Colmarr
First Post
Out of interest, did you play this combat out using powers, or did you abstract it somehow?
If the former, how long did it take and how did the other players react? Boredom? Interest? Snack run?
If the latter, how did you do it?
Campaign writeup (2 updates September 7th)
Out of interest, did you play this combat out using powers, or did you abstract it somehow?
If the former, how long did it take and how did the other players react? Boredom? Interest? Snack run?
If the latter, how did you do it?
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
We played it out in full using powers - I'd expected it to be a tough fight, but was guaging it from when I played this module and my paladin won the fight on 5 HP after about a dozen rounds.
Playing it in full with a combat-heavy barbarian? 3 rounds, tops. It was an absolute cakewalk for the PC. So they just got to watch him do his thing, which was a terrifying sight.
Didn't even last long enough for them to place bets!
Playing it in full with a combat-heavy barbarian? 3 rounds, tops. It was an absolute cakewalk for the PC. So they just got to watch him do his thing, which was a terrifying sight.
Didn't even last long enough for them to place bets!
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
11th June
* It is but a few moments later the Chaplin finds himself staring up, the coppery taste of blood in his mouth, the wide grin of Cricket looms over him “seems Sehanine wants herself a temple, you agree?” offering the man his arm “my god says similar it would seem” he says with a begrudging smile as he is hauled from the mud back to unsteady feet. In the darkening sky above the chill white of the moon looks down and is glad.
* Having spent the last week or so aiding Lora’bek in her endeavour to unite the faiths we decide to give ourselves a little break from negotiating, blackmailing and generally threatening people for the afternoon. The weather is as bad as ever and we’re not sure if its stopped raining since we arrived, people seem to just get on with things and don’t let the drizzling rain hamper them too much.
* However it would seem that fate is not content to let us have our lazy afternoon, the street in front of us is clogged thick with people, over the roars and applauses of the crowd it would seem Lora’Bek and Perkins are having a verbal duel, about what we can’t quite work out but obviously Urien is annoyed that Perkins is still spouting his bile and begins trying to muscle his way through the crowd.
* Feeling we’ll have better luck going through the alleys and side streets we start looking for an alternate route through and its down one of these alleyways that we spy the beginnings of a mugging, a dark skinned woman with a drawn blade stalks after an unknowing peasant.
* We follow on at Torrents’ urging and trailing the warrior cleric with Kain loudly plotting of arresting the mugger and “confiscating” any evidence found, we blunder straight into an ambush:
o It would seem the dark skinned warrior woman is the leader of this merry bunch that includes two roguish cutthroats, the “peasant” mark now with a large trident and a weighted net, they are joined by “Mega Miller” a hulking brute of a man in millers garb wielding an oversized stone Pestle.
o Both the warrior woman and the fishermen seem to be able cover themselves in their nets and turn invisible!
* They prove to be quite the diversion but no one is seriously injured and we are slightly shocked to discover that their leader was a demon in disguise, our first clue was that she her blood had an orangey hue to it as it spilled across the floor but quickly faded to normal, and the most obvious was upon her death she collapsed into a pile of Ash. Silas confirms he demonic origins regardless of Kain’s protests that perhaps he just stabbed her “really really” hard with his fire enchanted dagger and that was the cause!
* Sadly the group have no treasure or any notes or messages upon them to link them to anything truly nefarious (but of course demons don’t tend to lead mugging bands!). Our only clue however is the Miller, upon his jerkin is a crest, no doubt something that could lead us towards the mill he worked for and possibly identify him.
o We send Brick out to talk to a few locals of dubious moral fibre and none of them seem to know anything about this group, it would appear they are not a local gang. We do however get the address of the Millers Mill.
* With nothing better to do this evening we head to the mill, the place seems fairly deserted and we spy one of the doors has been left ajar. Kain ventures forth along to slip inside quietly, the place seems deserted but his ears to pick up the sound of faint mumbling coming from an office upon the other side of the mill. He skulks over, and as quiet as a mouse slips the latch of the connecting door, pushing open the tiniest of cracks but is still unable to make out what they’re saying.
o Inside he can see the dark skinned woman pacing back and forth, talking to a group that looks remarkably like those that we met before. He pushes the door open quietly, still careful not to be seen and finally manages to hear “must take steps
against those who defy the empire!”, in reaction he kicks the door open the rest of the way and bravely bellows “you’re all under arrest!” drawing his daggers smoothly, the group ignores him and continues its plotting… the half-orc is confused and doubly so when everyone in front of him suddenly jerks, flickers and then seems to rewind their actions and start again!
o By the time the rest of us have arrived Kain has found a small clear stone set upon the floor that is the source of the illusions, tapping it with his boot causing the illusion to end.
* Content that it is safe we search the rest of the mill trying to find any more hints as to who this group is and while we find a few more empty crates (similar to those we found on the Ragesian Wagon) we find no other papers or documents suggesting why or who they are, other than they wanted us. The contents of the actual mill are a little mouldy so it we assume that work stopped a while ago and it has been their base every since.
o We also find a level 10 item that goes to Silas, as well are 2450 gold pieces.
o Our only thoughts upon the group is that they arranged the illusion to be a lure for an ambush but obviously got tired of waiting for us to discover their secret base and came looking for us instead.
* Slightly wealthier we return to the Royale.
* In the morning we receive a request from Headmaster Simian (of the Lyceum), there is to be a meeting of the War Council at lunch time and our presence is requested.
o To while away the few hours before the meeting we do a little more digging around the mill and the people, our only tangible lead is that that someone heard that the millers mother used to work at the Lyceum as a cleaning lady and was killed in a magical accident there.
* Still with no other solid leads we head to the Lyceum for what is sure to be a riveting council meeting and are shown into one of the lecture halls that overlook the bay. It would seem that all of Seaquen’s prominent names have been invited, along with Lora’Bek to speak for the faiths, Giorgio of the Wayfarers and then representatives of the nearby kingdoms of Dassan, Sindaire and Ostalin.
* Kianen stands to one side, next to a large Shield Guardian Golem, its control rod gripped tightly in his hand.
o The meeting starts with Simian giving rather workmanlike speech, highlighting that the new Emporer of Ragesian, Leska the Supreme Inquisitor has made her wants quite known, to conquer and rule all nations. Our mission, to form a forge large enough to defeat and dethrone her! However he doesn’t know quite how we should start this, and is open to ideas and bids everyone in turn to voice their thoughts.
* Magister Vortberd is quick to voice his opinions, however its mostly complaining about the refugees, his plan involved forming a large police force to keep them in check, everyone one should be questioned!
* Lee Sidoneth goes next talking of the overcrowding of the Harbour and that he has begun directing people to the south side. He believes that we should watch and wait, to measure Ragesia’s next moves and react.
* Commander Zavius believes that Seaquen should form alliances with any and all nations that will join. He reels off grand military schemes involving magical support and guerrilla style counter strikes against the larger Ragesian force. His other comment that raises a few eyes is that he believes the key to our victory lies in an artefact, the Torch of the Burning Sky and that he knows of a specialised group that stands a chance at retrieving it!
o We expect our names to be dropped but it would appear not, he mentions the High Guard of the king of Dassan, but unless a strong alliance is made the king would not relinquish his bodyguards for the quest.
* Katrina (the red headed mage we saved from the swamps and brother to Randell hero of Gate Pass!) muscles in at this point, delivering news from her brother of Gate Pass, which isn’t good. After that she puts our names forwards to try and find the torch, and then generally talks about us and our brave deeds which while impressive do eventually bore the council until eventually Simian must ask her to stop so that the others can speak.
* Lora’Bek goes next and offers nothing of value other than counters to Vortberd’s refugee’s comments; the two begin the argument again until finally shushed by Simian.
* Giorgio is next to speak and mentions the hampering effects of the Burning Sky, providing a brutal demonstration of teleporting a dove across the room and it appearing as nothing but ash. He is sad that the Wayfarers cannot offer much help, they have always been a neutral group, but he personally believes that Guild Mistress Lucking could be convinced to pick a side if the plan was good enough.
o He rounds his little speech off by giving everyone tickets to a special performance upon the Wayfarers theatre boat in a few days time. They have concocted a play that will raise support for the resistance and wish that all the representatives will be able to come to show their support.
* Kiefer, who speaks for Dassan goes next and is straight to the point of his kings views on the refugees coming through his lands, he wishes to remain neutral to Lesker and will not entertain any thoughts or comments that Ragesia is already at war with Dassan even if the king refuses to acknowledge it.
* Granston of Sindaire says that their nation is unable to pledge support at this time with Ragesia so close to their borders. But he says that he has information about the Torch of the Burning Sky, but it is impossible to reach. Essentially trapped in a whirlwind of boiling fire that surrounds Emporer Coaltongues castle, only the dead and undead can be found there.
o A complication that concerns us greatly but doesn’t seem to silence Katrinas insisting comments of our ability.
* Kezar the last to speak, representative of Ostallin (A kingdom that supports itself mostly by the hiring of its impressive armies to other nations). Seems to have no plans to join any form of alliance, they believe the Ragesians are no threat to them. He offers an outrageous deal for any nation, the hiring of their entire military force for one third of their land.
* This naturally triggers an absolutely huge argument and is only halted when a mage attempts to enter the hall, Kianen quickly reacts thrusting his hands forwards and the mage is hurled telekinetically from the room. “Kianen, that was Josef!” blurts Simian, the mage simply shrugs “Josef!” repeats the headmaster as he scurries towards the door to check upon Josef. “Someones coming!” he warns “they flew over the walls, Shalhalesti!” he manages to say before passing out.
* Not long after a part of seven elves in bright silver armour and long luscious flowing robes glide into the room, the last elf in the pile wields a large and impressive flag that he twirls with great fervor. Both Brick and Giorgio wipe tears from their eyes at the sheer DRAMA of their entrance, the rest of us merely squeeze the hafts of our weapons tighter. The leader of their band (and naturally the prettiest of them) introduces herself as Sha’Losha, a princess of the shining lands, her voice as smooth as silk.
* She doesn’t give any time for any formal protest to be spoken before launching into a long and clearly prewritten speech (that we detect contains passages she herself is not comfortable with) that highlights the need for unity, we must join with the Shalhalesti, for only they “a shining star defending the world from darkness” could leader an alliance. Orders have come from her father than a great fleet of seventeen warships are to defend the Seaquens coast.
* It is the King of Shalhalestis’ intention to annex Seaquen and appoint a governor to run the city so that they can judge the purity of their allies. As if suddenly woken from a daze at the
thought of losing land to the elfs the spokesman for Dassan launches his strong and vocal objections to any such thing. Sha’Losha ignores his protest; she has her orders and so does the leader of the fleet and that is to stop all travel into and out of Seaquen by sea and this will remain so until those orders are changed by her father. She shall send a courier to update him as soon as possible but due to lack of teleportation being available the messages will have to be carried by hand. The elves then leave as quickly (and as dramatically) as they entered and a second round of shouting begins.
* When the meeting finally ends, very little seems to have changed in our current predicament other that everyone has agreed to the Theatre trip. We have a private audience with Simian who asks us to help in whatever way we can; it would seem that things are still occurring throughout Seaquen that can be attributed to Ragesian scouts or terror cells.
* The next morning we begin our war upon terror, by going to a pub! However not just any pub (although this idea was certainly raised by many) remembering the names that Perkins gave to us during his “arrest” and the place that they drink we head there. Coming up with a wonderful plan to enter separately, allowing some of us to settle in and watch while our more talkative members can dig some dirt.
o However as Brick has vanished (leaving only a note that he has business to take care of in town) this task is left to Urien and Silas.
* Silas approaches the bar and surreptitiously drops the names Serbahn and Makom to the barman, sliding a few coins across the bar. He learns that the two rarely can be found in here together and that Serbahn can be found “over there” he signals with a flick of his eyes with an added “you didn’t hear this from me right...” nod of his head.
* With a peek in the direction indicated its not hard to pick out Serbahn, clearly a gang leader sat at a little table, his heavies clearly waiting nearby and no doubt other watchers within the bar, doing much the same as we are keeping an eye out.
o Over the next few days we watch the half elf and try to work out the best way to approach him so that we can find his connections if any to the Ragesians.
o He seems to spend the bulk of his time at the bar with lots of unscrupulous types swinging by seemingly at random, a few whispers here and plenty of parcels and purses changing hands under the table.
* Satisfied that he has a feel for how Serbahn works Silas is picked to try and make a first contact. He approaches the half elf, his heavies step in briefly but are quickly waved aside by Serbahn, he seems happy to be approached and invites the tiefling to take a seat and quickly talk turns to business. Silas says that he is looking for work, weaving a little tale of moving from gatepass picking pockets and lifting trinkets on his way down to seaquen and now he’s here he’d like some proper work. Throwing in a few veiled and unveiled insults against the mages of Gate Pass and the Lyceum.
o However things don’t go quite our way, Silas’ story of being a simple thief goes a little awry when Serbahn lifts a platinum piece from the warlock (some of the well earned treasure we all carry). But things thankfully don’t turn violent and Silas leaves the pub without any solid information.
o From their conversation however we believe that Serbahns motivations against the lyceum (regarding perkins at least) seems purely based around money rather than any ideology. But a dead lead is still a dead lead, onto the Halfling.
* The Halfling proves a tougher nut to crack and the first two days of throwing his name around the gutters of Seaquen turn up no more than a few red herrings, and it’s only when we move up market a little that we have more luck. Quite a number of merchants we speak to seem to recognise the name, but can offer no solid information and its only by chance
that an impoverished street whore trying to ply her trade during the day overhears and says she knows.
o “Makom owns “the House”” she says, we all look a little clueless, she says fixing us with her good eye (her other droops) and winks or tries to “I’m sorry we don’t know what you mean” replies Urien. “The House, the best you know, in the city, it’s a brothel! I tried to get in there, but they only take the pretty girls, said they’d fix my eye for them with magic if I could pay them two hundred gold” she says, her voice tensing with dreams of a promised life… to work in the best whorehouse in the city…
o When we ask where it is she demands 200gp for the address which Urien is ready to hand over, however Kain and Cricket object about paying a peasants fortune for something they believe can be found elsewhere. The whore spits at us, glaring with her good eye as she runs off.
* Still the Paladin gets to make a smug smile and hold it as it takes us another two days of coercing merchants and eventually strong arming one into submission before we get the address of The House and a name to use as a referral.
* The sun is starting to set when “Sir Ulf Hednar” and his “Squires” approach the large black townhouse that sits back a little from the nearby buildings. Rogueish types are clearly visible on nearby rooftops with short bows and crossbows in their hands; the district is certainly on edge. But we decide to press on, heading up to the large stout black oak and iron studded door, noting the complete lack of windows upon the ground floor.
* Urien hammers a few times on the door, the central hatch opens quickly filled with a massive face who grunts a few questions “who are you? Who’s your referral? Do you have a card” all goes silent until the hatch slams shut, and the sound of many heavy bolts are yanked back and a huge hunched looking ogre “just you” he points with one huge finger. It would seem the “squires” are to sit this one out and we arrange to wait at a nearby wine bar called the Opulent Opal.
* The paladin steps inside, scraping passed the bulky door ogre, now fully seeing that he isn’t hunched, his head is set within his chest. “That way” grunts the ogre, closing and re-bolting the huge door. Leaving the paladin with no choice but to make his way down the dingy looking corridor and through a curtain into an impressive looking reception area, behind a small counter is an old madam, decked in her finery; she welcomes him and takes his name.
