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
Aphonion Tales: The Archducal Council -- Unedited notes; later posts are edited transcripts (posts MWF, update 3/1/23)
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="CPaladin" data-source="post: 8629800" data-attributes="member: 7030144"><p>[Session 110, cont'd]</p><p>Dame Brionna heads off to the dwarves to investigate. She brings Aunt Cecilia, notionally the ambassador, 5 squads of Dame Brionna’s people, and some of Kit’s people.</p><p></p><p>Aunt Cecilia expresses that she likes the dwarves, because they say what they think.</p><p></p><p>They have some people from the Ministry of Magic teleport them. This rather startles the dwarven guards.</p><p></p><p>Princess Cecilia admires the stonework the entire way down, quite pleasing the dwarves. She comments that her brother was an engineer, briefly. "He was many things—all of them briefly."</p><p></p><p>Princess Cecilia continues to have a delightful conversation with the King.</p><p></p><p>The King agrees to personally show Princess Cecilia and her entourage the mines. Dame Brionna sidles up to a paladin of Dain, likely the King’s chief guard. She mentions quietly that she expects there may be trouble. He nods, and starts making hand signals. The other guards suddenly start being more alert.They’ve been through about a mile of corridors and mine shafts, when they see a handful of human men approaching. In the very midst of discussing stone carving, Aunt Cecilia says, “Great Light, what is that?” She points directly at the foremost of the humans, or apparent humans. He instantly transforms. The Dwarf king pulls out a ceremonial mace and jumps in front of her.</p><p></p><p>The “human” is changing into something completely non-human and considerably larger than a human. This is not a seen-unseen. Brionna sends an image to Kit, who relays it to Lord Davion.</p><p></p><p>The Dwarf King and Dame Brionna take up the front of the creature, and her people can surround it. It’s important to decide who gets in the group around it. She leaves one slot for the Dwarf paladin. All of the other slots are taken by human paladins.</p><p></p><p>It has an AC of 27 in its natural form. It is large, with cat-like features, but they shift. It keeps shimmering. It has some features like a displacer beast, but they cannot look like people. The paladins hit it pretty hard, but it is not badly hurt. The mages cast spells at it, and it resists all their attacks—SR 30. The dwarf king swings his ceremonial scepter, which glitters, but he misses horribly.</p><p></p><p>The creature turns to the paladin of Dain, and almost contemptuously makes an odd motion with his claw. The paladin of Dain amazingly fails his fortitude save, and the creature is holding a heart in his hand, which he without hesitation shoves in his mouth and starts to chew, as the wounds start closing.</p><p></p><p>Lord Davion replies immediately to Kit. "That is a greater demon of the one we now know emulates the Blue Star." Lord Davion predicts that they will win, but that they will likely take casualties. Highly magically resistant, completely resistant to cold and lightning; can be affected by fire. Very low intelligence. Unknown psionic resistance, but probably low. There aren’t many of them—surprising that there are any on the Prime. But Arthranax did use them for deep infiltration. He bred them—probably related to the seen-unseen, that’s why they’re so good at shapechanging and infiltration. Lord Davion also heads out as back up.</p><p></p><p>One of the dwarves jumps into the breach and smacks it, but does no damage without a magic weapon.</p><p></p><p>The magi enchant the dwarf’s weapon, haste him, and bull’s strength Brionna.</p><p></p><p>The King beats his magic scepter to a bent twisted wreck against the creature.</p><p></p><p>The creature breathes a horrible miasma of acid for twenty feet in front of him, engulfing Dame Brionna and the King of the Dwarves. The King saves and would take half damage; Dame Brionna voluntarily fails her save to leap in front of the King; he takes no damage and she takes 68 points of damage. One mage and one cleric dodge the cloud entirely, and one mage and one cleric are engulfed and killed.</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna throws a bag of orichalcum dust into its mouth. There is a deafening explosion, and she is hurled back 9 feet, taking 10 points of concussion damage. It was looking a little wounded, but not ragged, but now it is looking very damaged. It has gaping holes oozing some sort of hideous liquid. It is now in a rage.</p><p></p><p>Two other dwarves rush in, one thinking to pick up the paladin of Dain’s hammer.</p><p></p><p>Lord Davion teleports in, wearing a crystal breastplate and an evening robe, gesticulating with a laen sword—unusual, since he usually uses metal.</p><p></p><p>The human paladins are picking themselves up. The clerics run over and heal Dame Brionna, giving her a total of 52 hp back.</p><p></p><p>The King jumps on its leg, bites it with magical dentures and does 9 points of damage.</p><p></p><p>The psions manifest inflict pain.