of asphixiation and he was not real popular for the balance of the session
!
~ Old One
Rel said:
I thought they were going to set Rose on fire for burning the library. Sources of information in this campaign are few and far between and who knows what kind of intersting info they might have found in the library (well, I know, but I am not saying
).Add to that the danger of asphixiation and he was not real popular for the balance of the session
!~ Old One
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Broccli_Head
Explorer
Great update! And a cliffhanger to boot!
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