* “Where do your pleasures lie, Male? Female? Perhaps more monstrous?” she asks sweetly, his thoughts roam to his cloistered upbringing in the temple, weapons practice and prayer, he feels woefully unprepared for this battle. He stammers a little when he answers, but the word is clear enough “female”. She places a few ledgers back under the counter, her eyes play over Urien “on a scale of one to ten how adventurous?” she asks casually, he gulps his mind a barrage of thoughts too timid, too bold, down the middle, play it safe. “Six” he says, then again with conviction in his voice. “Very good” she agrees taking a few spring clips and begins applying them to the ledger locking sections shut “my recommendation” she says handing the book over.
* Inside he finds that each page is laid out in a similar style, one large sketch of a woman, below is listed special skills or unique services. The worlds “Excellent Swimmer” catch his attention, curious he reads on to see “(Gills)”. “Ah an excellent choice sir, take a seat I shall call you when her tub is ready” she says with a wicked grin, planting a glass of wine in his hands and leaving him alone in the room for a few minutes until finally she waltz back into the room (spry for her supposed age) carrying towels and some sort of dressing gown and leads him deeper within the House, passed many, many doors finally stopping at the “tub room”.
* Meanwhile in the Opulent Opal… having drunk a few bottles of over priced plonk at the opulent opal and wasted an hour or so, the “squires” grow bored of waiting and leave a message with the bar staff that should anyone matching Urien’s description come in they are to tell him we’ve gone home.
o On our way back our route takes us by The House, the rooftop guards are still about, ready and watching. It is while we are passing we spy someone slight of build leave; we adjust our speed a little, continuing our amble so our paths will cross and we get a good look at the street whores now healed face before she recognises us and bolts. The mystery of the house being on alert suddenly solved, it would appear she found the money by informing them off some snoopers.
o We take a good look at the building, its lack of windows, stout door behind which lurks and ogre and all of the rooftop archers nearby… with a cheery whistle we keep walking leaving the Paladin to his fate, Bahamut provides and all that.
* During his time in the Tub room Urien learns quite a few things!
o The owner of the house’s full name is Makom Gemmem, and naturally the girls don’t have a huge amount of direct contact with him, they go through the various madams.
o The “excellent swimmer” when asked about her gills says she had them done as the more “exotic” girls draw in more money, it was purely to get more custom (akin to cosmetic surgery) and is still technically a free agent. However those more altered (and higher up the scales) are permanent staff and never leave the building, she feels sorry for them.
o Much like Brick before him, he too lacks the will power to resist the urge to buy their “restorative potions” and after quaffing one lacks the will power to ask any more questions until finally, many hours later (and in the early hours of the morn) that he leaves the tub room and stumbles his way awkwardly to the reception area to pay his bill of two hundred gold pieces (a sum of money it would seem saved from one whore only to pass to another).
o While paying the bill he asks if it’s possible to arrange a meeting with the owner, making up some story about a business opportunity, the madam says to come back tomorrow and she will do her best to arrange such a meeting.
* It’s sometime next morning during breakfast that the rest of the party spies Urien, smelling heavily of sweat and shame when he limps his way to our table, a half empty bottle of cheap spirits clenched fiercely in one hand, its potent smell heavy on his breath. He tells us of his nice (or at least parts of it) and we explain about spotting the gutter wench, feeling it’s probably prudent to not go back to the House for the meeting with Makom.
* So we lounge the day away before getting dressed up in our best togs (also known as our only togs after a visit to the washerwoman and a seamstress), armour polished and perhaps a hair cut or two and then head down to the docks.
* Here we meet up with Simian and Kianen, waiting in line for one of the fancy little ferry boats the wayfarers are using to take people out to their huge ship. “You’ll accompany us back to the Lyceum after the show I hope, I’ve had Rambousen jabbering on about some discovery he’s made with the strange orbs you found in the swamp” says the headmaster. Soon enough we’re at the front of the line and ferried onto the ship where we meet Guildmistress Lucking, lots of bows and small talk before we’re palmed off onto an usher and shown down into the bowels of the ship to the theatre.
* Here things get a little confusing for everyone as the size of the theatre room is obviously much bigger than the dimensions of the ship would allow. Gracefully the usher allows the more simple minded of us (half-orcs eh, can’t take them anywhere) stepping inside and out
again trying to work out what’s wrong. Eventually he coughs and we notice the queue behind us and sheepishly pile into our seats, finding the scarlet haired Katrina waiting for us. We cunningly arrange for the hung over (and possibly even washed out) paladin to sit next to her, grinning wildly as she does her best to talk the ears off of his head.
* Before we know it the show is beginning to start and nearby patrons tell Katrina with all the pomp they can muster to shut up.
* As expected Giorgio is the leading man for their performance, masterfully made up as an Orc, playing the legendary geomancer Toteth Topec and finds himself in many a tricky situation involving giang eagles, angry dragons and tragic love. Katrina settles into providing a running commentary in hushed whispers to Urien, explaining that each person is symbolic, representing the kingdoms, obviously a skilfully veiled advertisement for the alliance!
* Soon an intermission is called, the promise of a break from the theatre and a drink dashed by Katrina’s volume suddenly given freedom again, she recognises the story and starts blurting out major plot points, spoiling the storyline for anyone nearby. An act that escalates into a cat fight with a nearby noble woman.
* It’s while enjoying the verbal sparring of these two harpies that we notice something peculiar behind us. Giorgio still in his makeup and peasant garb is heading up the stair case to the main desk, his hands dark with some unknown substance as he wipes them on a cloth. Suddenly there is unexpected action on the stage, an actor dashes onto the stage, clothes seeped in blood “Murder!”, this only spurs Giorgio into a sprint up the stairs, leaving the two women screeching at each other we head for the deck.
* Urien is the first to reach the deck and discovers that Giogio seems to have gathered himself self up quite the merry gang of pirates and thugs to help him, we spy a few familiar faces amongst them (curiously two of them we met briefly at Lee Sidoneth’s house the first time we met him, Brutus and Sitalis). Giorgio can be seen in one of the back cabins his fingers a blur over a huge array of arcane looking controls. He wades into the melee ready to club some heads only to be surprised by a female Halfling swashbuckler who pops out from a barrel! o http://images.community.wizards.com...77dac38d2d7767ecf33708282c19c42f.png?v=170550
* The rest of us eventually pile out onto the deck to join, leaving torrent to bring up the rear.
* The Highlights:
o Giorgio’s tinkering is obviously starting something big, the stormy weather around the suddenly gets much worse as red lightning seems to crackle all around the ship… seemingly as one we come to the conclusion he is activating some giant teleporter device that would move the ship and incinerate everyone (including all the resistance delegates).
o Silas halts his advances by trapping him with some nefarious warlock magic that pins him to the ceiling of the cabin with ghostly hands!
o Torrent finally boards the deck only to find the doors to the stairs slam shut behind her, locking everyone inside, to compound matters a huge net drops from above entangling her (still better her than us!).
o Kain attempts to make use of the actors distracted form to poke him with his fancy daggers but gets a little more than he bargained for in return and suddenly finds himself in a very white room, the occupant of his own little demiplane, causing him to miss out on the hilarity to follow.
o Cricket settles upon a very one sided fight and gets in the face of Sitalis a spell caster of some sort, carving all sorts of bloody ruin from the finger wiggler, his response… a five foot step back and a cry of BURNING HANDS! That hits pretty much everyone on
the ship bar Torrent, Silas and a few pirate scum. This triggers a chain reaction, apparently actors believe the safest place to store alchemists fire is on deck in barrels near the main mask… which promptly explode showing everyone in flames (amusingly however its Sitalis himself who comes out of this worse than the rest of us leaving himself at 1hp and is picked off shortly after by Silas).
o Urien stands bold and true (and ablaze, alongside cricket) on the deck forcing all nearby to engage him, Giving Silas and Cricket ample opportunity to butcher the Halfling and Brutus, only the actor to go.
o Talking of which, inside Giorgio proves himself annoyingly resourceful and teleports out of the spectral hands, letting him tamper with the controls once more. However a Raging Barbarian soon prevents him from this as he’s dashed to the floor, just in time for Kain to break free of his magical prison and apply dagger to kidneys… sensing his days are numbered he risks all and teleports outside of the cabin, leaping overboard where the water douses his flames.
o However his bid for freedom is unsurprisingly short-lived as a still on fire barbarian leaps overboard after him (but misses, but at least put himself out!) followed by the more nimble Kain who grabs the actor and slits his throat. Between the pair of them they manage to haul his carcass out of the stormy sea and into a small rowboat tethered to the wayfarers’ ship.
* We are shocked to find the charred bodies of four Shalhalesti seamen inside, their features burnt to a crisp, only the odd remaining pointed ear provides proof of their origin.
* With the immediate threat dealth with our thoughts turn towards the imminent threat of death by red lighting and fire! But thankfully the combined efforts of Silas and Kain unlock the secrets of the boats console and we find the all important OFF switch. With the theatre entrance unlocked again the wayfarers struggle to contain those wishing to leave. Simian and Kianen are two of the first people out (no doubt due to Kianen’s winning personality and over eagerness to use magical force) and at their urging we join them on the first ferry out along with Giorgio’s body who Simian assures us he can wring some answers from… dead or not.
* As we head to shore its clear that the weather is getting worse, but it is the least of our worrier as we discover when we reach the docks, it would seem every sailor in Seaquen is out, some want to form their own fleet to rival the elves, break the blockade. A group of Ostallian Buccaneers are busy trying to sell their services to whoever has the coin.
* We let Simian go on ahead to the Lyceum with the body while we try to calm things down at the docks, a little diplomacy and some good old fashioned threats take the bite of the most vocal groups, without their backing the many smaller groups splinter and give upon the idea.
* By the time we reach the magical school Simian has prepared all he needs and begins his ritual, the twisted and battered body of Giorgio is wrenched into the air like a puppet.
o The mage explains we’ll only have a limited number of questions to ask before the magic ends but he will answer truthfully.
* Our first question is asking who he works for? Lee Sidoneth is his reply, Torrent tries to protest the accusations against her mentor but the dead do not lie.
* Our second question is why he did it? For the money, he explains that his family was being held to ransom in Ragesia and that he needed it to save them.
* Our third question is of course, where is the money but he had already sent it on!
* Our fourth question reveals the curious group of elven sailors and we find out there were simply beggars off the street biomantically altered to look like elves, some fanciful idea of putting the blame upon the Shalhalesti (not entirely sure why, they seem more than capable of giving people reasons to hate them on their own).
* Finally we ask where we can find Sidoneth now and learn that the Biomancer has a secret hideout in an old tomb somewhere, but he does not know where.
o However we know of only one tomb in the vicinity!
* With our allotment of questions asked and answered the spell ends and the body crumples to the floor. Kane gives the corpse a testing kick with his foot; satisfied that Giorgio is dead he turns back to the others in time to hear Silas ask Simian “how does one find entrance to the Tomb of the Pyromancer?”
* It is but a few moments later the Chaplin finds himself staring up, the coppery taste of blood in his mouth, the wide grin of Cricket looms over him “seems Sehanine wants herself a temple, you agree?” offering the man his arm “my god says similar it would seem” he says with a begrudging smile as he is hauled from the mud back to unsteady feet. In the darkening sky above the chill white of the moon looks down and is glad.
* Having spent the last week or so aiding Lora’bek in her endeavour to unite the faiths we decide to give ourselves a little break from negotiating, blackmailing and generally threatening people for the afternoon. The weather is as bad as ever and we’re not sure if its stopped raining since we arrived, people seem to just get on with things and don’t let the drizzling rain hamper them too much.
* However it would seem that fate is not content to let us have our lazy afternoon, the street in front of us is clogged thick with people, over the roars and applauses of the crowd it would seem Lora’Bek and Perkins are having a verbal duel, about what we can’t quite work out but obviously Urien is annoyed that Perkins is still spouting his bile and begins trying to muscle his way through the crowd.
* Feeling we’ll have better luck going through the alleys and side streets we start looking for an alternate route through and its down one of these alleyways that we spy the beginnings of a mugging, a dark skinned woman with a drawn blade stalks after an unknowing peasant.
* We follow on at Torrents’ urging and trailing the warrior cleric with Kain loudly plotting of arresting the mugger and “confiscating” any evidence found, we blunder straight into an ambush:
o It would seem the dark skinned warrior woman is the leader of this merry bunch that includes two roguish cutthroats, the “peasant” mark now with a large trident and a weighted net, they are joined by “Mega Miller” a hulking brute of a man in millers garb wielding an oversized stone Pestle.
o Both the warrior woman and the fishermen seem to be able cover themselves in their nets and turn invisible!
* They prove to be quite the diversion but no one is seriously injured and we are slightly shocked to discover that their leader was a demon in disguise, our first clue was that she her blood had an orangey hue to it as it spilled across the floor but quickly faded to normal, and the most obvious was upon her death she collapsed into a pile of Ash. Silas confirms he demonic origins regardless of Kain’s protests that perhaps he just stabbed her “really really” hard with his fire enchanted dagger and that was the cause!
* Sadly the group have no treasure or any notes or messages upon them to link them to anything truly nefarious (but of course demons don’t tend to lead mugging bands!). Our only clue however is the Miller, upon his jerkin is a crest, no doubt something that could lead us towards the mill he worked for and possibly identify him.
o We send Brick out to talk to a few locals of dubious moral fibre and none of them seem to know anything about this group, it would appear they are not a local gang. We do however get the address of the Millers Mill.
* With nothing better to do this evening we head to the mill, the place seems fairly deserted and we spy one of the doors has been left ajar. Kain ventures forth along to slip inside quietly, the place seems deserted but his ears to pick up the sound of faint mumbling coming from an office upon the other side of the mill. He skulks over, and as quiet as a mouse slips the latch of the connecting door, pushing open the tiniest of cracks but is still unable to make out what they’re saying.
o Inside he can see the dark skinned woman pacing back and forth, talking to a group that looks remarkably like those that we met before. He pushes the door open quietly, still careful not to be seen and finally manages to hear “must take steps
against those who defy the empire!”, in reaction he kicks the door open the rest of the way and bravely bellows “you’re all under arrest!” drawing his daggers smoothly, the group ignores him and continues its plotting… the half-orc is confused and doubly so when everyone in front of him suddenly jerks, flickers and then seems to rewind their actions and start again!
o By the time the rest of us have arrived Kain has found a small clear stone set upon the floor that is the source of the illusions, tapping it with his boot causing the illusion to end.
* Content that it is safe we search the rest of the mill trying to find any more hints as to who this group is and while we find a few more empty crates (similar to those we found on the Ragesian Wagon) we find no other papers or documents suggesting why or who they are, other than they wanted us. The contents of the actual mill are a little mouldy so it we assume that work stopped a while ago and it has been their base every since.
o We also find a level 10 item that goes to Silas, as well are 2450 gold pieces.
o Our only thoughts upon the group is that they arranged the illusion to be a lure for an ambush but obviously got tired of waiting for us to discover their secret base and came looking for us instead.
* Slightly wealthier we return to the Royale.
* In the morning we receive a request from Headmaster Simian (of the Lyceum), there is to be a meeting of the War Council at lunch time and our presence is requested.
o To while away the few hours before the meeting we do a little more digging around the mill and the people, our only tangible lead is that that someone heard that the millers mother used to work at the Lyceum as a cleaning lady and was killed in a magical accident there.