</p><p></p><p>The creature thrusts his hand forward, and it turns into a bony spur and elongates as it thrusts forward at Dame Brionna. It hits three times, with an impale, claw, and a bite. It does 26 hp, 14 hp, and 7 hp.</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna does 71 points of damage, beheading it. She then keeps slamming his halberd into its dead body.</p><p></p><p>“A greater demon of Arthranax. Well, well, well. We’ll need to salt the wounds and burn the body to kill it permanently.”</p><p></p><p>Princess Cecilia teleported home. She’s very concerned about the “kingy.”</p><p></p><p>The king expels the Sytryites, but agrees to allow Dame Brionna to interrogate them first.</p><p></p><p>Lord Davion comments, "Demons like this are minions to the Demons Supreme of Arthranax, but there are even fewer of those. It will have a handler. There will be a handler nearby. There must be something to contain it—they’re not smart enough to engage in espionage on their own. It looks like the creature was purporting to have a vow of silence, based on how it was dressed."</p><p></p><p>The Sytryites report that Brother Aloysius was just traveling with them. They thought it was odd when he took a vow of silence, but some do. He also stopped writing—that seemed a little strange, but he continued to attend devotions. He had a hankering for dwarven food, so he did spend some time in the kitchens. That was just after the enormous lightning storm on the open road.</p><p></p><p>"They were sent as an expedition to meet with the dwarves by command of one of the patriarch’s advisors to discuss the purchase of orichalcum and to advise on certain things. Brother Aloysius was the leader of the group. He would have been the one to speak for us. He was supposed to convince the king to raise the level of orichalcum production. The honored council member thought it would be appropriate. He had gifts, but did not have the full confidence of the Council. A representative of the Most Reverend Algernon Brockton."</p><p></p><p>(Alistair gets 100 extra xp for noting that it has to be one of them, or one of their animals, because the handler had to be introduced on the open road.)</p><p></p><p>Lord Davion finds nothing in the kitchen. They report that he loved dwarven bread—they’ve never seen a human that liked that before.</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna finishes checking the blood of the Sytryites, and goes to the stables. There is a missing horse. Both of the stable dwarf boys have had their throats neatly slit, and they have been bled.</p><p></p><p>One of the clerics casts speak with dead. “What did the creature that killed you look like?” </p><p></p><p>“It was a horse, and then became me, and slit my throat and drained my blood and drank my blood.”</p><p></p><p>Lord Davion notes, “Drank his blood? It will then be days before it can be detected by the test of blood.”</p><p></p><p>They call for a great assembly.</p><p>[End session 110]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CPaladin, post: 8629800, member: 7030144"] [Session 110, cont'd] Dame Brionna heads off to the dwarves to investigate. She brings Aunt Cecilia, notionally the ambassador, 5 squads of Dame Brionna’s people, and some of Kit’s people. Aunt Cecilia expresses that she likes the dwarves, because they say what they think. They have some people from the Ministry of Magic teleport them. This rather startles the dwarven guards. Princess Cecilia admires the stonework the entire way down, quite pleasing the dwarves. She comments that her brother was an engineer, briefly. "He was many things—all of them briefly." Princess Cecilia continues to have a delightful conversation with the King. The King agrees to personally show Princess Cecilia and her entourage the mines. Dame Brionna sidles up to a paladin of Dain, likely the King’s chief guard. She mentions quietly that she expects there may be trouble. He nods, and starts making hand signals. The other guards suddenly start being more alert.They’ve been through about a mile of corridors and mine shafts, when they see a handful of human men approaching. In the very midst of discussing stone carving, Aunt Cecilia says, “Great Light, what is that?” She points directly at the foremost of the humans, or apparent humans. He instantly transforms. The Dwarf king pulls out a ceremonial mace and jumps in front of her. The “human” is changing into something completely non-human and considerably larger than a human. This is not a seen-unseen. Brionna sends an image to Kit, who relays it to Lord Davion. The Dwarf King and Dame Brionna take up the front of the creature, and her people can surround it. It’s important to decide who gets in the group around it. She leaves one slot for the Dwarf paladin. All of the other slots are taken by human paladins. It has an AC of 27 in its natural form. It is large, with cat-like features, but they shift. It keeps shimmering. It has some features like a displacer beast, but they cannot look like people. The paladins hit it pretty hard, but it is not badly hurt. The mages cast spells at it, and it resists all their attacks—SR 30. The dwarf king swings his ceremonial scepter, which glitters, but he misses horribly. The creature turns to the paladin of Dain, and almost