Consequences of the Quill (Restored 5/13/06)

[LordVyreth]

The Nightmare Prince: The Restless Night

The party had to escape quickly, but no one was willing to let the victim they found in the torture chamber remain Khaspar’s prisoner either. Robin and Roryn freed him, while the others quickly explored the Chapel for clues or treasure. While there, Tal noticed something strange about the chapel’s altar, and motioned for the others to help him investigate. He soon learned that while the top of the altar was caked in blood, it was normally transparent, and with a bit of magic, he was able to clean most of the blood off. To his horror, he learned that the altar itself was hollow, and that the top could be removed. Inside, he found the cultist that had led them to the subway in the first place, though he was now completely unarmed and appeared to be half mad. Tal quickly realized what the point of all this was. “As a punishment for helping us, The Nightmare Prince made him witness the sacrifices from here, unable to move or do anything but watch from as close as possible.” Tal grabbed the unfortunate man, and managed to drag him out of the room in time as well.

The party continued down the corridor, towards the last door. They came to a room that was larger than even the art gallery, and that was filled with boxes of all sizes. Some where only a few feet in length, width, and depth, but others towered over the heads of the party. As they were exploring the room, they noticed that one of the boxes in the middle of the room was starting to shake. Before the party had time to even react, it burst apart, revealing a gigantic dragon-like creature with eleven heads! Danae studied the creature quickly. “It’s clearly a hydra, and the colorings around the heads reveal that it is of the cryo- sub-species.” The party nodded as they prepared for this foe, but all of them were also aware of the fact that the creature was half made of metal, just like many of Khaspar’s most powerful servants!

Nathee was the first to respond. She began to tumble to the other side of the room, while Danae, Robin and Viett fired at the creature using magic, arrows and psionics from a distance, and Tal moved to the edge of the room to begin firing on the hydra from a distance, though he was attacked by many of the creature’s heads in the process. Roryn had his usual response to the battle, while the man they rescued from the torture chamber (who seemed unable to speak at the moment, possibly due to the pain of the torture,) helped move their crazed friend out of harm’s way. The hydra responded by breathing on the party, as expected, but the nature of the breath was unusual. Most of the heads breathed cold, but one head breathed a lightning bolt instead, which flew straight at the surprised Robin, and another breathed a strange gas on Roryn, which seemed to numb his senses, causing him to seemingly move in slow motion.

It was a brutal attack, but the party wasn’t interested in seeing any more of them. Though none of them had much strength left, they used what was left of their spells and powers to finish the brute off. No longer able to fight even the weakest of enemies, the party decided that they stood a chance of hiding in one of the boxes, so they had Nathee and Robin search the area for one that had potential. Eventually, they found one that was filled with strange chemicals and preserved body parts, but it appeared to be safe. They all squeezed into the box, and had the most restless and unsettling night of their lives. Often, the sounds of people outside of the box could be heard, and each time the current watch (if that’s an accurate word for people trapped in a dark box,) waited breathlessly, afraid that this would be the patrol that found them. Even though they weren’t discovered, the contents of the box and the constant awareness that they were currently sleeping in the home of someone called the Nightmare Prince made it a restless night. Ironically, had they known how often they had trusted their lives to traitors this day, they would be even more restless.

However, as uneasy as the party’s night was, Galeron’s was far worse, for he was not allowed more than a few moments of rest. Though he now lacked his holy symbol, Khaspar wasn’t about to let him have even a chance to pray for his spells. In addition, in the middle of the night, it was time for another interrogation. He was again led to the room next to the acid pool. Khaspar approached him with a triumphant look, and threw a strange chunk of meat at his feet. It looked horrible, like it was the remains of an animal after predators had eaten their fill, and yet it also looked terribly familiar to Galeron. A sense of nausea and dread filled him, when he realized it was Thorrun!

Khaspar smiled. “As you can see, your friends are being dealt with. Your closest friend is little but a meal for my creatures now, and I have learned that another has fallen to a coma. And a third is slowly becoming another one of my servants. You have no hope of rescue, and your continued presence here is just endangering your friends further. Answer my questions, however, and I will let all of you leave my Manor.”

Galeron, however, just gave him a look of disgust. “I still have faith in my friends. With the aid of our goddesses, they will kill you.”