* Still with no other solid leads we head to the Lyceum for what is sure to be a riveting council meeting and are shown into one of the lecture halls that overlook the bay. It would seem that all of Seaquen’s prominent names have been invited, along with Lora’Bek to speak for the faiths, Giorgio of the Wayfarers and then representatives of the nearby kingdoms of Dassan, Sindaire and Ostalin.
* Kianen stands to one side, next to a large Shield Guardian Golem, its control rod gripped tightly in his hand.
o The meeting starts with Simian giving rather workmanlike speech, highlighting that the new Emporer of Ragesian, Leska the Supreme Inquisitor has made her wants quite known, to conquer and rule all nations. Our mission, to form a forge large enough to defeat and dethrone her! However he doesn’t know quite how we should start this, and is open to ideas and bids everyone in turn to voice their thoughts.
* Magister Vortberd is quick to voice his opinions, however its mostly complaining about the refugees, his plan involved forming a large police force to keep them in check, everyone one should be questioned!
* Lee Sidoneth goes next talking of the overcrowding of the Harbour and that he has begun directing people to the south side. He believes that we should watch and wait, to measure Ragesia’s next moves and react.
* Commander Zavius believes that Seaquen should form alliances with any and all nations that will join. He reels off grand military schemes involving magical support and guerrilla style counter strikes against the larger Ragesian force. His other comment that raises a few eyes is that he believes the key to our victory lies in an artefact, the Torch of the Burning Sky and that he knows of a specialised group that stands a chance at retrieving it!
o We expect our names to be dropped but it would appear not, he mentions the High Guard of the king of Dassan, but unless a strong alliance is made the king would not relinquish his bodyguards for the quest.
* Katrina (the red headed mage we saved from the swamps and brother to Randell hero of Gate Pass!) muscles in at this point, delivering news from her brother of Gate Pass, which isn’t good. After that she puts our names forwards to try and find the torch, and then generally talks about us and our brave deeds which while impressive do eventually bore the council until eventually Simian must ask her to stop so that the others can speak.
* Lora’Bek goes next and offers nothing of value other than counters to Vortberd’s refugee’s comments; the two begin the argument again until finally shushed by Simian.
* Giorgio is next to speak and mentions the hampering effects of the Burning Sky, providing a brutal demonstration of teleporting a dove across the room and it appearing as nothing but ash. He is sad that the Wayfarers cannot offer much help, they have always been a neutral group, but he personally believes that Guild Mistress Lucking could be convinced to pick a side if the plan was good enough.
o He rounds his little speech off by giving everyone tickets to a special performance upon the Wayfarers theatre boat in a few days time. They have concocted a play that will raise support for the resistance and wish that all the representatives will be able to come to show their support.
* Kiefer, who speaks for Dassan goes next and is straight to the point of his kings views on the refugees coming through his lands, he wishes to remain neutral to Lesker and will not entertain any thoughts or comments that Ragesia is already at war with Dassan even if the king refuses to acknowledge it.
* Granston of Sindaire says that their nation is unable to pledge support at this time with Ragesia so close to their borders. But he says that he has information about the Torch of the Burning Sky, but it is impossible to reach. Essentially trapped in a whirlwind of boiling fire that surrounds Emporer Coaltongues castle, only the dead and undead can be found there.
o A complication that concerns us greatly but doesn’t seem to silence Katrinas insisting comments of our ability.
* Kezar the last to speak, representative of Ostallin (A kingdom that supports itself mostly by the hiring of its impressive armies to other nations). Seems to have no plans to join any form of alliance, they believe the Ragesians are no threat to them. He offers an outrageous deal for any nation, the hiring of their entire military force for one third of their land.
* This naturally triggers an absolutely huge argument and is only halted when a mage attempts to enter the hall, Kianen quickly reacts thrusting his hands forwards and the mage is hurled telekinetically from the room. “Kianen, that was Josef!” blurts Simian, the mage simply shrugs “Josef!” repeats the headmaster as he scurries towards the door to check upon Josef. “Someones coming!” he warns “they flew over the walls, Shalhalesti!” he manages to say before passing out.
* Not long after a part of seven elves in bright silver armour and long luscious flowing robes glide into the room, the last elf in the pile wields a large and impressive flag that he twirls with great fervor. Both Brick and Giorgio wipe tears from their eyes at the sheer DRAMA of their entrance, the rest of us merely squeeze the hafts of our weapons tighter. The leader of their band (and naturally the prettiest of them) introduces herself as Sha’Losha, a princess of the shining lands, her voice as smooth as silk.
* She doesn’t give any time for any formal protest to be spoken before launching into a long and clearly prewritten speech (that we detect contains passages she herself is not comfortable with) that highlights the need for unity, we must join with the Shalhalesti, for only they “a shining star defending the world from darkness” could leader an alliance. Orders have come from her father than a great fleet of seventeen warships are to defend the Seaquens coast.
* It is the King of Shalhalestis’ intention to annex Seaquen and appoint a governor to run the city so that they can judge the purity of their allies. As if suddenly woken from a daze at the
thought of losing land to the elfs the spokesman for Dassan launches his strong and vocal objections to any such thing. Sha’Losha ignores his protest; she has her orders and so does the leader of the fleet and that is to stop all travel into and out of Seaquen by sea and this will remain so until those orders are changed by her father. She shall send a courier to update him as soon as possible but due to lack of teleportation being available the messages will have to be carried by hand. The elves then leave as quickly (and as dramatically) as they entered and a second round of shouting begins.
* When the meeting finally ends, very little seems to have changed in our current predicament other that everyone has agreed to the Theatre trip. We have a private audience with Simian who asks us to help in whatever way we can; it would seem that things are still occurring throughout Seaquen that can be attributed to Ragesian scouts or terror cells.
* The next morning we begin our war upon terror, by going to a pub! However not just any pub (although this idea was certainly raised by many) remembering the names that Perkins gave to us during his “arrest” and the place that they drink we head there. Coming up with a wonderful plan to enter separately, allowing some of us to settle in and watch while our more talkative members can dig some dirt.
o However as Brick has vanished (leaving only a note that he has business to take care of in town) this task is left to Urien and Silas.
* Silas approaches the bar and surreptitiously drops the names Serbahn and Makom to the barman, sliding a few coins across the bar. He learns that the two rarely can be found in here together and that Serbahn can be found “over there” he signals with a flick of his eyes with an added “you didn’t hear this from me right...” nod of his head.
* With a peek in the direction indicated its not hard to pick out Serbahn, clearly a gang leader sat at a little table, his heavies clearly waiting nearby and no doubt other watchers within the bar, doing much the same as we are keeping an eye out.
o Over the next few days we watch the half elf and try to work out the best way to approach him so that we can find his connections if any to the Ragesians.
o He seems to spend the bulk of his time at the bar with lots of unscrupulous types swinging by seemingly at random, a few whispers here and plenty of parcels and purses changing hands under the table.
* Satisfied that he has a feel for how Serbahn works Silas is picked to try and make a first contact. He approaches the half elf, his heavies step in briefly but are quickly waved aside by Serbahn, he seems happy to be approached and invites the tiefling to take a seat and quickly talk turns to business. Silas says that he is looking for work, weaving a little tale of moving from gatepass picking pockets and lifting trinkets on his way down to seaquen and now he’s here he’d like some proper work. Throwing in a few veiled and unveiled insults against the mages of Gate Pass and the Lyceum.
o However things don’t go quite our way, Silas’ story of being a simple thief goes a little awry when Serbahn lifts a platinum piece from the warlock (some of the well earned treasure we all carry). But things thankfully don’t turn violent and Silas leaves the pub without any solid information.
o From their conversation however we believe that Serbahns motivations against the lyceum (regarding perkins at least) seems purely based around money rather than any ideology. But a dead lead is still a dead lead, onto the Halfling.
* The Halfling proves a tougher nut to crack and the first two days of throwing his name around the gutters of Seaquen turn up no more than a few red herrings, and it’s only when we move up market a little that we have more luck. Quite a number of merchants we speak to seem to recognise the name, but can offer no solid information and its only by chance
that an impoverished street whore trying to ply her trade during the day overhears and says she knows.
o “Makom owns “the House”” she says, we all look a little clueless, she says fixing us with her good eye (her other droops) and winks or tries to “I’m sorry we don’t know what you mean” replies Urien. “The House, the best you know, in the city, it’s a brothel! I tried to get in there, but they only take the pretty girls, said they’d fix my eye for them with magic if I could pay them two hundred gold” she says, her voice tensing with dreams of a promised life… to work in the best whorehouse in the city…
o When we ask where it is she demands 200gp for the address which Urien is ready to hand over, however Kain and Cricket object about paying a peasants fortune for something they believe can be found elsewhere. The whore spits at us, glaring with her good eye as she runs off.
* Still the Paladin gets to make a smug smile and hold it as it takes us another two days of coercing merchants and eventually strong arming one into submission before we get the address of The House and a name to use as a referral.
* The sun is starting to set when “Sir Ulf Hednar” and his “Squires” approach the large black townhouse that sits back a little from the nearby buildings. Rogueish types are clearly visible on nearby rooftops with short bows and crossbows in their hands; the district is certainly on edge. But we decide to press on, heading up to the large stout black oak and iron studded door, noting the complete lack of windows upon the ground floor.
* Urien hammers a few times on the door, the central hatch opens quickly filled with a massive face who grunts a few questions “who are you? Who’s your referral? Do you have a card” all goes silent until the hatch slams shut, and the sound of many heavy bolts are yanked back and a huge hunched looking ogre “just you” he points with one huge finger. It would seem the “squires” are to sit this one out and we arrange to wait at a nearby wine bar called the Opulent Opal.
* The paladin steps inside, scraping passed the bulky door ogre, now fully seeing that he isn’t hunched, his head is set within his chest. “That way” grunts the ogre, closing and re-bolting the huge door. Leaving the paladin with no choice but to make his way down the dingy looking corridor and through a curtain into an impressive looking reception area, behind a small counter is an old madam, decked in her finery; she welcomes him and takes his name.
* “Where do your pleasures lie, Male? Female? Perhaps more monstrous?” she asks sweetly, his thoughts roam to his cloistered upbringing in the temple, weapons practice and prayer, he feels woefully unprepared for this battle. He stammers a little when he answers, but the word is clear enough “female”. She places a few ledgers back under the counter, her eyes play over Urien “on a scale of one to ten how adventurous?” she asks casually, he gulps his mind a barrage of thoughts too timid, too bold, down the middle, play it safe. “Six” he says, then again with conviction in his voice. “Very good” she agrees taking a few spring clips and begins applying them to the ledger locking sections shut “my recommendation” she says handing the book over.
* Inside he finds that each page is laid out in a similar style, one large sketch of a woman, below is listed special skills or unique services. The worlds “Excellent Swimmer” catch his attention, curious he reads on to see “(Gills)”. “Ah an excellent choice sir, take a seat I shall call you when her tub is ready” she says with a wicked grin, planting a glass of wine in his hands and leaving him alone in the room for a few minutes until finally she waltz back into the room (spry for her supposed age) carrying towels and some sort of dressing gown and leads him deeper within the House, passed many, many doors finally stopping at the “tub room”.
* Meanwhile in the Opulent Opal… having drunk a few bottles of over priced plonk at the opulent opal and wasted an hour or so, the “squires” grow bored of waiting and leave a message with the bar staff that should anyone matching Urien’s description come in they are to tell him we’ve gone home.
o On our way back our route takes us by The House, the rooftop guards are still about, ready and watching. It is while we are passing we spy someone slight of build leave; we adjust our speed a little, continuing our amble so our paths will cross and we get a good look at the street whores now healed face before she recognises us and bolts. The mystery of the house being on alert suddenly solved, it would appear she found the money by informing them off some snoopers.
o We take a good look at the building, its lack of windows, stout door behind which lurks and ogre and all of the rooftop archers nearby… with a cheery whistle we keep walking leaving the Paladin to his fate, Bahamut provides and all that.
* During his time in the Tub room Urien learns quite a few things!
o The owner of the house’s full name is Makom Gemmem, and naturally the girls don’t have a huge amount of direct contact with him, they go through the various madams.
o The “excellent swimmer” when asked about her gills says she had them done as the more “exotic” girls draw in more money, it was purely to get more custom (akin to cosmetic surgery) and is still technically a free agent. However those more altered (and higher up the scales) are permanent staff and never leave the building, she feels sorry for them.
o Much like Brick before him, he too lacks the will power to resist the urge to buy their “restorative potions” and after quaffing one lacks the will power to ask any more questions until finally, many hours later (and in the early hours of the morn) that he leaves the tub room and stumbles his way awkwardly to the reception area to pay his bill of two hundred gold pieces (a sum of money it would seem saved from one whore only to pass to another).
o While paying the bill he asks if it’s possible to arrange a meeting with the owner, making up some story about a business opportunity, the madam says to come back tomorrow and she will do her best to arrange such a meeting.
* It’s sometime next morning during breakfast that the rest of the party spies Urien, smelling heavily of sweat and shame when he limps his way to our table, a half empty bottle of cheap spirits clenched fiercely in one hand, its potent smell heavy on his breath. He tells us of his nice (or at least parts of it) and we explain about spotting the gutter wench, feeling it’s probably prudent to not go back to the House for the meeting with Makom.
* So we lounge the day away before getting dressed up in our best togs (also known as our only togs after a visit to the washerwoman and a seamstress), armour polished and perhaps a hair cut or two and then head down to the docks.
* Here we meet up with Simian and Kianen, waiting in line for one of the fancy little ferry boats the wayfarers are using to take people out to their huge ship. “You’ll accompany us back to the Lyceum after the show I hope, I’ve had Rambousen jabbering on about some discovery he’s made with the strange orbs you found in the swamp” says the headmaster. Soon enough we’re at the front of the line and ferried onto the ship where we meet Guildmistress Lucking, lots of bows and small talk before we’re palmed off onto an usher and shown down into the bowels of the ship to the theatre.
* Here things get a little confusing for everyone as the size of the theatre room is obviously much bigger than the dimensions of the ship would allow. Gracefully the usher allows the more simple minded of us (half-orcs eh, can’t take them anywhere) stepping inside and out
again trying to work out what’s wrong. Eventually he coughs and we notice the queue behind us and sheepishly pile into our seats, finding the scarlet haired Katrina waiting for us. We cunningly arrange for the hung over (and possibly even washed out) paladin to sit next to her, grinning wildly as she does her best to talk the ears off of his head.
* Before we know it the show is beginning to start and nearby patrons tell Katrina with all the pomp they can muster to shut up.
* As expected Giorgio is the leading man for their performance, masterfully made up as an Orc, playing the legendary geomancer Toteth Topec and finds himself in many a tricky situation involving giang eagles, angry dragons and tragic love. Katrina settles into providing a running commentary in hushed whispers to Urien, explaining that each person is symbolic, representing the kingdoms, obviously a skilfully veiled advertisement for the alliance!
* Soon an intermission is called, the promise of a break from the theatre and a drink dashed by Katrina’s volume suddenly given freedom again, she recognises the story and starts blurting out major plot points, spoiling the storyline for anyone nearby. An act that escalates into a cat fight with a nearby noble woman.
* It’s while enjoying the verbal sparring of these two harpies that we notice something peculiar behind us. Giorgio still in his makeup and peasant garb is heading up the stair case to the main desk, his hands dark with some unknown substance as he wipes them on a cloth. Suddenly there is unexpected action on the stage, an actor dashes onto the stage, clothes seeped in blood “Murder!”, this only spurs Giorgio into a sprint up the stairs, leaving the two women screeching at each other we head for the deck.