contemptuously makes an odd motion with his claw. The paladin of Dain amazingly fails his fortitude save, and the creature is holding a heart in his hand, which he without hesitation shoves in his mouth and starts to chew, as the wounds start closing. Lord Davion replies immediately to Kit. "That is a greater demon of the one we now know emulates the Blue Star." Lord Davion predicts that they will win, but that they will likely take casualties. Highly magically resistant, completely resistant to cold and lightning; can be affected by fire. Very low intelligence. Unknown psionic resistance, but probably low. There aren’t many of them—surprising that there are any on the Prime. But Arthranax did use them for deep infiltration. He bred them—probably related to the seen-unseen, that’s why they’re so good at shapechanging and infiltration. Lord Davion also heads out as back up. One of the dwarves jumps into the breach and smacks it, but does no damage without a magic weapon. The magi enchant the dwarf’s weapon, haste him, and bull’s strength Brionna. The King beats his magic scepter to a bent twisted wreck against the creature. The creature breathes a horrible miasma of acid for twenty feet in front of him, engulfing Dame Brionna and the King of the Dwarves. The King saves and would take half damage; Dame Brionna voluntarily fails her save to leap in front of the King; he takes no damage and she takes 68 points of damage. One mage and one cleric dodge the cloud entirely, and one mage and one cleric are engulfed and killed. Dame Brionna throws a bag of orichalcum dust into its mouth. There is a deafening explosion, and she is hurled back 9 feet, taking 10 points of concussion damage. It was looking a little wounded, but not ragged, but now it is looking very damaged. It has gaping holes oozing some sort of hideous liquid. It is now in a rage. Two other dwarves rush in, one thinking to pick up the paladin of Dain’s hammer. Lord Davion teleports in, wearing a crystal breastplate and an evening robe, gesticulating with a laen sword—unusual, since he usually uses metal. The human paladins are picking themselves up. The clerics run over and heal Dame Brionna, giving her a total of 52 hp back. The King jumps on its leg, bites it with magical dentures and does 9 points of damage. The psions manifest inflict pain. The creature thrusts his hand forward, and it turns into a bony spur and elongates as it thrusts forward at Dame Brionna. It hits three times, with an impale, claw, and a bite. It does 26 hp, 14 hp, and 7 hp. Dame Brionna does 71 points of damage, beheading it. She then keeps slamming his halberd into its dead body. “A greater demon of Arthranax. Well, well, well. We’ll need to salt the wounds and burn the body to kill it permanently.” Princess Cecilia teleported home. She’s very concerned about the “kingy.” The king expels the Sytryites, but agrees to allow Dame Brionna to interrogate them first. Lord Davion comments, "Demons like this are minions to the Demons Supreme of Arthranax, but there are even fewer of those. It will have a handler. There will be a handler nearby. There must be something to contain it—they’re not smart enough to engage in espionage on their own. It looks like the creature was purporting to have a vow of silence, based on how it was dressed." The Sytryites report that Brother Aloysius was just traveling with them. They thought it was odd when he took a vow of silence, but some do. He also stopped writing—that seemed a little strange, but he continued to attend devotions. He had a hankering for dwarven food, so he did spend some time in the kitchens. That was just after the enormous lightning storm on the open road. "They were sent as an expedition to meet with the dwarves by command of one of the patriarch’s advisors to discuss the purchase of orichalcum and to advise on certain things. Brother Aloysius was the leader of the group. He would have been the one to speak for us. He was supposed to convince the king to raise the level of orichalcum production. The honored council member thought it would be appropriate. He had gifts, but did not have the full confidence of the Council. A representative of the Most Reverend Algernon Brockton." (Alistair gets 100 extra xp for noting that it has to be one of them, or one of their animals, because the handler had to be introduced on the open road.) Lord Davion finds nothing in the kitchen. They report that he loved dwarven bread—they’ve never seen a human that liked that before. Dame Brionna finishes checking the blood of the Sytryites, and goes to the stables. There is a missing horse. Both of the stable dwarf boys have had their throats neatly slit, and they have been bled. One of the clerics casts speak with dead. “What did the creature that killed you look like?” “It was a horse, and then became me, and slit my throat and drained my blood and drank my blood.” Lord Davion notes, “Drank his blood? It will then be days before it can be detected by the test of blood.” They call for a great assembly. [End session 110] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Aphonion Tales: The Archducal Council -- Unedited notes; later posts are edited transcripts (posts MWF, update 3/1/23)
Top