But this only made Khaspar laugh. “The goddesses? You expect that those feeble creatures will be able to save you? I have long since become the master of all of their so-called gifts. With my domination, they will be revealed to be the useless beings that they are. I have mastered Lore’s magic and Ordhari’s science. I have turned the love of Jolia into hatred, driving families against each other and rendered the weakness of love pointless. I have turned the pleasure of Khrista into far greater joy in the suffering of others, and bended both the work of nature and the work of strength to my will. I have turned even art and music into tools to torment the world. Even Bas, who I currently serve, shall be useful only until she has cleansed this world of my enemies. And then I shall destroy her, long before she even becomes aware of my treachery. And as for Tsykie, the protector of children, well, perhaps I should show you. It is one of my greatest triumphs.”

So saying, the scarred demon and elf bard began to move Galeron’s rack out of the room. Soon, he was facing a window, which overlooked a sort of enclosed courtyard a few stories down, and apparently somewhere in the middle of the Manor. There, about twenty children were playing in the fairly lovely gardens. Suddenly, Khaspar turned to his minions, pointed at a child at random, and simply said “That one,” prompting them to operate some controls in the wall. The courtyard grew dark, except for a spotlight that centered on the child. A loud buzzer sounded, and the children stopped playing. The other children quickly surrounded the terrified child in the spotlight, and began to attack him with their toys, their tiny fists, or even biting into him! After a few moments, the buzzer stopped, and the children suddenly ceased their attack, and wandered away from the barely-breathing victim. A blacked-robed cultist entered the room, and gave each of the other children some food and water, before dragging the comatose boy out of the room. Khaspar laughed at the performance. “As you can see, your goddess is useless to stop me from destroying the safety and innocent of even children. I’ll let you think about what you have seen, but you have another busy day tomorrow, so try to get what little rest you can.”

OOC Notes: This will be the last update until next wednesday. I'm going to Gen con, and I'll probably be burned out on D&D for at least a day or two after that, but I should be able to get started again after that.

 

[LordVyreth]

The Nightmare Prince: The Journey Upwards

Surprisingly to some members of the party, the group was not discovered and was able to awaken the next day safely. However, everyone remembers being awakened, if only for a few moments, by the sound of a loud buzzer coming from somewhere nearby. The next morning, Danae and the party’s other wizards prepared their spells, while the others spoke with the man they rescued from the torture chamber. He said his name was Sigmund, and he was an escapee from the undead empire’s breeding grounds, where vampires and similar undead ate, and others were transformed into undead en masse. He had just managed to escape when he discovered this place, and was subsequently captured by Khaspar. He was being tortured for information about what he knew when the party arrived to save him. He managed to see a lot about the manor before his capture, and he’d be happy to help the party find their way through the manor if it meant escape and getting revenge on The Nightmare Prince.

Once the party was ready to go and the coast was clear, the next day of exploring this twisted place began. There were two unexplored paths to take from the Storage room: a door to the south and one to the east. Sigmund, remembering what he learned while imprisoned, said “I know there’s some way to the second story to the south. And Khaspar himself is will almost certainly be waiting at the top of the Manor.” The others weren’t so certain about this latter conclusion, but the eastern path likely doubles back to the residential part of the Manor they worked so hard to avoid the first time around, so going south made as much sense as anything.

At first, the area they entered was peaceful, and completely out of place with the rest of the Manor so far. It was an indoor courtyard, filled with plants and even children of various races playing. Oddly enough, though, none of them were playing together, or even reacted when the party arrived. At one point, Nathee gasped slightly, when she saw a little girl who was also a deep gnome. “I think that’s my granddaughter!” she whispered.

The party had a brief debate about what to do next. “I think we should take them along,” Tal insisted. “We can’t leave them here. Who knows what the Nightmare Prince will do to them?”

Danae shook her head. “It’s one thing to take a few prisoners with us, but a couple dozen children? They’d just get us all killed. And they don’t appear to be in any immediate danger. We can rescue them with the rest of the slaves later, once Khaspar is dead.”

The debate continued for a few minutes, but eventually a compromise was reached, where they would at least find a way out of the manor itself, and try to get the children out using that. There were only two other doors in the room, and both of them connect to a square of wall that enters into the otherwise square nursery. However, when Robin tried the door, the room suddenly turned dark, except for a spotlight that caught Robin and the rest of the party. A buzzer sounded, and all the children suddenly paid attention to the party for the first time. Suddenly, all of them rushed the party to attack them!