* Urien is the first to reach the deck and discovers that Giogio seems to have gathered himself self up quite the merry gang of pirates and thugs to help him, we spy a few familiar faces amongst them (curiously two of them we met briefly at Lee Sidoneth’s house the first time we met him, Brutus and Sitalis). Giorgio can be seen in one of the back cabins his fingers a blur over a huge array of arcane looking controls. He wades into the melee ready to club some heads only to be surprised by a female Halfling swashbuckler who pops out from a barrel! o http://images.community.wizards.com...77dac38d2d7767ecf33708282c19c42f.png?v=170550
* The rest of us eventually pile out onto the deck to join, leaving torrent to bring up the rear.
* The Highlights:
o Giorgio’s tinkering is obviously starting something big, the stormy weather around the suddenly gets much worse as red lightning seems to crackle all around the ship… seemingly as one we come to the conclusion he is activating some giant teleporter device that would move the ship and incinerate everyone (including all the resistance delegates).
o Silas halts his advances by trapping him with some nefarious warlock magic that pins him to the ceiling of the cabin with ghostly hands!
o Torrent finally boards the deck only to find the doors to the stairs slam shut behind her, locking everyone inside, to compound matters a huge net drops from above entangling her (still better her than us!).
o Kain attempts to make use of the actors distracted form to poke him with his fancy daggers but gets a little more than he bargained for in return and suddenly finds himself in a very white room, the occupant of his own little demiplane, causing him to miss out on the hilarity to follow.
o Cricket settles upon a very one sided fight and gets in the face of Sitalis a spell caster of some sort, carving all sorts of bloody ruin from the finger wiggler, his response… a five foot step back and a cry of BURNING HANDS! That hits pretty much everyone on
the ship bar Torrent, Silas and a few pirate scum. This triggers a chain reaction, apparently actors believe the safest place to store alchemists fire is on deck in barrels near the main mask… which promptly explode showing everyone in flames (amusingly however its Sitalis himself who comes out of this worse than the rest of us leaving himself at 1hp and is picked off shortly after by Silas).
o Urien stands bold and true (and ablaze, alongside cricket) on the deck forcing all nearby to engage him, Giving Silas and Cricket ample opportunity to butcher the Halfling and Brutus, only the actor to go.
o Talking of which, inside Giorgio proves himself annoyingly resourceful and teleports out of the spectral hands, letting him tamper with the controls once more. However a Raging Barbarian soon prevents him from this as he’s dashed to the floor, just in time for Kain to break free of his magical prison and apply dagger to kidneys… sensing his days are numbered he risks all and teleports outside of the cabin, leaping overboard where the water douses his flames.
o However his bid for freedom is unsurprisingly short-lived as a still on fire barbarian leaps overboard after him (but misses, but at least put himself out!) followed by the more nimble Kain who grabs the actor and slits his throat. Between the pair of them they manage to haul his carcass out of the stormy sea and into a small rowboat tethered to the wayfarers’ ship.
* We are shocked to find the charred bodies of four Shalhalesti seamen inside, their features burnt to a crisp, only the odd remaining pointed ear provides proof of their origin.
* With the immediate threat dealth with our thoughts turn towards the imminent threat of death by red lighting and fire! But thankfully the combined efforts of Silas and Kain unlock the secrets of the boats console and we find the all important OFF switch. With the theatre entrance unlocked again the wayfarers struggle to contain those wishing to leave. Simian and Kianen are two of the first people out (no doubt due to Kianen’s winning personality and over eagerness to use magical force) and at their urging we join them on the first ferry out along with Giorgio’s body who Simian assures us he can wring some answers from… dead or not.
* As we head to shore its clear that the weather is getting worse, but it is the least of our worrier as we discover when we reach the docks, it would seem every sailor in Seaquen is out, some want to form their own fleet to rival the elves, break the blockade. A group of Ostallian Buccaneers are busy trying to sell their services to whoever has the coin.
* We let Simian go on ahead to the Lyceum with the body while we try to calm things down at the docks, a little diplomacy and some good old fashioned threats take the bite of the most vocal groups, without their backing the many smaller groups splinter and give upon the idea.
* By the time we reach the magical school Simian has prepared all he needs and begins his ritual, the twisted and battered body of Giorgio is wrenched into the air like a puppet.
o The mage explains we’ll only have a limited number of questions to ask before the magic ends but he will answer truthfully.
* Our first question is asking who he works for? Lee Sidoneth is his reply, Torrent tries to protest the accusations against her mentor but the dead do not lie.
* Our second question is why he did it? For the money, he explains that his family was being held to ransom in Ragesia and that he needed it to save them.
* Our third question is of course, where is the money but he had already sent it on!
* Our fourth question reveals the curious group of elven sailors and we find out there were simply beggars off the street biomantically altered to look like elves, some fanciful idea of putting the blame upon the Shalhalesti (not entirely sure why, they seem more than capable of giving people reasons to hate them on their own).
* Finally we ask where we can find Sidoneth now and learn that the Biomancer has a secret hideout in an old tomb somewhere, but he does not know where.
o However we know of only one tomb in the vicinity!
* With our allotment of questions asked and answered the spell ends and the body crumples to the floor. Kane gives the corpse a testing kick with his foot; satisfied that Giorgio is dead he turns back to the others in time to hear Silas ask Simian “how does one find entrance to the Tomb of the Pyromancer?”
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
The cast this week was Brick, Kane, Lembit and Urien… 2 leaders, a defender and a striker. How would this work out? Let us see…
We started with a search for the tomb of Kare Tevensum, the fire mage. ‘We’ is a generous term. Lembit stayed up the night, poring over ancient books, conducting strange rituals, muttering to himself and even building a small scale model of the town. Eventually the location was revealed to be under a long deserted prison in the outskirts of the town. Urien, Brick and Kane instead got hammered and enjoyed a well earned rest after their efforts last week!
Come morning, nursing hangovers our bold heroes made their way there to the prison. It proved to be a rather unremarkable and thoroughly decrepit building, partially collapsed, partially flooded and entirely stinky. The doors were hanging off their hinges and the wind whistled through it in an ominous manner. Brick took the time to cast a water breathing ritual to bolster the blessings the team had from the previous session.
Kain found us a route down to an old, flooded storeroom on a lower level. Upon opening the door we were set upon by a pair of biomantic squids and a biomantic sea turtle. As the action started, one of the squids opened by hurling brick through a side door… releasing several swarms of giant rats.
The fight was short but brutal, featuring a lot of wide area blasting from both sides, the rats were atomised fairly quickly, but the long reachy squids and the horrible turtle proved more of a challenge! Urien did a stalwart job of absorbing enemy fire, taking quite a beating.
Searching revealed the corpse of a mage pinned underwater. He still had a pile of cash and a wand, which Lembit took. (Level 13 item, a wand of thunder). Also, in a further side room, Kain located the greatest treasure of all… a Mimic. Pretending to be a treasure chest. It beat him senseless (stun) and attempted to drown him – somewhat thwarted by the water breathing ritual. The rest of us piled in and made reasonably short work of it. The thing was in an alchemist’s lab and vials of acid would occasionally tumble down and smash…
We proceeded further into the complex, coming across a grisly scene. A long corridor of cells, bars partially rusted through and water up to the waist. Floating in the cells were dozens of ancient corpses. Urien boldly strode in to inspect them, finding nothing special…. But as Brick followed him, all hell broke loose. The skeletons clambered to their feet and set about us. (We realised afterwards that this was a trap and was activated by more than 2 people being in the corridor at the same time)… This was another AoE fest. The party blasting various primal, inspirational or holy AoE attacks out. Many of the skeletons were weak and easily destroyed, but four of them were made of sterner stuff and retailed with a horrible ‘blinding wave’ blast attacks. It was amusing, the blind vs. the decrepit!
After reducing the skeletons to bone meal, our bold adventurers pushed further on into an old guardroom. This was split over 2 levels, with the lower one being entirely flooded and dimly lit with a sinister red light. Occupying this were some biomantically modified Shauguin. Horrible little fast moving critters, they inflicted a fair bit of harm before we managed to corner and batter them…
Searching afterwards, we found the source of the light, a hole bored into a side room descending down beyond sight. Kain noticed and removed an alarm trap, consisting of a pair of sensitive and very fine silver wires…
We rigged a rope to an old pulley at the top, in case we needed to leave quickly. I say we, but again I mean Lembit, being the only poor swimmer in the party!
At the bottom of the shaft, we found a force field that blocked the water. We emerged into a very dry cavern. A very large cavern. We found the source of the light, a river of lava. We crossed the stone bridge spanning it, and found a door on the far side of the cavern. It was styled like a flame and covered with runes. Some proclaimed it to be the fire mages tomb, others contained wards against fire and some dire wards to destroy intruders. However, on closer inspection we realised the door had already been forced open…
Listening at the door, we heard a number of people bantering in giant. They were making defamatory comments about each others mothers and the like. Kain set about carefully opening the door, deploying a variety of tools and oils from his thievery kit… as he neared completion of this work, Urien cut loose with a mighty sneeze. At this we resorted to booting down the door and charging in.
We had a momentary pause when we saw eight burly half orcs in ragessian uniforms… I say we, but this time, Brick, Kain and Lembit paused whilst Urien charged into the midst of them, laying about him with his long sword. Brick ran up the left hand wall and switched on his sticky boots… becoming ‘spider brick’! The half orcs proved to be weak opponents and the AoE blasting made a real mess out of them… With half their numbers down, one of the half orcs blocked the party while his 3 friends made a break for it. He led a charmed life and we seemed unable to hit him for quite some time… His friends made good on this time and fled down the corridors away from the room shouting for help…. This is where we left things!
Notes:
Sure there were more treasures, but I failed to note them!
There was a spear trap, but I can’t honestly recall where it was.
We started with a search for the tomb of Kare Tevensum, the fire mage. ‘We’ is a generous term. Lembit stayed up the night, poring over ancient books, conducting strange rituals, muttering to himself and even building a small scale model of the town. Eventually the location was revealed to be under a long deserted prison in the outskirts of the town. Urien, Brick and Kane instead got hammered and enjoyed a well earned rest after their efforts last week!
Come morning, nursing hangovers our bold heroes made their way there to the prison. It proved to be a rather unremarkable and thoroughly decrepit building, partially collapsed, partially flooded and entirely stinky. The doors were hanging off their hinges and the wind whistled through it in an ominous manner. Brick took the time to cast a water breathing ritual to bolster the blessings the team had from the previous session.
Kain found us a route down to an old, flooded storeroom on a lower level. Upon opening the door we were set upon by a pair of biomantic squids and a biomantic sea turtle. As the action started, one of the squids opened by hurling brick through a side door… releasing several swarms of giant rats.
The fight was short but brutal, featuring a lot of wide area blasting from both sides, the rats were atomised fairly quickly, but the long reachy squids and the horrible turtle proved more of a challenge! Urien did a stalwart job of absorbing enemy fire, taking quite a beating.
Searching revealed the corpse of a mage pinned underwater. He still had a pile of cash and a wand, which Lembit took. (Level 13 item, a wand of thunder). Also, in a further side room, Kain located the greatest treasure of all… a Mimic. Pretending to be a treasure chest. It beat him senseless (stun) and attempted to drown him – somewhat thwarted by the water breathing ritual. The rest of us piled in and made reasonably short work of it. The thing was in an alchemist’s lab and vials of acid would occasionally tumble down and smash…
We proceeded further into the complex, coming across a grisly scene. A long corridor of cells, bars partially rusted through and water up to the waist. Floating in the cells were dozens of ancient corpses. Urien boldly strode in to inspect them, finding nothing special…. But as Brick followed him, all hell broke loose. The skeletons clambered to their feet and set about us. (We realised afterwards that this was a trap and was activated by more than 2 people being in the corridor at the same time)… This was another AoE fest. The party blasting various primal, inspirational or holy AoE attacks out. Many of the skeletons were weak and easily destroyed, but four of them were made of sterner stuff and retailed with a horrible ‘blinding wave’ blast attacks. It was amusing, the blind vs. the decrepit!
After reducing the skeletons to bone meal, our bold adventurers pushed further on into an old guardroom. This was split over 2 levels, with the lower one being entirely flooded and dimly lit with a sinister red light. Occupying this were some biomantically modified Shauguin. Horrible little fast moving critters, they inflicted a fair bit of harm before we managed to corner and batter them…
Searching afterwards, we found the source of the light, a hole bored into a side room descending down beyond sight. Kain noticed and removed an alarm trap, consisting of a pair of sensitive and very fine silver wires…
We rigged a rope to an old pulley at the top, in case we needed to leave quickly. I say we, but again I mean Lembit, being the only poor swimmer in the party!
At the bottom of the shaft, we found a force field that blocked the water. We emerged into a very dry cavern. A very large cavern. We found the source of the light, a river of lava. We crossed the stone bridge spanning it, and found a door on the far side of the cavern. It was styled like a flame and covered with runes. Some proclaimed it to be the fire mages tomb, others contained wards against fire and some dire wards to destroy intruders. However, on closer inspection we realised the door had already been forced open…
Listening at the door, we heard a number of people bantering in giant. They were making defamatory comments about each others mothers and the like. Kain set about carefully opening the door, deploying a variety of tools and oils from his thievery kit… as he neared completion of this work, Urien cut loose with a mighty sneeze. At this we resorted to booting down the door and charging in.
We had a momentary pause when we saw eight burly half orcs in ragessian uniforms… I say we, but this time, Brick, Kain and Lembit paused whilst Urien charged into the midst of them, laying about him with his long sword. Brick ran up the left hand wall and switched on his sticky boots… becoming ‘spider brick’! The half orcs proved to be weak opponents and the AoE blasting made a real mess out of them… With half their numbers down, one of the half orcs blocked the party while his 3 friends made a break for it. He led a charmed life and we seemed unable to hit him for quite some time… His friends made good on this time and fled down the corridors away from the room shouting for help…. This is where we left things!
Notes:
Sure there were more treasures, but I failed to note them!
There was a spear trap, but I can’t honestly recall where it was.
RangerWickett
Legend
Huh, a real dungeon. How novel.
Also, no brothels, so that's a plus.
Also, no brothels, so that's a plus.
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
Our usual chronicler was away last weekend, so we have writeups from two players to keep you entertained!
This one's from Brick's player (the last one was Lembit's).
For what it's worth, Brick's player's all offended that you thought he was un-heroic...
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Simian answers by saying i'm sure that the location of the tomb could be found in our library, but it could take some time. The thought of spending an entire night in the presence of so many magical texts is obviously to much for Lembit who immediately pipes up by saying that he would search for the location of the tomb while the rest of us slept. As time goes by Lembit searches many of the historical documents that could lead to possible locations of the tomb. Then he stands before a huge map and uses divination magic to narrow down the search. He then looks at all of the possible locations and decides that the tomb of the pyromancer must lie under the sea on the site of an ongoing storm.
The next day looking slightly dusty and quite tired Lembit walks into the inn and anounces that he has discovered the location of the tomb. We have breakfast and head off.
The tomb is located in an underwater prison, as we walk through the storm slates are being ripped of the rooves of buildings and whirling around us. We make our way down and discover that the roof of the prison is just visible on the surface of the water and steps lead down inside. As it looks like that we might actually be spending time under the water Brick suggests that we cast the water breathing ritual. He gathers up the components and chants the ritual.
Kain leads the way down the stairs on the look out for any trouble while lembit causes the end of his staff to burst into flames lighting the way. Brick also sets off a sun rod providing even more light. We head down into the darkness.
