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: 8696144" data-attributes="member: 7030144"><p>Session 119 (November 11, 2020)</p><p></p><p>22 Ras (cont’d)</p><p></p><p>A fierce pitched battle ensues when Lord Davion and company attack. The War Banner of the Unconquerable Sun has particularly strong effects on the drow, although not Drucilla, who fights with full vigor. The serious battle is between Lord Davion and Drucilla. The battle is epic—at first she fights intently to win, then over time becomes determined to take him with her. The epithets that she spits at him are bone-chilling. Finally, when Grandmaster Farsensor realizes that she might succeed in taking Lord Davion with her, he intervenes. Though not a significant warrior, he is enough to tip the balance. When she dies, something strange happens—her soul does not go to the West as would be expected, even for a Noldar. A cloud of energy forms above her, the wrongness of which we can feel through the psionic projection. There is an unearthly howl that flattens some of the guards, and then she dissipates, both her soul and the body, leaving behind a strange ichor. Lord Davion has one of the pit fiends gather up the ichor on one of the lead shields, being certain to leave none behind. Lord Davion is gravely wounded as they return.</p><p></p><p>“She fought all the more bitterly when she recognized me.”</p><p></p><p>“Her death was strange.”</p><p></p><p>“She was devoted to the ultimate enemy, and utterly corrupted by it. It consumed her. The ichor must be destroyed in a holy place.”</p><p></p><p>Everyone in the encampment fought to the death—they would not accept quarter. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Dame Christine of the Woody Thicket, one of the paladins.</p><p></p><p>The Council dispatches strike teams at the other two locations, plus a group to take charge of the freed prisoners from Drucilla’s encampment. The prisoners are brought back in about an hour.</p><p></p><p>The rescue group brings back a group of prisoners, who are then carefully examined. Two have small implants at the base of their spines. “They appear to be separately alive, Dame. They have separate consciousness. It’s fairly primitive, but definitely conscious.”</p><p></p><p>They ask the people with the implants. “Don’t know what they are, but it’s talking to me. It’s encouraging me to accept the meld. I don’t think I can resist forever… I’ve seen it happen to other people. They stopped knowing what they knew before, and knew other things, like magic when they were a farmer. That Drow lady picked us. She tasted a drop of our blood, and said that some of us were fodder, and put those in others. The ones who succumbed were taken out and released. I don’t know where they went. Five that I know of. All from my thorp—I can give you images of all of them.”</p><p></p><p>Dame Constance joins them for the extraction.</p><p></p><p>She asks who the people who were melded were. Ronnie, one of them, is a member of the Duke of Furrows’s guard, home on leave. The implants will bring with them whatever they were from their master’s outer plane—magi, maybe priests of the vile god. They won’t be able to shapechange, but they also won’t be detectable except mentally. Because of the delicacy of removing the creatures, they bring in the Minister of the Mind, who is a redactor. It takes a significant amount of time for the surgery, and then the survivors need to be put in skin.</p><p></p><p>The Minister of the Mind reports that the first surgery was fine, the second was barely fine, and the third in the midst of the operation shrieks wildly and then the middle of his body blows apart. "The creature had gained enough control that when I tried to extract it, it committed suicide by destroying its host."</p><p></p><p>The extracted implants are some form of Arthranax’s demons. They can tell that much easily, though the demons can’t survive long outside their hosts.</p><p></p><p>Dame Brionna heads out with the strikeforce to the smaller camp—the camp where the squire is, and thus presumably also Cassandra. Before she goes, she speaks to Lord Davion about means to deal with Cassandra’s pets. He takes an ice drake out of his bag of creature holding. The ice drake talks with Dame Brionna about the plan, and about dealing with Cassandra’s creatures. They talk to Lady Violet about Cassandra’s creatures. She had a pride of tigers, and an enormous bat as a familiar. She brings along the War Banner of the Sun’s Wrath, along with 15 medium and 5 heavy powerbows.</p><p></p><p>The voller flies in, precisely descends on the encampment, and successfully stops to disgorge troops. The powerbows rake the camp. A wall of wind then suppresses the next volley of the powerbows, but after they have done huge damage and wrecked many of the regular troops. The encampment is in total disarray, with many people running around, some fleeing, and the Lady Cassandra seeking to rally them. Dame Brionna flies in to charge her with her lance of awesomeness. She smites Lady Cassandra and does 102 points of damage on a smite. It punctures her mithril chain shirt and impales her entirely. Lady Cassandra fails a system shock, and dies immediately.</p><p></p><p>At that point, the troops in the encampment break entirely, scattering into the woods in every direction. The ice drake and the other troops pursue.</p><p></p><p>Five of the prisoners are dead, killed by stray powerbow shots. However, the squire of the Earl of Caldra survived unscathed in his cage.</p><p></p><p>These soldiers were much less fanatical—most were just supporting her claim—and while the handful of fanatics fought to the death, the rest surrender as rounded up and throw themselves on the mercy of Dame Brionna.</p><p></p><p>The squire reports that they put something into him. He’s fighting it—it’s telling him to worship some awful thing. There were also two who were already taken, one of whom looked like a royal messenger.</p><p></p><p>They teleport him back. It’s a struggle, but the Minister of the Mind is able to remove it over a 5 hour process. “He’s been fighting it for two days, quite remarkable. They were determined to take him delicately. It was a more intelligent creature than the others.”</p><p></p><p>Kit pulls out the image of the royal messenger and of the other; a merchant. She also gets the other images. The images of the people are very clear, but their surroundings are partly obscured. Kit notes in the background of one of the images, just outlined, no color, what looks like an illithid or something like that. It’s incredibly pale, one of the not-quite-illithids that we have seen before. This one has jewelry on, probably status jewelry.