Fortunately, despite the horror of the situation, it wasn’t as bad as it first appeared. Though no one wanted to hurt children, everyone realized the main priority was to escape without killing them, so they quickly switched to non-lethal attacks. Though even knocking children unconscious with the blunt end of swords was horrifying, it was accomplished with no permanent injuries. The attack was further proof that the children can’t accompany them now, but Tal insisted on at least bring Nathee’s granddaughter with them, in an attempt to make up for the death of Fnipper.

Once the attack was over, getting the door open was fairly easy. It appeared to lead into a dark room, with a stairway that led onto metal walkways above them. It appeared that this was the way to the next floor, so the party led the way, with Sigmund leading their crazed cultist friend and carrying Nathee’s daughter. As they began to traverse the room, it became obvious that much of the darkness in the center of the room was magical in nature, making it impossible to know exactly what was in the center of the room, especially without any real clerics left in the group to remove the darkness. Nathee and Robin listened into the darkness, but after failing to hear anything, the group tried to just reach the staircase up as carefully as they can. They only got about halfway up, however, before the screams began.

Tal, at least, recognized them for what they were. They sounded just like the strange jellyfish-like demon that accompanied Tanos, over a year ago. As expected, mere seconds later, the screams rose to a deafening level as a pair of the hideous demons appeared in the room. However, both of them were given the now nearly omni-present metallic implants, and while both of them were larger than the one Tal saw earlier, one of them was double its size! Even worse, as the monsters appeared, the sound of another monster arriving could be heard coming from the other end of the room, though the darkness in the center of the room prevented anyone from seeing what it was.

Nathee responded first. She sprinted up the stairs, and tumbled to the side of one of the Lipidos, hurting it, but only slightly. Her heroism was rewarded with a strange, deafening screech from the other end of the room. Nathee narrowly dodged out of the way, and the sonic attack left a hole in the wall where she once stood. The larger of the two Lipidos responded next, by releasing a circle of dark energy right into the party. Surprisingly, Sigmund managed to avoid the blast entirely, using far more agility than an ex-slave would be expected to have. This was good news, especially since he was still protecting Nathee’s kin, but it was suspicious nonetheless. He still quickly got out of the way of the fight, as Tal, Robin, and Roryn converted to attack their enemies. Danae and Viett, meanwhile, fired instead in the direction of the screaming monster with their most powerful attacks. The screams they heard suggested that their plan succeeded admirably, but before Danae could respond again, the smaller Lipido grabbed her, and injected her with some horribly fluid from an artificial tail. The poison had a profound effect on Dane’s constitution, which was already at its lowest point from the mechanical infestation on her body, and she lapsed into unconsciousness.

Meanwhile, the larger Lipido managed to grab both Viett and the cultist they rescued from the chapel, and in a flash, it sucked the life force out of the poor man. He screamed in agony, and that dying scream seemed to enter the Lipido itself, along with his very soul. Viett, meanwhile, demonstrated why trying to grapple a psion was a very bad idea, and fired a disintegration ray at the creature even as barbed tentacles were rending his flesh. The monster avoided the worst of the blast, but the continued assault by Tal, Robin, and Roryn was already weakening the monster. The lesser Lipido responded by dropping Danae, and firing a dark circle of energy at the party just like the larger creature had done earlier. But it wasn’t enough to save the larger monster, who finally fell to the might of the enraged Roryn’s axe. As it exploded in an eruption of vile fluid and the smoke of souls, the party turned its aggression to the smaller creature, who wisely fled after seeing how this fight had turned against them.

The party was victorious yet again, but now there were less of them than ever. Galeron was captured, Thorrun dead, Grockith in a coma, and Danae unconscious, the only conscious party members left were Tal, Robin, Roryn, Viett, and technically Sigmund. As they continued on, Robin and Tal exchanged glances, and both silently realized that the only people around them that they really trusted were each other.

The dark room they were in was mostly empty. However, as they continued down the walkway, it suddenly gave way in front of Roryn, the party’s current point man, sending him into the darkness below, which apparently contained numerous spikes. He was able to escape the pit with minimal damage, but Nathee understandably took the lead after that, and found all the other traps on the way to the other side of the room. They found two doors leading west there, and chosen the Southern door after Sigmund mentioned he heard about an armory that The Nightmare Prince had in that vicinity.