As we reach the bottom of the stairs we enter a room that contains lots of stone gargoyles. The are rooms off to each side which have have rotting gates barring the entrances. As we continue there is a splashing sound and a huge turtle and a couple of pink squids swim towards us. The turtle has multiple holes in its shell and a lot more limbs than a normal turtle should have. As it swims towards us a shark fin pops out of the tip of its shell. Lembit points out to us that the turtle and the squid have been biomanticly altered. Brick and Urien swim into the room and begin attacking. Urien bellows a challenge to the squid and the turtle daring them to attack him. Kain swims in and lunges at a squid hitting it and causes bimantic ooze to seep from the wound. Lembit paddles into the room and summons his totem behind Kain and suggests that he should attack the squid again. He hits the squid again causing an even deeper cut to open in its side and severing some of its tentacles. One of the squids launches itself into Urien pushing across the room and smashing him into one of the runting gates. A swarm of rats leap off a ledge above to attack him. The turtle swims into the room under the water. Brick moves intoto position and shouts loudly with his bardic magic helping Urien manouver out of the tentacles of a squid and pushing the turtle next to the wall. Lembit casts a spell and Uriens skin take on the colour of granite and the shards explode off of him and shower the turtle in flaming shards of stone. Urien responds by whirling around killing the rat swarms and slicing the squids and the turtle. Kain swims towards a sqid but the squid shoots out multiple tenticles and grabs him pulling him towards it. Kain escapes the grab and responds by throwing multiple daggers into its face, blinding it. The turtl turns towards us and spays ink all over us. Unfortunatly the burning biomantic goo seeps into Kains eyes blinding him. Brick attacks a squid and his magic enables Kain to recover from the blindness. Tentacles emerge from the many holes in the turtles shell and grab Urien and drag him into the next room where it begins to squeeze the life out of him. Kain manages to score the killing. Low and the turtle dissapates into black slime. While rooting around in the water Lembit manages to find a thunder wand while the rest of us manage to find a small treasure pile in gold. The group start to explore the rest of the rooms and Kain spots what looks like a treasure chest in the corner and makes a point of trying to open it. He is rewarded when the chest turns out to be a mimic, it rears up and fires pieces of itself at Kain, knocking him prone and pinning him to the floor. Urien charges into the room and smacks the beast while Brick shouts a spell that enables Kain to safely slide out of the room. We manage to defeat the mimic and chop it to pieces. Lembit informs us that it was a biomantic mimic as it was able to fire bits of itself at us. He borrows one of Kains daggers and begins to chop it up to see if it had any treasure in it, which it didn't.
We paddle down ito the next room and find that it appears to be full of prison cells. The bars on most of the cells have corroded with rust and we are able to see that they are full of skeletons. Urien starts to move through the room looking to see if there are any movements from the cells occupants. Seeing that there is no obvious danger, Brick ambles through the corridor. As soon as he enters though, all of the skeletons come to life and begin to lurch towards us. Urien charges into combat squeezing between the bars of one of the cell drawing attacks from the two occupants. The skeletons continued to surge towards us, the water hampering their movements. One of the skeletons casts a frothing sea foam at Urien striking him in the chest knocking him under the water. The white foam must have dripped into his eyes as it rendered him temporarily blind. Urien lumbers to his feet and attacks. The skeletons foam at the group once again covering us with frothy white goo to no effect. Lembit casts thunderwave at the skeletons forcing them back some twenty feet and causing most of them to explode. We managed to finish off the remaining undead and moved into the next room.
In the next room there is a bridge over some water. In the corner of the room there is a red glow, Lembit spots a reptile man in the water, which he later informs us is a biomantic scum. Jumping into the water Urien managed to sink very effectively to the bottom of the pool. Seing that there were two more biomantic scum on the floor with him he activated the power within his armour. Two milky white tendrils shot out of the armour and latched onto the two scum dragging them closer. Brick backward somersaults into the water and sinks to the bottom to help Urien. After a short skirmish we manage to defeat the scum and proceed to a door. Beyond the door we find the source of the mysterious red glow, which seems to be from a glowing shaft. Searching the room we find a hole. Kain notices an alarm trap connected to two silver wires and easily manages to disarm it. We rig up a rope through the pully just in case we needed to get up quickly as Lembit was not a strong swimmer. At the bottom of the shaft we find that there is a force field that stops the water entering the cavern below. We find out that the source of the red light is actually a river of lava. There is a bridge over the lava leading to a stone door. Looking over the bridge we can see that there are nets set about to stop people falling into the lava. Quite an unusual feature in an evil meglomaniacs secret lair.
Listening at the door we can hear a number of voices speaking giant mocking the size of each other manhoods, making remarks about each others mothers and commenting on how discusting it is that one of them slept with a human. Kain gets out his theivery kit and gets to work on the door, oiling the hinges and just as he finishes his work, Urien lets rip with a mighty sneeze.
From inside the room we hear in Giant someone say "quick someones coming, get ready".
We burst into the room and are met with a group of half orcs. After a quick skirmish involving many area affecting attacks the half orcs decide to escape. They say to one of them in Giant "you stay here and try to hold them off". With that a group of them starts to leg it towards the door while one other tried to make his escape through another door but was quickly cut down by the attacks of Kain and Urien.
This one's from Brick's player (the last one was Lembit's).
For what it's worth, Brick's player's all offended that you thought he was un-heroic...
--------
Simian answers by saying i'm sure that the location of the tomb could be found in our library, but it could take some time. The thought of spending an entire night in the presence of so many magical texts is obviously to much for Lembit who immediately pipes up by saying that he would search for the location of the tomb while the rest of us slept. As time goes by Lembit searches many of the historical documents that could lead to possible locations of the tomb. Then he stands before a huge map and uses divination magic to narrow down the search. He then looks at all of the possible locations and decides that the tomb of the pyromancer must lie under the sea on the site of an ongoing storm.
The next day looking slightly dusty and quite tired Lembit walks into the inn and anounces that he has discovered the location of the tomb. We have breakfast and head off.
The tomb is located in an underwater prison, as we walk through the storm slates are being ripped of the rooves of buildings and whirling around us. We make our way down and discover that the roof of the prison is just visible on the surface of the water and steps lead down inside. As it looks like that we might actually be spending time under the water Brick suggests that we cast the water breathing ritual. He gathers up the components and chants the ritual.
Kain leads the way down the stairs on the look out for any trouble while lembit causes the end of his staff to burst into flames lighting the way. Brick also sets off a sun rod providing even more light. We head down into the darkness.
As we reach the bottom of the stairs we enter a room that contains lots of stone gargoyles. The are rooms off to each side which have have rotting gates barring the entrances. As we continue there is a splashing sound and a huge turtle and a couple of pink squids swim towards us. The turtle has multiple holes in its shell and a lot more limbs than a normal turtle should have. As it swims towards us a shark fin pops out of the tip of its shell. Lembit points out to us that the turtle and the squid have been biomanticly altered. Brick and Urien swim into the room and begin attacking. Urien bellows a challenge to the squid and the turtle daring them to attack him. Kain swims in and lunges at a squid hitting it and causes bimantic ooze to seep from the wound. Lembit paddles into the room and summons his totem behind Kain and suggests that he should attack the squid again. He hits the squid again causing an even deeper cut to open in its side and severing some of its tentacles. One of the squids launches itself into Urien pushing across the room and smashing him into one of the runting gates. A swarm of rats leap off a ledge above to attack him. The turtle swims into the room under the water. Brick moves intoto position and shouts loudly with his bardic magic helping Urien manouver out of the tentacles of a squid and pushing the turtle next to the wall. Lembit casts a spell and Uriens skin take on the colour of granite and the shards explode off of him and shower the turtle in flaming shards of stone. Urien responds by whirling around killing the rat swarms and slicing the squids and the turtle. Kain swims towards a sqid but the squid shoots out multiple tenticles and grabs him pulling him towards it. Kain escapes the grab and responds by throwing multiple daggers into its face, blinding it. The turtl turns towards us and spays ink all over us. Unfortunatly the burning biomantic goo seeps into Kains eyes blinding him. Brick attacks a squid and his magic enables Kain to recover from the blindness. Tentacles emerge from the many holes in the turtles shell and grab Urien and drag him into the next room where it begins to squeeze the life out of him. Kain manages to score the killing. Low and the turtle dissapates into black slime. While rooting around in the water Lembit manages to find a thunder wand while the rest of us manage to find a small treasure pile in gold. The group start to explore the rest of the rooms and Kain spots what looks like a treasure chest in the corner and makes a point of trying to open it. He is rewarded when the chest turns out to be a mimic, it rears up and fires pieces of itself at Kain, knocking him prone and pinning him to the floor. Urien charges into the room and smacks the beast while Brick shouts a spell that enables Kain to safely slide out of the room. We manage to defeat the mimic and chop it to pieces. Lembit informs us that it was a biomantic mimic as it was able to fire bits of itself at us. He borrows one of Kains daggers and begins to chop it up to see if it had any treasure in it, which it didn't.
We paddle down ito the next room and find that it appears to be full of prison cells. The bars on most of the cells have corroded with rust and we are able to see that they are full of skeletons. Urien starts to move through the room looking to see if there are any movements from the cells occupants. Seeing that there is no obvious danger, Brick ambles through the corridor. As soon as he enters though, all of the skeletons come to life and begin to lurch towards us. Urien charges into combat squeezing between the bars of one of the cell drawing attacks from the two occupants. The skeletons continued to surge towards us, the water hampering their movements. One of the skeletons casts a frothing sea foam at Urien striking him in the chest knocking him under the water. The white foam must have dripped into his eyes as it rendered him temporarily blind. Urien lumbers to his feet and attacks. The skeletons foam at the group once again covering us with frothy white goo to no effect. Lembit casts thunderwave at the skeletons forcing them back some twenty feet and causing most of them to explode. We managed to finish off the remaining undead and moved into the next room.
In the next room there is a bridge over some water. In the corner of the room there is a red glow, Lembit spots a reptile man in the water, which he later informs us is a biomantic scum. Jumping into the water Urien managed to sink very effectively to the bottom of the pool. Seing that there were two more biomantic scum on the floor with him he activated the power within his armour. Two milky white tendrils shot out of the armour and latched onto the two scum dragging them closer. Brick backward somersaults into the water and sinks to the bottom to help Urien. After a short skirmish we manage to defeat the scum and proceed to a door. Beyond the door we find the source of the mysterious red glow, which seems to be from a glowing shaft. Searching the room we find a hole. Kain notices an alarm trap connected to two silver wires and easily manages to disarm it. We rig up a rope through the pully just in case we needed to get up quickly as Lembit was not a strong swimmer. At the bottom of the shaft we find that there is a force field that stops the water entering the cavern below. We find out that the source of the red light is actually a river of lava. There is a bridge over the lava leading to a stone door. Looking over the bridge we can see that there are nets set about to stop people falling into the lava. Quite an unusual feature in an evil meglomaniacs secret lair.
Listening at the door we can hear a number of voices speaking giant mocking the size of each other manhoods, making remarks about each others mothers and commenting on how discusting it is that one of them slept with a human. Kain gets out his theivery kit and gets to work on the door, oiling the hinges and just as he finishes his work, Urien lets rip with a mighty sneeze.
From inside the room we hear in Giant someone say "quick someones coming, get ready".
We burst into the room and are met with a group of half orcs. After a quick skirmish involving many area affecting attacks the half orcs decide to escape. They say to one of them in Giant "you stay here and try to hold them off". With that a group of them starts to leg it towards the door while one other tried to make his escape through another door but was quickly cut down by the attacks of Kain and Urien.
TarionzCousin
Second Most Angelic Devil Ever
Note to self: this is a trick question.
I am really enjoying this thread, Eccles. Keep up the good work!
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
25th June
The lone guardian Orc slumps to the ground, the aftermath of its last stand can still be heard, three fleeing Orcs bellowing for aid as they vanish along the corridor and out of sight. We make the choice to follow rather than catch our breath and follow them deeper into the underground tomb. We pass through a large cavern with a huge carved statue of a dragons head, in its mouth is an ominous black sphere that seems to suck at the nearby light, with no time to investigate we sprint passed continuing on the trail of the Orcs into a long curved corridor, we hear the sound of a door slamming shut ahead, out of view.
As we continue along the corridor we see that off to one side is a door (the only door we’ve seen so far) and the corridor carries on, not wanting to risk charging passed the hiding Orcs we quickly check it for traps and swing it open, catching a fleeting glimpse of a study, a desk dominates the middle of the room with a black glass sphere etched with golden runes, the sphere sits in a little pedestal atop the desk, however with no sign of the Orcs the room must wait till later and we continue along the corridor to its end where it opens out into a laboratory of some design, devices and contraption litters the walls, huge glass pipes filled with gushing molten lava line several of the walls basking the room in a vile red glow. Along the final wall is a row of ever increasing glass tubes and tanks, various things seem to be growing inside them, in the largest stands a partially grown scum, drifting near lifelessly in the green gloop, it twitches as brick runs up to it, pressing his stony face to the glass in unabashed awe!
A series of tortured female screams pierce the silence and our attention is dragged back to the fleeing Orc, clearly they are coming from the other side of the door exiting the lab. We try the door but obviously something heavy on the other side is blocking it, Kain and Cricket waste no time in putting their shoulders to the door and with a splintering of wood the pair stumble into a huge cavern, a river of lava snakes its way across the cavern floor, a large stone bridge resting over it, rows of cells fill one wall, while a door way stands between us and the source of the screams. Near the middle of the room and across the bridge wait three Orcs, two showing signs of their battle with us, the third injured Orc is no where to be seen.
Fight Highlights:
* Lembit starts the fight unleashing his primal allies, a flock of guardian eagles appear from nowhere harrying the Orcs, their slashing talons steer them towards the lava river, one slips over the edge vanishing into the molten stone, the other two manage to fall and catch themselves on the edge.
* Cricket and Kain cross the bridge to prey upon the prone Orcs, finally able to see into the cells they spy a fourth Orc sat inside a magical circle, behind him a carved stone Menhir glows with ominous power, the stone seems to be wrapped in many layers of wire that leads to some strange device with too many dials and levers!
* The “brave” bard Brick sets his sights upon the other room, keen to help whichever maiden is in distress and boots open the door… he face loses its “heroic” expression as he stares into the cold mask of an inquisitor (the very same one that we fought at the wagon, many weeks ago), his claw dripping with blood from the maiden strapped into a chair. “Now!” he orders and the four Orcs in the room pull the triggers of their crossbows peppering the unfortunate bard, the weapons then fall to the floor in a clatter as they each pull battleaxes and stalk towards the doorway.
* Unable to stop himself the bard continues the spell that was half formed on his lips, sending his magical song arcing towards the Inquisitor, his claw flashes up, twists and reflects the spell back at brick, he frowns knowing that when his enemies strike him they will be bolstered and healed by his own magic.
* Silas and Lembit form a very profitable partnership, launching bolts of burning hellfire at the inquisitors bodyguards in the torture room, Blarney the Imp (Lembit’s familiar)astride the
Shamans Totem animal roars with encouragement, goading the warlock into launching more attacks.
* Back out in the cavern the remaining Orcs (along with their new found ally from the circle) all surround the barbarian but are unable to land a blow due to the mans silky jig like footwork!
* The Inquisitor sets his sights upon the bard and chases him out the room slashing at his back with his claws, with many cries of “VENGEANCE” and glorifying praise to Leska he slashes and tears bloody strips from the goliaths hide.