</p><p>[cont'd]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CPaladin, post: 8696144, member: 7030144"] Session 119 (November 11, 2020) 22 Ras (cont’d) A fierce pitched battle ensues when Lord Davion and company attack. The War Banner of the Unconquerable Sun has particularly strong effects on the drow, although not Drucilla, who fights with full vigor. The serious battle is between Lord Davion and Drucilla. The battle is epic—at first she fights intently to win, then over time becomes determined to take him with her. The epithets that she spits at him are bone-chilling. Finally, when Grandmaster Farsensor realizes that she might succeed in taking Lord Davion with her, he intervenes. Though not a significant warrior, he is enough to tip the balance. When she dies, something strange happens—her soul does not go to the West as would be expected, even for a Noldar. A cloud of energy forms above her, the wrongness of which we can feel through the psionic projection. There is an unearthly howl that flattens some of the guards, and then she dissipates, both her soul and the body, leaving behind a strange ichor. Lord Davion has one of the pit fiends gather up the ichor on one of the lead shields, being certain to leave none behind. Lord Davion is gravely wounded as they return. “She fought all the more bitterly when she recognized me.” “Her death was strange.” “She was devoted to the ultimate enemy, and utterly corrupted by it. It consumed her. The ichor must be destroyed in a holy place.” Everyone in the encampment fought to the death—they would not accept quarter. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Dame Christine of the Woody Thicket, one of the paladins. The Council dispatches strike teams at the other two locations, plus a group to take charge of the freed prisoners from Drucilla’s encampment. The prisoners are brought back in about an hour. The rescue group brings back a group of prisoners, who are then carefully examined. Two have small implants at the base of their spines. “They appear to be separately alive, Dame. They have separate consciousness. It’s fairly primitive, but definitely conscious.” They ask the people with the implants. “Don’t know what they are, but it’s talking to me. It’s encouraging me to accept the meld. I don’t think I can resist forever… I’ve seen it happen to other people. They stopped knowing what they knew before, and knew other things, like magic when they were a farmer. That Drow lady picked us. She tasted a drop of our blood, and said that some of us were fodder, and put those in others. The ones who succumbed were taken out and released. I don’t know where they went. Five that I know of. All from my thorp—I can give you images of all of them.” Dame Constance joins them for the extraction. She asks who the people who were melded were. Ronnie, one of them, is a member of the Duke of Furrows’s guard, home on leave. The implants will bring with them whatever they were from their master’s outer plane—magi, maybe priests of the vile god. They won’t be able to shapechange, but they also won’t be detectable except mentally. Because of the delicacy of removing the creatures, they bring in the Minister of the Mind, who is a redactor. It takes a significant amount of time for the surgery, and then the survivors need to be put in skin. The Minister of the Mind reports that the first surgery was fine, the second was barely fine, and the third in the midst of the operation shrieks wildly and then the middle of his body blows apart. "The creature had gained enough control that when I tried to extract it, it committed suicide by destroying its host." The extracted implants are some form of Arthranax’s demons. They can tell that much easily, though the demons can’t survive long outside their hosts. Dame Brionna heads out with the strikeforce to the smaller camp—the camp where the squire is, and thus presumably also Cassandra. Before she goes, she speaks to Lord Davion about means to deal with Cassandra’s pets. He takes an ice drake out of his bag of creature holding. The ice drake talks with Dame Brionna about the plan, and about dealing with Cassandra’s creatures. They talk to Lady Violet about Cassandra’s creatures. She had a pride of tigers, and an enormous bat as a familiar. She brings along the War Banner of the Sun’s Wrath, along with 15 medium and 5 heavy powerbows. The voller flies in, precisely descends on the encampment, and successfully stops to disgorge troops. The powerbows rake the camp. A wall of wind then suppresses the next volley of the powerbows, but after they have done huge damage and wrecked many of the regular troops. The encampment is in total disarray, with many people running around, some fleeing, and the Lady Cassandra seeking to rally them. Dame Brionna flies in to charge her with her lance of awesomeness. She smites Lady Cassandra and does 102 points of damage on a smite. It punctures her mithril chain shirt and impales her entirely. Lady Cassandra fails a system shock, and dies immediately. At that point, the troops in the encampment break entirely, scattering into the woods in every direction. The ice drake and the other troops pursue. Five of the prisoners are dead, killed by stray powerbow shots. However, the squire of the Earl of Caldra survived unscathed in his cage. These soldiers were much less fanatical—most were just supporting her claim—and while the handful of fanatics fought to the death, the rest surrender as rounded up and throw themselves on the mercy of Dame Brionna. The squire reports that they put something into him. He’s fighting it—it’s telling him to worship some awful thing. There were also two who were already taken, one of whom looked like a royal messenger. They teleport him back. It’s a struggle, but the Minister of the Mind is able to remove it over a 5 hour process. “He’s been fighting it for two days, quite remarkable. They were determined to take him delicately. It was a more intelligent creature than the others.” Kit pulls out the image of the royal messenger and of the other; a merchant. She also gets the other images. The images of the people are very clear, but their surroundings are partly obscured. Kit notes in the background of one of the images, just outlined, no color, what looks like an illithid or something like that. It’s incredibly pale, one of the not-quite-illithids that we have seen before. This one has jewelry on, probably status jewelry. [cont'd] [/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