Meanwhile, the third stage of Galeron’s interrogation had begun. To start this part of the interrogation, Khaspar didn’t have to say anything. He just had to show Galeron the view from his manor. It was overlooking a huge, dark valley that appeared to be currently (if not eternally) caught in a thunderstorm. Galeron could see little inside the pit itself, but occasionally lightning would flash, letting him catch a glimpse at something inside the valley. It appeared to be the upper half of a vaguely humanoid form. Judging from the distance to the valley, it would have to be almost a mile tall at full length, and the way it seemed to be trapped and futilely struggling to free itself did nothing to remove the dread Galeron was feeling. For as he looked upon the figure in the comparative safety of Khaspar’s Manor, he knew that he was watching Bas herself.

 

[LordVyreth]

The Nightmare Prince: Not So Beautiful Music

As Galeron looked on in horror, Khaspar continued his ranting. “You do realize that no matter what happens here, you and your country are doomed. You could escape, or you could even kill me, and for what? As you can see, my goddess is unstoppable, and growing more powerful by the second. Soon, she will be free, and able to destroy your empire by herself. And when she does, I’ll be there aiding her until the end, where I shall take her place as the deserving ruler of this world. And what can you do to stop it? You can’t kill Bas and all of her servants by yourself. And good luck getting Methosilang to help. Nobody of worth believes your stories of a twelfth goddess. Our spies have seen to that. You will be all alone, unable to do anything until your inevitable deaths. Only by helping us now will you spare yourselves from a long and painful demise.”

Despite all of these threats and prophecies, Galeron would not talk, so Khaspar again took him away. He chuckled as Galeron was taken back to his prison, and said, “You should know that next time we speak, you shall see my worst.”

Meanwhile, Galeron’s friends and rescuers were being led through a hallway by Sigmund. Eventually, he stopped at a door and said, “The treasure should be in there.” Roryn used his favorite method of door-removal to enter the room, and found a number of strange and clearly magical objects, including a pair of wings, a ring, and a bastard sword. The party decided to deal with them later, however, and placed them in a bag of holding for now. On their way back to the other door, they checked the other doors in this hallway, but they all appeared to be just bedrooms, albeit far nicer ones than normal cultists would be expected to have. Tal speculated, “These probably belong to Khaspar’s Elite soldiers, like that assassin we fought back in the art gallery, or that priest from the chapel. At any rate, they all had little but their normal furnishings, possibly because any servant of the Nightmare Prince would likely be far too paranoid to leave anything of value off of their person. The party continued on after a cursory examination.

The second door from the stairway, however, was far more interesting. It led to a hallway with four more doors. The first two were just more bedrooms, but the third appeared to be a very strange prison. After Nathee took a few moments to easily pick the lock (Tal and Viett had managed to restrain Roryn this time,) they found their way into a room filled with tiny cages, which each appeared large enough to hold a single prisoner of human size. Most of the cages were inhabited by people, but all of them appear to have been reduced to emotional vegetables by Khaspar’s tortures. They hide their eyes from the party as soon as they open the door.

However, there was one exception to these prisoners. One angry-looking woman was trapped in a cage that was itself surrounded by a magical circle of protection, which Viett realized was used to prevent a creature from teleporting or plane-shifting away, and was usually used for summoned outsiders! As soon she saw the party, she immediately turned much friendlier, and directing her response specifically to Robin, she called out, “At last, I am freed! Good sirs, can you help me escape from this cage. If you do, I promise I will help you get revenge on The Nightmare Prince!”

This obviously struck a few of the heroes as a little suspicious. Tal, however, couldn’t perform his normal role as party diplomat, as he was working to try and calm the other prisoners. Instead, Robin took over, with Viett providing him with information as he spoke. “My, err, bard friend here says that you appear to be trapped in a summoning circle. May I ask why?”