* However Brick is quick to show a few more tricks that lie up his puffy sleeves “Dun dun DUH, ROCKET MAN!” he trills and literally explodes, launching himself across the room, over the lava river and down near the Orcs flailing at the barbarian, coming down in cloud of glittering smoke, however it would appear there was a little too much smoke and not enough fire to the Bards trick as none of the Orcs were harmed, across the river the Inquisitor emerges from the smoke, clearly unimpressed as he steps onto the bridge in pursuit.
* Lembit unleashes the power of the elements, lashing his enemies with primal energy while healing his allies, however the Inquisitor flicks his claw out trying to redirect the power, instead the magic just fizzles around him, failing to take form. Alarmed at the actions of the inquisitor Lembit scurries away to check upon the fate of the torture victim leaving Silas to continue his assault upon the quickly dwindling number Orc guards.
* With the inquisitor suitably distracted Kain prepares for his downfall, tapping his Solei Polansis badge he steps up, his dagger glowing brightly with radiant energy and plunges his dagger into the inquisitors neck (scoring a critical hit), the Ragesian only grunts in pained satisfaction as energy streaks from him to his oath bound target, Brick. The song on the bards’ lips ends abruptly as blood streaks down his chest and he collapses to the ground. His Oath served the murderous gaze of the inquisitor falls upon Kain.
* The Inquisitor calls upon one of his evil powers to heal himself, calling upon Leska once again Cricket, Kain and the unfortunate Brick find themselves suddenly whipped upon into the nether as the inquisitor attempts to teleport us into the lava, but our will is strong and we find ourselves perched upon the edge, slightly on fire, much to the disappointment of the Ragesian, however he cheers himself up by plunging his claw into the prone rogue.
* In retaliation Cricket lets out a Berserk howl and smashes his huge blade into him (another Critical Hit), cutting a huge chunk out of the inquisitor, however his new oath target takes a similar wound and Kain drops to the floor in a puddle of his own blood.
* Sensing that once again things have not gone his way the Inquisitor begins reaching for his talisman, “Noooooooooooooooooooooo!” growls Cricket, about to be denied again! He begins to utter the prayers of teleportation and a column of pillar engulfs him, however when the fire dissipates he is still stood there a little confused, the sheer amount of rock above us preventing his magic, in front of him the barbarian grins “you’re mine!”, a glint of fear shines in the inquisitors eyes, but cricket senses its not for him. “Never” promises the Inquisitor slashing his claw across the barbarian’s chest and then onwards, upwards and into his own throat, his body slumps over Crickets’ feet, blood slowly covering the stone bridge and bleeding into the lava.
On his body we find a magical holy symbol devoted to Grand Inquisitor Leska and his small teleportation talisman (that prevents being immolated while teleporting up to a mile in distance, at least that’s as much as Lembit estimates).
Lembit aids the torture elf woman, bile rising his throat as he examines her wounds easily noticing that she has been tortured many times, bled to near death and then magically healed and restored until the process can be done again, and again. When she is finally brought around she reveals her
name is Fa’Qaniel, she tried to teleport into the caves here but was redirected into the cells along with her apprentice Timor. We find her apprentice in one of the locked cells; it would seem he avoided torture so far, no doubt to be next when his mistress finally died.
Timor tells us that the inquisitor was called Darius and much to Cricket’s amusement tells the tale of the day we met him at the wagon, he had retreated to here when he teleported away badly injured. He continues to tell that Darius entered the main cell with the magical circle and used the device there to heal himself, he feels confident that he could operate the apparatus should we wish to make use of it, Lembit aggress to go first.
The apprentice busies himself with the controls of the device, an ominous hum drones from the machinery as some sort of energy begins to charge, the runes of the circle begin to pulse and with a crack of thunder the Shaman is gone…
Lembit finds himself stood upon a barge drifting serenely across a placid lake towards an opulent palace lights up the night sky. As if in a trance or dream the shaman disembarks and treads softly along a gilded skywalk to the palace entrance. Gold and ebony statues of dragons leer down at him, their gemmed eyes seem to follow him as he treads. Inside he passes through it lavish corridor and its faceless occupants seem to wallow in decadence, nothing denied for their entertainment.
Soon he finds himself entering a huge audience chamber, filling the space from entrance to throne are a hundred prostrate inquisitors, clad in their bear skins and masks, the object of their devotion stands Leska, clad in flowing red robes covered with dangling shamanic totems, charms and amulets, the material of her robes seem to defy the laws of nature, floating and swirling about her as if she were a source of gravity in her own right. His focus are drawn to the sigils as they flash and twist about her, certain that they cover a wide and varied range of primal traditions, some of which he is sure conflict in nature.
Her face lies hidden behind a skull mask, its jaw missing to reveal her own mouth, blood-red lips sit in a permanent scowl. “Take my blessing” she says reaching out with a gloved hand and seems to touch the shamans very soul, it quakes at the icy cold flooding through him. “The power of the Scourge shall refresh and sustain you. Your life at the mortal cost of others is a small price for the final reward. Their sacrifice is now your strength!”
She continues her speech but the shaman hears none of it, his mind distracted by the myriad of screams that seems to assault his senses alone, looking at the Grand Inquisitor it’s as if she is clothed in ghosts, they swirl around her like her robes, desperate to leave but trapped and tortured. Noticing that something is perhaps wrong, the look of scorn drops for the briefest moment from Leska, “WHAT?” she growls in outrage raising her hand…
The shaman collapses forwards… stumbling out of the magical circle, skin pale and oozing with sweat.
Brick hops into the circle immediately upon Lembits return, urging Timor to activate the machine while Lembit is telling his tale. The apprentice is suddenly very hesitant to complete the inputs required to activate it, but brick charms the man asking for the final few directions and once shared the bard wastes no time in jabbing them in and vanishes!
When he returns a few moments later he is launched from the device, being flung some thirty feet through the air landing in a heap near the lava river, it takes him a few moments to climb to his feet and calm down, the lines of fear still etched in his face, but assures people it was worth it (and by
that we can only assume he meant seeing Grand Inquisitor Leska and seeing someone sacrificed to restore his vitality) as he is “refreshed and fighting fit, lets get back to the LAB!” leading the way with a skip in his step.
Searching the Laboratory:
* Here Brick finds a collective work on Biomancy and essentially a “how to build a monster” and “my first Biomancy” set of pamphlets with which he might be able to make progress into the study himself.
* We also find an empty bottle with traces of magic that Brick desperately wants to open and investigate, Lembit steps in as the voice of reason “you don’t open strange bottles found in laboratories, did no on teach you anything boy!, you can have the bottle once you’ve read those things” he says pointing at the bundle of papers the bard cradles like a child. However upon investigating it himself he believes it to be a bottle of endless air, confirmed when he pulls out the stopped to a whistling breeze. We suspect it was used as a type of aqualung to get through the water passage.
Searching the Masters Office:
* Hunting around the study we find a few hidden collections of cash (3300gp) and trinkets (a level 9, 10 and 12).
* With all the hidden things found our attention is turned to the obvious, namely the black orb on the desk with its golden swirling runes that show two godlike beings throwing storms and lightning at each other. Lembit spends a few minutes examining the object and generally slapping Bricks hands away whenever he tries to touch it, before he reaches an epiphany! “This is a Hurricane Orb, very rare indeed!” and then waffles on about it, but cutting to the chase it requires a devoted amount of life force to activate each day and will summon a hurricane as long as it is near water “they also come with a control rod, to eh… well control the level of storm!” the shaman explains.
Searching the Stone Dragon:
* Finally we return to the chamber containing the huge stone dragon head and the deathly black orb contained within its mouth. After much speculation about it possibly being a sphere of annihilation, Lembit deduces that its nothing more than an illusion (albeit a very good one) and steps inside the huge orb, bangs his head upon the stone wall hidden in the darkness but discovers a tunnel big enough to crawl along!
* Investigating the tunnel we find a small room, well more of a sauna, its grilled floor rests directly over a slow flowing river of lava that basks the whole area in sweltering red light. On the other side of the room is a large ornate looking stone door, its framed etched with cruel and twisted looking runes. Blarney identifies them at Infernal and translates for us “The spirit of the Pyromancer Damatarion shall destroy those who disturb his bodies rest”.
* We give the door a testing examination, it is immensely powerful and for once being extremely careful the none competent of us (Brick & Cricket in this case) wait in the Stone Dragon room as Lembit, Silas and Kain pool their collective knowledge to try and open the door. (An assisted Thievery Roll hitting 40, squeaking passed the DC35 required) and the stone door simply melts through the grilled floor into the lava below.
* Inside is an even scarier looking room made from burnished brass frame work and enchanted glass that steers and funnels the lava around its floor, beyond a large black stone sarcophagus. The trio venture inside allowing themselves a short rest before they tackle the next obstacle, behind them they see the door start to slowly reform but decide to remain within, hopeful they’ll be about to open the door again once they have its treasures! (Again another fortuitous roll of 48 manages to get the coffin open without anything nasty and they gingerly retrieve the shines from the withered corpse within (a level 10, 12 and 13 items).
* With equal luck and the memories of Lembits many deaths (and the lives before them) to guide them they manage to escape the tomb and venture back into the comforting coolness of the stone dragon room, happy that we’ve cleared the place of its hidden secrets we venture back using the bottle of endless water to reach the flooded prison above.
Back on the surface the severity of the storm quickly becomes apparent, the broken building quakes beneath the might of the fierce winds whipping through its ruined rooms, we wade through the water making our way outside, our eyes peeled for any traces of Sidoneth. Our prayers are answered when we near the exit and see the bright orange body of lulu swish through the water in front of us, he must be close!
Lembit is the first to step from the prison entrance into the sea, swimming out a little way from the safety of the structure, a flutter of speech on the wind draws his attention and looking back towards the prison he spies Lee Sidoneth one floor above stood near some statues, arms spread wide, the control rod gripped in one hand as he chants to the sky. “Lee!” he calls “it’s not too late, give up and hand us the rod and we can stop this”.
The Biomancer breaks from his ritual, gazing down at the Deva paddling awkwardly in the water and begins to laugh; with a flick of his wrist he points the rod at Lembit, swishing it back and forth tauntingly, the end of the rod flashes and suddenly the water level rises flooding the prison. Lulu then makes an appearance gripping the shaman in her tentacles, wrapping him up and then flinging him back inside the flooded prison.
Fight Highlights:
* The statues turn out to be “Water Gargoyles” creatures made of stone with a swim speed! They spend the majority of the fight harassing us and preventing us from scaling the prison to get to the Biomancer.
* Sidoneth seems to take great joy in flinging lightning bolts down into the water that arc and frazzle anyone nearby, that and flinging bits of broken prison at us, clearly an accomplished Geomancer as well as Biomancer.
* Silas unfortunately spends the first half the of the fight merely trying to avoid drowning, fighting the undertow of the flooding prison before finally getting out into the open ocean where he can breath again.
* Lembit kills Lulu, driving Sidoneth into a savage rage, making him the target of the Geomancers lighting bolts for the remainder of the fight.
* Brick is the first to reach Sidoneth once again using his “ROCKET MAN” and blasting out of the water to land near the man and one of his gargoyle body guards and immediately regretting it when the gargoyles sharp claws tear into his chest and then insult is added to injury when Lee proves himself to have had some monkish training and beats him senseless, the poor bard drags himself over the edge to flop back into the water to avoid anymore punishment.
* Kain proves to be slightly more effective jabbing and cutting at Lee before being knocked down himself under another combined assault.
* With his gargoyles finally defeated however Lee falls to the combined might of the party, Lembit uses his new enchanted Hat (the Helm of Heroes) to spur Cricket into action, a mighty swing knocks him off of the prison roof into the water where the bard manages a modicum of revenge finally getting the last hit with a jab of his sword, prising the control rod from the Geomancers hand.
With his dieing breaths Sidoneth calls to the sky “Master let your winds destroy them!” and a surge of wind pulls him from the water and rips him apart until nothing remains, looking up we see that
the “eye of the storm” seems to live up to its name, a spectral eye hidden behind the winds seems to close.
Atop the prison roof Brick cries to the heavens brandishing the rod, cackling to himself and mumbling words about “ULTIMATE POWER” as he thrusts his fists towards the sky, until the rod it torn from his grip and placed in more safer hands, Lembit wills the storm to end and the hurricane begins to peter out, calm finally settling upon the bay of Sequen.
Gathering in our little boat we make for the Docks, high above us a giant eagle circles aimlessly and lands as we step upon the stones of the dock area, his mistresses’ odd pole arm clutched in his beak and no sign of her. With a heavy sigh he tells us of his Mistress Lora’Bek carried off by the storm as she risked the winds to save people that had been caught in the winds and whisked into the air. Her efforts placed thirty survivors upon one of the small islands of the bay before her luck ran out and the storm claimed her. He goes now to join her; we attempt to convince him against it, that he could use the rest of his life for a better purpose but he remains unconvinced and takes to the sky.
From the docks we look over the harbour, once packed with ships now barely half are still afloat, those that weren’t sunk are almost certainly crippled. Out to see the once large fleet of Shalhalesti ships has suffered the same fate as those in the harbour. We drag ourselves to the Lyceum, entrusting the Hurricane Orb into Simian’s care and then leave the mages and the militia to handle sorting out the city, we retreat to the Royale to rest while the storm rides itself out.
At Simian and Vortberds urging we return once again to the island when the weather has calmed, keen to find any information we may have missed or overlooked pertaining to “The Master” that Sidoneth pleaded to with his dying words. Tucked behind one of the workbenches in the Laboratory we find a small note with various “evil instructions” upon it however a few bits and pieces do stand out.
* The masters army is growing in accordance with our estimates, things go smoothly.
* As part of our new security measures the code word to approach the mount has been changed, Eshu.
* The Biomantic book has been found and should be on its way to Paradim as planned, hopefully the mage can make good use of it.
* Our new creations are wonderful, but best suited to colder temperatures. They display the ability to disrupt anyone they touches spell casting ability, we predict they will turn the tide against the Lyceum Mages and those damnable Shahalesti!
It takes several days before the signs of normalcy start to creep their way back into the region and our recuperation is interrupted by a lyceum apprentice sent to fetch us to see Simian and soon we once again find ourselves before the master of the Lyceum in his study, he tells us that not with incontrovertible evidence that far-away Ragesia is a serious threat, Seaquen is united in its wish to join the war effort!
“More refugees have arrived with word that the winter storms over southern Ragesia have faded; this has cleared the way for the Third Ragesian Army to march into Dassen! There are also stories of an assassination attempt on the King of Dassen, but it was foiled! However it seems this has tipped the man to being even more paranoid than he was before, however I feel this may be an opportunity for us, for you. You must use your reputation to befriend him, make him an ally to yourself and to our cause; the Ragesian armies must be delayed!”
Still we aren’t ready to set out for Dassan yet and spend the rest of the week making arrangements for our trip and generally enjoying the fine weather that has settled over the region since the halting of the Hurricane Orb. It would appear that we’re well known in the town and more than once a bunch of locals have treated us to free drinks and other hospitalities (no doubt some of our more dubious members even tried to get a freebie at “The House”…).
However the one person expected to make free use of these liberties has not, rather than prancing gaily through the streets proclaiming his awesomeness as expected he in fact spends most of his time away on the island in the hidden Laboratory or his “secret lair” as he refers to it, even Lembit seems to be caught up in the goliaths fancies and spends more than a few days there as well.
Impressed at how they handled the barbarians from the Royale and refused to rise to Urien and Kain’s baiting, Cricket goes off in search of the Monk Refugees and is greeted friendly by Three Weeping Ravens, the barbarian is keen to learn more about their order. The two spend many days sparring in the local woods, the monks startling agility a foil to the barbarian brutal strikes, he is happy to point out flaws and teach him a few new tricks.
In the evenings the barbarian fails to convert the Weeping Raven to whims of the Moon Goddess Sehanine, the monk simply says “he walks a different path” in response Weeping Raven tries to explain the theories of his order and the offer of becoming a disciple, but the barbarians faith is strong.
Eventually the conversation turns to Order of the Echoed Souls and the tragedy that drop them from their homeland to Sindaire and the subsequent events that caused them to flee here, the monk is uncomfortable talking about the history of the order but tries to explain as best he can by saying “Imagine all the small evils you have done, and all the evils ever committed by those you have met. Imagine that your soul contained nothing but that evil. Would you want to speak of it?” agreeing the conversation has turned far too dark for the quality of ale being offered cricket changes the subject. While the pair has very different theological ideals, they agree to disagree on the finer points and become firm friends.
The others busy themselves with the preparations for the journey to Bresk, Capital of Dassen.
The lone guardian Orc slumps to the ground, the aftermath of its last stand can still be heard, three fleeing Orcs bellowing for aid as they vanish along the corridor and out of sight. We make the choice to follow rather than catch our breath and follow them deeper into the underground tomb. We pass through a large cavern with a huge carved statue of a dragons head, in its mouth is an ominous black sphere that seems to suck at the nearby light, with no time to investigate we sprint passed continuing on the trail of the Orcs into a long curved corridor, we hear the sound of a door slamming shut ahead, out of view.
As we continue along the corridor we see that off to one side is a door (the only door we’ve seen so far) and the corridor carries on, not wanting to risk charging passed the hiding Orcs we quickly check it for traps and swing it open, catching a fleeting glimpse of a study, a desk dominates the middle of the room with a black glass sphere etched with golden runes, the sphere sits in a little pedestal atop the desk, however with no sign of the Orcs the room must wait till later and we continue along the corridor to its end where it opens out into a laboratory of some design, devices and contraption litters the walls, huge glass pipes filled with gushing molten lava line several of the walls basking the room in a vile red glow. Along the final wall is a row of ever increasing glass tubes and tanks, various things seem to be growing inside them, in the largest stands a partially grown scum, drifting near lifelessly in the green gloop, it twitches as brick runs up to it, pressing his stony face to the glass in unabashed awe!
A series of tortured female screams pierce the silence and our attention is dragged back to the fleeing Orc, clearly they are coming from the other side of the door exiting the lab. We try the door but obviously something heavy on the other side is blocking it, Kain and Cricket waste no time in putting their shoulders to the door and with a splintering of wood the pair stumble into a huge cavern, a river of lava snakes its way across the cavern floor, a large stone bridge resting over it, rows of cells fill one wall, while a door way stands between us and the source of the screams. Near the middle of the room and across the bridge wait three Orcs, two showing signs of their battle with us, the third injured Orc is no where to be seen.
Fight Highlights:
* Lembit starts the fight unleashing his primal allies, a flock of guardian eagles appear from nowhere harrying the Orcs, their slashing talons steer them towards the lava river, one slips over the edge vanishing into the molten stone, the other two manage to fall and catch themselves on the edge.
* Cricket and Kain cross the bridge to prey upon the prone Orcs, finally able to see into the cells they spy a fourth Orc sat inside a magical circle, behind him a carved stone Menhir glows with ominous power, the stone seems to be wrapped in many layers of wire that leads to some strange device with too many dials and levers!
* The “brave” bard Brick sets his sights upon the other room, keen to help whichever maiden is in distress and boots open the door… he face loses its “heroic” expression as he stares into the cold mask of an inquisitor (the very same one that we fought at the wagon, many weeks ago), his claw dripping with blood from the maiden strapped into a chair. “Now!” he orders and the four Orcs in the room pull the triggers of their crossbows peppering the unfortunate bard, the weapons then fall to the floor in a clatter as they each pull battleaxes and stalk towards the doorway.
* Unable to stop himself the bard continues the spell that was half formed on his lips, sending his magical song arcing towards the Inquisitor, his claw flashes up, twists and reflects the spell back at brick, he frowns knowing that when his enemies strike him they will be bolstered and healed by his own magic.
* Silas and Lembit form a very profitable partnership, launching bolts of burning hellfire at the inquisitors bodyguards in the torture room, Blarney the Imp (Lembit’s familiar)astride the
Shamans Totem animal roars with encouragement, goading the warlock into launching more attacks.
* Back out in the cavern the remaining Orcs (along with their new found ally from the circle) all surround the barbarian but are unable to land a blow due to the mans silky jig like footwork!
* The Inquisitor sets his sights upon the bard and chases him out the room slashing at his back with his claws, with many cries of “VENGEANCE” and glorifying praise to Leska he slashes and tears bloody strips from the goliaths hide.
* However Brick is quick to show a few more tricks that lie up his puffy sleeves “Dun dun DUH, ROCKET MAN!” he trills and literally explodes, launching himself across the room, over the lava river and down near the Orcs flailing at the barbarian, coming down in cloud of glittering smoke, however it would appear there was a little too much smoke and not enough fire to the Bards trick as none of the Orcs were harmed, across the river the Inquisitor emerges from the smoke, clearly unimpressed as he steps onto the bridge in pursuit.
* Lembit unleashes the power of the elements, lashing his enemies with primal energy while healing his allies, however the Inquisitor flicks his claw out trying to redirect the power, instead the magic just fizzles around him, failing to take form. Alarmed at the actions of the inquisitor Lembit scurries away to check upon the fate of the torture victim leaving Silas to continue his assault upon the quickly dwindling number Orc guards.
* With the inquisitor suitably distracted Kain prepares for his downfall, tapping his Solei Polansis badge he steps up, his dagger glowing brightly with radiant energy and plunges his dagger into the inquisitors neck (scoring a critical hit), the Ragesian only grunts in pained satisfaction as energy streaks from him to his oath bound target, Brick. The song on the bards’ lips ends abruptly as blood streaks down his chest and he collapses to the ground. His Oath served the murderous gaze of the inquisitor falls upon Kain.
* The Inquisitor calls upon one of his evil powers to heal himself, calling upon Leska once again Cricket, Kain and the unfortunate Brick find themselves suddenly whipped upon into the nether as the inquisitor attempts to teleport us into the lava, but our will is strong and we find ourselves perched upon the edge, slightly on fire, much to the disappointment of the Ragesian, however he cheers himself up by plunging his claw into the prone rogue.
* In retaliation Cricket lets out a Berserk howl and smashes his huge blade into him (another Critical Hit), cutting a huge chunk out of the inquisitor, however his new oath target takes a similar wound and Kain drops to the floor in a puddle of his own blood.
* Sensing that once again things have not gone his way the Inquisitor begins reaching for his talisman, “Noooooooooooooooooooooo!” growls Cricket, about to be denied again! He begins to utter the prayers of teleportation and a column of pillar engulfs him, however when the fire dissipates he is still stood there a little confused, the sheer amount of rock above us preventing his magic, in front of him the barbarian grins “you’re mine!”, a glint of fear shines in the inquisitors eyes, but cricket senses its not for him. “Never” promises the Inquisitor slashing his claw across the barbarian’s chest and then onwards, upwards and into his own throat, his body slumps over Crickets’ feet, blood slowly covering the stone bridge and bleeding into the lava.
On his body we find a magical holy symbol devoted to Grand Inquisitor Leska and his small teleportation talisman (that prevents being immolated while teleporting up to a mile in distance, at least that’s as much as Lembit estimates).
Lembit aids the torture elf woman, bile rising his throat as he examines her wounds easily noticing that she has been tortured many times, bled to near death and then magically healed and restored until the process can be done again, and again. When she is finally brought around she reveals her
name is Fa’Qaniel, she tried to teleport into the caves here but was redirected into the cells along with her apprentice Timor. We find her apprentice in one of the locked cells; it would seem he avoided torture so far, no doubt to be next when his mistress finally died.
Timor tells us that the inquisitor was called Darius and much to Cricket’s amusement tells the tale of the day we met him at the wagon, he had retreated to here when he teleported away badly injured. He continues to tell that Darius entered the main cell with the magical circle and used the device there to heal himself, he feels confident that he could operate the apparatus should we wish to make use of it, Lembit aggress to go first.
The apprentice busies himself with the controls of the device, an ominous hum drones from the machinery as some sort of energy begins to charge, the runes of the circle begin to pulse and with a crack of thunder the Shaman is gone…
Lembit finds himself stood upon a barge drifting serenely across a placid lake towards an opulent palace lights up the night sky. As if in a trance or dream the shaman disembarks and treads softly along a gilded skywalk to the palace entrance. Gold and ebony statues of dragons leer down at him, their gemmed eyes seem to follow him as he treads. Inside he passes through it lavish corridor and its faceless occupants seem to wallow in decadence, nothing denied for their entertainment.
Soon he finds himself entering a huge audience chamber, filling the space from entrance to throne are a hundred prostrate inquisitors, clad in their bear skins and masks, the object of their devotion stands Leska, clad in flowing red robes covered with dangling shamanic totems, charms and amulets, the material of her robes seem to defy the laws of nature, floating and swirling about her as if she were a source of gravity in her own right. His focus are drawn to the sigils as they flash and twist about her, certain that they cover a wide and varied range of primal traditions, some of which he is sure conflict in nature.
Her face lies hidden behind a skull mask, its jaw missing to reveal her own mouth, blood-red lips sit in a permanent scowl. “Take my blessing” she says reaching out with a gloved hand and seems to touch the shamans very soul, it quakes at the icy cold flooding through him. “The power of the Scourge shall refresh and sustain you. Your life at the mortal cost of others is a small price for the final reward. Their sacrifice is now your strength!”
She continues her speech but the shaman hears none of it, his mind distracted by the myriad of screams that seems to assault his senses alone, looking at the Grand Inquisitor it’s as if she is clothed in ghosts, they swirl around her like her robes, desperate to leave but trapped and tortured. Noticing that something is perhaps wrong, the look of scorn drops for the briefest moment from Leska, “WHAT?” she growls in outrage raising her hand…
The shaman collapses forwards… stumbling out of the magical circle, skin pale and oozing with sweat.
Brick hops into the circle immediately upon Lembits return, urging Timor to activate the machine while Lembit is telling his tale. The apprentice is suddenly very hesitant to complete the inputs required to activate it, but brick charms the man asking for the final few directions and once shared the bard wastes no time in jabbing them in and vanishes!
When he returns a few moments later he is launched from the device, being flung some thirty feet through the air landing in a heap near the lava river, it takes him a few moments to climb to his feet and calm down, the lines of fear still etched in his face, but assures people it was worth it (and by
that we can only assume he meant seeing Grand Inquisitor Leska and seeing someone sacrificed to restore his vitality) as he is “refreshed and fighting fit, lets get back to the LAB!” leading the way with a skip in his step.
Searching the Laboratory:
* Here Brick finds a collective work on Biomancy and essentially a “how to build a monster” and “my first Biomancy” set of pamphlets with which he might be able to make progress into the study himself.
* We also find an empty bottle with traces of magic that Brick desperately wants to open and investigate, Lembit steps in as the voice of reason “you don’t open strange bottles found in laboratories, did no on teach you anything boy!, you can have the bottle once you’ve read those things” he says pointing at the bundle of papers the bard cradles like a child. However upon investigating it himself he believes it to be a bottle of endless air, confirmed when he pulls out the stopped to a whistling breeze. We suspect it was used as a type of aqualung to get through the water passage.
Searching the Masters Office:
* Hunting around the study we find a few hidden collections of cash (3300gp) and trinkets (a level 9, 10 and 12).
* With all the hidden things found our attention is turned to the obvious, namely the black orb on the desk with its golden swirling runes that show two godlike beings throwing storms and lightning at each other. Lembit spends a few minutes examining the object and generally slapping Bricks hands away whenever he tries to touch it, before he reaches an epiphany! “This is a Hurricane Orb, very rare indeed!” and then waffles on about it, but cutting to the chase it requires a devoted amount of life force to activate each day and will summon a hurricane as long as it is near water “they also come with a control rod, to eh… well control the level of storm!” the shaman explains.
Searching the Stone Dragon:
* Finally we return to the chamber containing the huge stone dragon head and the deathly black orb contained within its mouth. After much speculation about it possibly being a sphere of annihilation, Lembit deduces that its nothing more than an illusion (albeit a very good one) and steps inside the huge orb, bangs his head upon the stone wall hidden in the darkness but discovers a tunnel big enough to crawl along!
* Investigating the tunnel we find a small room, well more of a sauna, its grilled floor rests directly over a slow flowing river of lava that basks the whole area in sweltering red light. On the other side of the room is a large ornate looking stone door, its framed etched with cruel and twisted looking runes. Blarney identifies them at Infernal and translates for us “The spirit of the Pyromancer Damatarion shall destroy those who disturb his bodies rest”.
* We give the door a testing examination, it is immensely powerful and for once being extremely careful the none competent of us (Brick & Cricket in this case) wait in the Stone Dragon room as Lembit, Silas and Kain pool their collective knowledge to try and open the door. (An assisted Thievery Roll hitting 40, squeaking passed the DC35 required) and the stone door simply melts through the grilled floor into the lava below.
* Inside is an even scarier looking room made from burnished brass frame work and enchanted glass that steers and funnels the lava around its floor, beyond a large black stone sarcophagus. The trio venture inside allowing themselves a short rest before they tackle the next obstacle, behind them they see the door start to slowly reform but decide to remain within, hopeful they’ll be about to open the door again once they have its treasures! (Again another fortuitous roll of 48 manages to get the coffin open without anything nasty and they gingerly retrieve the shines from the withered corpse within (a level 10, 12 and 13 items).
* With equal luck and the memories of Lembits many deaths (and the lives before them) to guide them they manage to escape the tomb and venture back into the comforting coolness of the stone dragon room, happy that we’ve cleared the place of its hidden secrets we venture back using the bottle of endless water to reach the flooded prison above.
Back on the surface the severity of the storm quickly becomes apparent, the broken building quakes beneath the might of the fierce winds whipping through its ruined rooms, we wade through the water making our way outside, our eyes peeled for any traces of Sidoneth. Our prayers are answered when we near the exit and see the bright orange body of lulu swish through the water in front of us, he must be close!
Lembit is the first to step from the prison entrance into the sea, swimming out a little way from the safety of the structure, a flutter of speech on the wind draws his attention and looking back towards the prison he spies Lee Sidoneth one floor above stood near some statues, arms spread wide, the control rod gripped in one hand as he chants to the sky. “Lee!” he calls “it’s not too late, give up and hand us the rod and we can stop this”.
The Biomancer breaks from his ritual, gazing down at the Deva paddling awkwardly in the water and begins to laugh; with a flick of his wrist he points the rod at Lembit, swishing it back and forth tauntingly, the end of the rod flashes and suddenly the water level rises flooding the prison. Lulu then makes an appearance gripping the shaman in her tentacles, wrapping him up and then flinging him back inside the flooded prison.
Fight Highlights:
* The statues turn out to be “Water Gargoyles” creatures made of stone with a swim speed! They spend the majority of the fight harassing us and preventing us from scaling the prison to get to the Biomancer.
* Sidoneth seems to take great joy in flinging lightning bolts down into the water that arc and frazzle anyone nearby, that and flinging bits of broken prison at us, clearly an accomplished Geomancer as well as Biomancer.