The woman responded, “First of all, the name is Veran, and I won’t lie to you. I was once a worshipper of Bas. However, she betrayed me by agreeing with Khaspar’s request that I assist him on a project of his. He merely wanted a chance to abuse and humiliate me, since he wouldn’t dare try this against the Lady of Blood or Blade of Minds. He is a sadist and a misogynist of the worst sort, and he just wanted a chance to prove that he was my superior. I’m a decent sorceress myself, but I couldn’t oppose him and his entire force, and Bas never once responded to my please for aid. As a result, I decided to reform and serve her no longer, and I’ll start by killing that bastard Khaspar. However, I will only help you if you swear on the names of your goddesses that you will protect me both here and afterwards. If we do kill Khaspar, Bas will label me her enemy, and she always spares no effort to make an example of traitors.”

After hearing her story, the party disengaged to discuss the issue. Nathee and Sigmund were both a very suspicious, and Sigmund in particular thinks that she’s really working for Khaspar herself, but everyone seemed convinced by her story, though it also looked like she was hesitating or hiding something. However, she also seemed to have a slight speech impediment, and she deliberately tried to hide her mouth when speaking, and Viett speculated that Khaspar must’ve done something to disfigure her that she’s ashamed of, which could explain her attempts to hide something. They eventually decide to free her. Viett destroyed the circle and dissolved the cage’s door, free her. The delighted Veran said, “I think I have a way to help you already. I notice that all of you are extremely wounded. I can use magic to hide us in a number of small planar pockets, where you can rest in relative safety.”

The party hesitated at this as well, since they knew Galeron can’t wait forever for them, but they also realized that the Lipidos took a lot out of them, and they’d be no good to Galeron if they were killed while trying to rescue him, so they took her up her offer. They hid their portable holes, bags of holding, and other personal pocket dimensions inside a wall that Tal stone shaped a hole into using his staff, and rested for the night.

The next morning, as they left the prison, they were surprised to find someone waiting for them outside. Fortunately, it was Alkurvas, their bard friend whose help got them into the Manor and let them bypass the trap that claimed Galeron. “It appears that you have been having quite a lot of problems reaching Khaspar. Fortunately, I will be able to help you from here on, if you want. Your animals are safe, and you are very close to Khaspar and Galeron, but there are still many obstacles left. In my travels, I have learned some secrets of the art of magical healing, which I can use to aid you a little.”

The party readily accepted his aid, and recovered as many of their remaining wounds as they could. However, Alkurvas could do nothing to improve the condition of either Grockith or Danae.

At Veran’s direction (and the simple fact that it’s the last way to go,) the party entered the last room of the hallway, and found themselves in perhaps the most complicated and bizarre room yet. The room was elegantly furnished, and a light but catchy music filled the air. Tal, relying on his years of bardic practice, noticed that there was a strange, repeating nature to the song, but he couldn’t exactly place his finger on what it was exactly. Meanwhile, the room also was filled with strange mechanical figures, similar to the figures that animate on a cuckoo clock, though much larger. Each figure also was far more horrible than the typical clock’s, and appeared to be ready to disembowel each other, flail around while being burned by a carved fire, laughing at suffering victims, and so on. A lever was set in the far wall of the room. Understandably distrusting, Viett moved the lever telekinetically while the party was safely on the other end of the room. As a result, the walls around the middle of the room folded inward, blocking the area with the lever from the rest of the room. The music’s tempo picked up considerably, and the party could here a rumble from the blocked side of the room, as if a large machine suddenly began to operate. “I think I heard of this device,” Veran commented. “I never got a chance to use it, since I was imprisoned by Khaspar too quickly, but I think it operates as an elevator to the third floor. But be careful! Khaspar would never create something this complicated for no reason.”

The party waited about ten minutes, and the apparent elevator returned, for the walls pulled back again. Cautiously, all of them entered the elevator side of the room, and pulled the lever. The walls again closed around them, so only twelve of the figures were on their side. The room began to rise, and it felt like it was also slowly circling around them. As the party prepared for whatever could happen, one of the statues suddenly slid to the side, revealing a tiny, but apparently empty, alcove. As the party pondered what this meant, the statue slid closed, and two more statues slid open. These, however, were not empty, and each appeared to hold a strange man with horns and red eyes. One of them suddenly cast a spell, which apparently tried to transform Robin, but it failed. Before the party could respond, the statues slid close again, and then two more opened, revealing an empty room and a three-eyed demon, identical to the one fought on TIE’s mountain.