* Silas unfortunately spends the first half the of the fight merely trying to avoid drowning, fighting the undertow of the flooding prison before finally getting out into the open ocean where he can breath again.
* Lembit kills Lulu, driving Sidoneth into a savage rage, making him the target of the Geomancers lighting bolts for the remainder of the fight.
* Brick is the first to reach Sidoneth once again using his “ROCKET MAN” and blasting out of the water to land near the man and one of his gargoyle body guards and immediately regretting it when the gargoyles sharp claws tear into his chest and then insult is added to injury when Lee proves himself to have had some monkish training and beats him senseless, the poor bard drags himself over the edge to flop back into the water to avoid anymore punishment.
* Kain proves to be slightly more effective jabbing and cutting at Lee before being knocked down himself under another combined assault.
* With his gargoyles finally defeated however Lee falls to the combined might of the party, Lembit uses his new enchanted Hat (the Helm of Heroes) to spur Cricket into action, a mighty swing knocks him off of the prison roof into the water where the bard manages a modicum of revenge finally getting the last hit with a jab of his sword, prising the control rod from the Geomancers hand.
With his dieing breaths Sidoneth calls to the sky “Master let your winds destroy them!” and a surge of wind pulls him from the water and rips him apart until nothing remains, looking up we see that
the “eye of the storm” seems to live up to its name, a spectral eye hidden behind the winds seems to close.
Atop the prison roof Brick cries to the heavens brandishing the rod, cackling to himself and mumbling words about “ULTIMATE POWER” as he thrusts his fists towards the sky, until the rod it torn from his grip and placed in more safer hands, Lembit wills the storm to end and the hurricane begins to peter out, calm finally settling upon the bay of Sequen.
Gathering in our little boat we make for the Docks, high above us a giant eagle circles aimlessly and lands as we step upon the stones of the dock area, his mistresses’ odd pole arm clutched in his beak and no sign of her. With a heavy sigh he tells us of his Mistress Lora’Bek carried off by the storm as she risked the winds to save people that had been caught in the winds and whisked into the air. Her efforts placed thirty survivors upon one of the small islands of the bay before her luck ran out and the storm claimed her. He goes now to join her; we attempt to convince him against it, that he could use the rest of his life for a better purpose but he remains unconvinced and takes to the sky.
From the docks we look over the harbour, once packed with ships now barely half are still afloat, those that weren’t sunk are almost certainly crippled. Out to see the once large fleet of Shalhalesti ships has suffered the same fate as those in the harbour. We drag ourselves to the Lyceum, entrusting the Hurricane Orb into Simian’s care and then leave the mages and the militia to handle sorting out the city, we retreat to the Royale to rest while the storm rides itself out.
At Simian and Vortberds urging we return once again to the island when the weather has calmed, keen to find any information we may have missed or overlooked pertaining to “The Master” that Sidoneth pleaded to with his dying words. Tucked behind one of the workbenches in the Laboratory we find a small note with various “evil instructions” upon it however a few bits and pieces do stand out.
* The masters army is growing in accordance with our estimates, things go smoothly.
* As part of our new security measures the code word to approach the mount has been changed, Eshu.
* The Biomantic book has been found and should be on its way to Paradim as planned, hopefully the mage can make good use of it.
* Our new creations are wonderful, but best suited to colder temperatures. They display the ability to disrupt anyone they touches spell casting ability, we predict they will turn the tide against the Lyceum Mages and those damnable Shahalesti!
It takes several days before the signs of normalcy start to creep their way back into the region and our recuperation is interrupted by a lyceum apprentice sent to fetch us to see Simian and soon we once again find ourselves before the master of the Lyceum in his study, he tells us that not with incontrovertible evidence that far-away Ragesia is a serious threat, Seaquen is united in its wish to join the war effort!
“More refugees have arrived with word that the winter storms over southern Ragesia have faded; this has cleared the way for the Third Ragesian Army to march into Dassen! There are also stories of an assassination attempt on the King of Dassen, but it was foiled! However it seems this has tipped the man to being even more paranoid than he was before, however I feel this may be an opportunity for us, for you. You must use your reputation to befriend him, make him an ally to yourself and to our cause; the Ragesian armies must be delayed!”
Still we aren’t ready to set out for Dassan yet and spend the rest of the week making arrangements for our trip and generally enjoying the fine weather that has settled over the region since the halting of the Hurricane Orb. It would appear that we’re well known in the town and more than once a bunch of locals have treated us to free drinks and other hospitalities (no doubt some of our more dubious members even tried to get a freebie at “The House”…).
However the one person expected to make free use of these liberties has not, rather than prancing gaily through the streets proclaiming his awesomeness as expected he in fact spends most of his time away on the island in the hidden Laboratory or his “secret lair” as he refers to it, even Lembit seems to be caught up in the goliaths fancies and spends more than a few days there as well.
Impressed at how they handled the barbarians from the Royale and refused to rise to Urien and Kain’s baiting, Cricket goes off in search of the Monk Refugees and is greeted friendly by Three Weeping Ravens, the barbarian is keen to learn more about their order. The two spend many days sparring in the local woods, the monks startling agility a foil to the barbarian brutal strikes, he is happy to point out flaws and teach him a few new tricks.
In the evenings the barbarian fails to convert the Weeping Raven to whims of the Moon Goddess Sehanine, the monk simply says “he walks a different path” in response Weeping Raven tries to explain the theories of his order and the offer of becoming a disciple, but the barbarians faith is strong.
Eventually the conversation turns to Order of the Echoed Souls and the tragedy that drop them from their homeland to Sindaire and the subsequent events that caused them to flee here, the monk is uncomfortable talking about the history of the order but tries to explain as best he can by saying “Imagine all the small evils you have done, and all the evils ever committed by those you have met. Imagine that your soul contained nothing but that evil. Would you want to speak of it?” agreeing the conversation has turned far too dark for the quality of ale being offered cricket changes the subject. While the pair has very different theological ideals, they agree to disagree on the finer points and become firm friends.
The others busy themselves with the preparations for the journey to Bresk, Capital of Dassen.
Eccles
Ragged idiot in a trilby.
The continuing adventures of Brick the Bard
After defeating Siddoneth and his biomantic creations we head back to civilization. Brick decides to claim the prison as the site for his underground volcano lair. Seeing as we might not be heading back this way for a while everyone seems to let him have it. I think it was more to do with keeping him quiet. When we get back to town we are able to get a bit of rest, buy items etc. After seeing all the biomantic equipment and reading the manual, Brick decides it might be interesting to see if he can get a little biomancy done on himself. Grinning at himself he has a little think about where he could get it done and BINGO a certain biomantic brothel pops into his mind. Might as well mix a little pleasure with business. He gets a small sack and dips into the party gold and heads out the door.
It doesn't take him long to remember the directions and finds himself at a familier looking door with a hatch in it. Feeling a little electricity pulse along his limbs he knocks on the door. The hatch slides open and a face appears. "What do you want" he says. Brick replies "I am interested in a little biomantic conversion my self, I have money". He holds the sack up. "Can I come in and speak to someone"
The hatch closes and the door is unbolted and opened and Brick is ushered inside. The same ogre bouncer is there and he guides Brick into another room. Inside this room the walls are lined with velvet drapes and an old woman sits behind a desk. "Back so soon, what will it be this time, are you still feeling adventurous, maybe a little group action". Just as he is about to speak to woman motions him to be quiet. "interested in a bit of biomancy yourself", she fumbles down and reaches into a drawer in the desk and brings out a huge brochure. "Have a look through these and pick out what you like, I think you will find that we can cater to any taste in body alteration. Where do your tastes lie". Just as he is about to speak the woman again motions him and closes her eyes. She produces a ledger and begins to write in it with an ornate quill pen. "You are feeling adventurous aren't you, how does this sound". She finishes writing and turns the page so Brick can read what is there. Bricks eyes light up, "how did you know what I was thinking". She replies "It is my business to no what my customers think, this amount of conversion will be quite expensive, I know that you will find the results, most enjoyable. The full conversion will take a while to settle down and you may discover knew abilities not included in this package, biomancy is not an exact science at the moment, more of an art form. To be able to express yourself in body transformation brings us closer to the gods". With that she motions him to go through into the next room.
This room is set out a lot differerently to the same door he passed through when he first visited. Inside there is a tank full of glowing green biomantic fluid. Casting his eyes over a table of equipment that look more suited to a torture chamber he is guided to an empty tank where he is sealed inside. From another door the old woman enters, leading a fat mage together with a group of other mages in hoods. The fat mage says "dont't worry we will take good care of you". As he is speaking the fluid begins to bubble up from the floor and begin to fill the tank. Brick begins to feel that he might have made a terrible mistake and bangs on the glass trying to escape the tank. The fluid has reached up to his neck now and he is finding it almost impossible to move. He takes a big lungful of air and is submerged into the fluid. The mage steps closer to the tank and whispers to him "your new body is going to be grown in that tank next to you, it could take up to five days to reach maturity, unfortunatly we still can't grow the skeleton, so that will need to be your own, that is why I have these gentlemen with me, when we remove your skeleton they will shrink it to size and insert it into your new body. You may find some of these sensations a little unpleasant".
Over the next five days Brick is disected and prodded in places he never knew he had. When finally the time comes for the tank to open all of the fluid rushes out of the tank and Brick sprawls to the floor. After that he is allowed to clean himself up and inspect his new body. A big mirror is wheeled into the room and Brick marvels at his new form. His new reflection is that of a tiefling female with small curved red horns. The bony growths of his goliath heritage still remain on the tops of his (her) arms and long black hair cascades over his shoulders. As well as having a tiefling tail he also has a flexible tentacle tail as well. Looking down his arms and the inside of his legs he finds that he has small suction cups like an octopus. Spinning so that he can see himself in the mirror he thinks they are not going to believe what I have done. I think I should change my name as well.
Meanwhile in the real world everyone else is relaxing and preparing their equipment for their next adventure. They notice that Brick has been missing with no contact for three days now so they assume he is just off carrousing around various houses of disrepute. About six days have passed and still no word from Brick they are walking down a street to go back to their accomidation when they hear a womans voice. "hi guys you are not going to believe what I have just done". A rather buxom female tiefling bounds up to Urien, one tail coils around Cricket while the other tentacle tail coils around Kain pulling them close. She has Brick's jazz flute strapped to her back while she carries a golden lute. Kain whirls around when he feels something try to unhook his money pouch. "sorry about that these things seem to have a mind of their own at the moment. The woman I spoke to said there might be a glitches but they should iron themselves out. By the way I go by the name of Ruby now..."
----
GM's note - written by Brick's player. Ah, Paul... What have you done? <evil chuckle>
After defeating Siddoneth and his biomantic creations we head back to civilization. Brick decides to claim the prison as the site for his underground volcano lair. Seeing as we might not be heading back this way for a while everyone seems to let him have it. I think it was more to do with keeping him quiet. When we get back to town we are able to get a bit of rest, buy items etc. After seeing all the biomantic equipment and reading the manual, Brick decides it might be interesting to see if he can get a little biomancy done on himself. Grinning at himself he has a little think about where he could get it done and BINGO a certain biomantic brothel pops into his mind. Might as well mix a little pleasure with business. He gets a small sack and dips into the party gold and heads out the door.
It doesn't take him long to remember the directions and finds himself at a familier looking door with a hatch in it. Feeling a little electricity pulse along his limbs he knocks on the door. The hatch slides open and a face appears. "What do you want" he says. Brick replies "I am interested in a little biomantic conversion my self, I have money". He holds the sack up. "Can I come in and speak to someone"
The hatch closes and the door is unbolted and opened and Brick is ushered inside. The same ogre bouncer is there and he guides Brick into another room. Inside this room the walls are lined with velvet drapes and an old woman sits behind a desk. "Back so soon, what will it be this time, are you still feeling adventurous, maybe a little group action". Just as he is about to speak to woman motions him to be quiet. "interested in a bit of biomancy yourself", she fumbles down and reaches into a drawer in the desk and brings out a huge brochure. "Have a look through these and pick out what you like, I think you will find that we can cater to any taste in body alteration. Where do your tastes lie". Just as he is about to speak the woman again motions him and closes her eyes. She produces a ledger and begins to write in it with an ornate quill pen. "You are feeling adventurous aren't you, how does this sound". She finishes writing and turns the page so Brick can read what is there. Bricks eyes light up, "how did you know what I was thinking". She replies "It is my business to no what my customers think, this amount of conversion will be quite expensive, I know that you will find the results, most enjoyable. The full conversion will take a while to settle down and you may discover knew abilities not included in this package, biomancy is not an exact science at the moment, more of an art form. To be able to express yourself in body transformation brings us closer to the gods". With that she motions him to go through into the next room.
This room is set out a lot differerently to the same door he passed through when he first visited. Inside there is a tank full of glowing green biomantic fluid. Casting his eyes over a table of equipment that look more suited to a torture chamber he is guided to an empty tank where he is sealed inside. From another door the old woman enters, leading a fat mage together with a group of other mages in hoods. The fat mage says "dont't worry we will take good care of you". As he is speaking the fluid begins to bubble up from the floor and begin to fill the tank. Brick begins to feel that he might have made a terrible mistake and bangs on the glass trying to escape the tank. The fluid has reached up to his neck now and he is finding it almost impossible to move. He takes a big lungful of air and is submerged into the fluid. The mage steps closer to the tank and whispers to him "your new body is going to be grown in that tank next to you, it could take up to five days to reach maturity, unfortunatly we still can't grow the skeleton, so that will need to be your own, that is why I have these gentlemen with me, when we remove your skeleton they will shrink it to size and insert it into your new body. You may find some of these sensations a little unpleasant".
Over the next five days Brick is disected and prodded in places he never knew he had. When finally the time comes for the tank to open all of the fluid rushes out of the tank and Brick sprawls to the floor. After that he is allowed to clean himself up and inspect his new body. A big mirror is wheeled into the room and Brick marvels at his new form. His new reflection is that of a tiefling female with small curved red horns. The bony growths of his goliath heritage still remain on the tops of his (her) arms and long black hair cascades over his shoulders. As well as having a tiefling tail he also has a flexible tentacle tail as well. Looking down his arms and the inside of his legs he finds that he has small suction cups like an octopus. Spinning so that he can see himself in the mirror he thinks they are not going to believe what I have done. I think I should change my name as well.
Meanwhile in the real world everyone else is relaxing and preparing their equipment for their next adventure. They notice that Brick has been missing with no contact for three days now so they assume he is just off carrousing around various houses of disrepute. About six days have passed and still no word from Brick they are walking down a street to go back to their accomidation when they hear a womans voice. "hi guys you are not going to believe what I have just done". A rather buxom female tiefling bounds up to Urien, one tail coils around Cricket while the other tentacle tail coils around Kain pulling them close. She has Brick's jazz flute strapped to her back while she carries a golden lute. Kain whirls around when he feels something try to unhook his money pouch. "sorry about that these things seem to have a mind of their own at the moment. The woman I spoke to said there might be a glitches but they should iron themselves out. By the way I go by the name of Ruby now..."
----
GM's note - written by Brick's player. Ah, Paul... What have you done? <evil chuckle>
RangerWickett
Legend
Despite myself, I kinda like the Kefka-esque petty villainy and utter amorality of Brick/Ruby.
Tentacle tiefling, huh? I'm sure that's wildly popular in Japan.
Tentacle tiefling, huh? I'm sure that's wildly popular in Japan.