The gaze of the monster had a number of immediate effects. Robin suddenly screamed in terror, and was shaking for the entire rest of the fight, as his worst fears suddenly came to life again. Veran was caught in the gaze of the creature, and screamed as her life force began to get sucked out of her. Even worse, Fnipper’s daughter also was caught in the gaze. Her eyes widened in a look of ultimate terror, and she immediately dropped dead!

The fight continued like this for a long time. Every few seconds, the doors would open to reveal one of the three-eyed demons (and there appeared to be two of them) or one or more of their fiendish wizard enemy. To make matters worse, only one of the wizards appeared to be real, and the others were apparently some kind of illusion. And then things got even worse when Fnipper’s daughter stood up again, apparently as some form of undead, an attacked the party! However, Roryn showed little concern about the issue and destroyed her, theorizing that she was already dead, and she couldn’t be resurrected nor could her spirit find peace while trapped as an undead monster.

Things started looking up for the party when Robin, desperate to avoid the eye monsters, dashed into one of the openings as soon as it moved, without even looking who was in it. He ended running headlong into the wizard! Obviously, it was too tight in the space for either to perform normal tactics, but the far stronger and more skilled Robin was able to grapple the wizard and then pummel him into unconsciousness. As the sounds of fighting reverberated from the walls around them, the rest of the party realized that Robin clearly got the real wizard, so they ignored the illusions and concentrated on the demons. Things also improved when Tal finally was able to recognize the pattern in the song, and could start figuring out which alcoves would open at any given time, and what would be behind them. The party was able to finish the demons with ease at that point. Shortly after both of them were killed, a tired Robin exited the alcove, carrying a bloody and beaten wizard with him. He looked at the corpses of the demons, and felt his fear finally leave him. Meanwhile, as the party got their bearings, Nathee walked up to the beaten wizard and brutal slit his throat. The others looked at her with shock, but she shrugged. “He and his group were responsible for killing my grand-daughter. He deserved to die.”

A minute later, the elevator reached the next floor, and the wall again slid open, revealing a new room. The party continued on, knowing that they were finally getting very close to their nemesis.

OOC Notes: Okay, here’s the deal with the party’s many coming and going players. Galeron was captured as part of the plot; anyone would have been captured if they took the elevator, unless they had a really good plan. Grockith fell into a coma because his player just didn’t get along with the other players. There were some fights, and he just decided to stop coming. Danae’s illness actually came from her player missing a game. Normally, I just let other players take over for them, but she was updating her character over the week, and we couldn’t find it. Roryn’s player also went missing, but we didn’t know why, so for now, he was being played by Chris, who also was playing Viett. Galeron’s player was playing Nathee until he could be rescued. She was a character I created, so the party still didn’t know what her deal was. Sigmund, Fnipper’s daughter, Veran, Alkurvas, and the crazed cultists were all NPCs. All of them were placed into the game beforehand, though I didn’t expect Alkurvas to return to help the party when I first made the adventure. He was more an NPC out of necessity, after losing so many players and characters for a few games. As for the new characters, well, they were all recruited in a Manor dedicated to evil. Anyone care to guess if all of them are really trustworthy, and if not, which one or ones are traitors?

 

[LordVyreth]

The Nightmare Prince: Final Trials

As the party came within minutes of finding Galeron, he found himself facing interrogation at the hands of Khaspar one last time. “Now, my dear priest. You have admittedly impressed me with your resolve so far. You have endured pain, you have witnessed the death of your best friend, you have seen the depths of despair and depravity that my very presence causes, and you have even beheld the form of my goddess, living and present on this very world, yet you stay strong. However, remember that I am the master of fear. I have seen into your very nightmares. You fear letting down your church, and failing to live up to its expectations, do you not? You tremble at the thought that they would judge you unworthy, and expel you. You would have no where to go, a living failure, unable to deal with the scorn and shame of your life, wouldn’t you? I could make that happen, but I could do far worse as well. As you know, I can infect beings with my mechanical insects, and after days or even weeks of agonizing pain, the creature dies, only to rise up again as a cyborg under my total command. Normally, the process deforms the creature horribly, making them a pariah in society forevermore. However, I can make alterations, and ensure that the victim’s mechanical parts are hidden. I could do that to you, making you my absolute slave, and from there, who knows? I could force you to, say, return to your church, and kill everyone in it? Or how about we just butcher a village or two on the way back? Well, not the entire church and village. We need at least a few survivors to escape, and tell everyone about the former priest who turned to evil, committed all these atrocities, and laughed while doing it. I assume that might get you excommunicated. In fact, I’d assume they’d label you far worse than a mere heretic. They’d call you a villain, a monster, and a traitor of the highest order. Your evil would be written in books and told in tales for centuries to come. In time, you might even become a legend, and as mythology is want to do, your story would be exaggerated with each telling. You might even be described as a demonic lord in a future, or some sort of foul half-fiendish monster, whose power and evil are second only to that of your master, me.”

Galeron pondered all this. His choices were hard but clear. Either willing betray his church, or his body will be used as a living puppet, and he will be forced to betray every value he has and be vilified by the forces he regards as his heroes and by the organization he has vowed his life to serve. It was his greatest nightmare, and he came very close to surrender…

But then he began to think about the one person that would know the truth about him no matter what Khaspar forced him to do: his goddess. She would surely know that he sacrificed his life, his honor, and everything he held dear to protect his home. Using what little strength he had left, he looked straight at Khaspar, and spit in his face.

Khaspar, as expected, was not pleased. “Very well.” He looked to his bard minion, and said, “Prepare the machine. The swarms take too long to make the transformation, and aren’t precise enough for my desire. My personal transformation machine, however, is far more advanced. Delay the other prisoner’s transformation for now, until we can finish things here.”

With that, Galeron was taken to his prison, for what was likely to be the last time.

Meanwhile, Galeron’s last hope was drawing ever closer. They now found themselves in a library, and honestly, except for the strange metal screens that were blocking all the book shelves, it looked reasonably normal, at least at first. The only really unusual part of the room was a strange diorama located right in the middle. Viett quietly told the others that it looked like a planetary model, except it wasn’t for any planets he ever heard of. However, about the time the party noticed the diorama, the library’s guards noticed them! A panicked scholarly-looking cultist ran to the edge of the room, while a far, far more violent-looking cultist roared and charged at the party. From behind a bookshelf, a stone dragon rose up and roared, making Tal groan as he recognized the creature. Finally, the room was enveloped in a cacophony of screams, as the Lipido that ran from the earlier stairway fight return for vengeance!

Roryn roared and met his equally enraged opponent head on, while Nathee moved to get behind him. Tal, however, remembered what disasters Book Wyrms can become if left alone, and he yelled to the party to help him destroy it. He launched a sonic orb at the creature, followed almost immediately by a magic missile by Veran and a disintegration ray by Viett. This did quite a bit of damage to the beast, yet it still lived for now. Sigmund, as usual, fled to the corner while the fight progressed.

Robin and Alkurvas moved to engage the Lipido, when suddenly, the sun of the diorama lit up, shining light on the planetary spheres around it. Remarkably, all of the spheres were transparent, and when the sun’s light shone into them, a beam of colored light flew out from the planets. Some of the beams were blocked by other planets, but the others flew out from the diorama and into the combat around them! One of them, which shone through a dark planet, struck Robin, draining him of some of his health. Another struck the enraged Roryn, and since it went through what was apparently an ice world, it seemed to freeze Roryn!

Meanwhile, the monsters struck back. The enraged cultists suddenly got even angrier, until he entered a battle frenzy, and began to tear Roryn apart. The dragon moved up to engage the party, but made the mistake of taking some time to summon a book around it first. A wizard appeared out of it, and tried slowing Tal down, but he was able to resist the simple magic of the book-based simulacrum. The Lipido had more luck, and grabbed Robin with its many hook arms.

Roryn and Nathee futilely continued to attack the frenzied cultist, but though it looked like the wounds they did could have killed a normal being, the cultist didn’t even seem to notice! Meanwhile, Tal and the others “magic”-using party members finished off the dragon, and began to focus on the Lipido. However, they dared not get too close, for that fight was right in the area of the sun’s rays, and the planets were constantly rotating, threatening the party with new rays and potentially new traps every few seconds. Alkurvas was a little more daring, and nimbly evaded the beam as he moved in close to aid Robin. Soon, they had finished the distracted creature once and for all, and before Robin could be harmed too badly by the creature.

The same couldn’t be said by poor Roryn. Eventually, Tal and Viett joined in on the fight against the frenzied cultist, but even though they managed to strip the flesh from his bones at places, something was still making him fight. Finally, Viett fired a disintegration beam at the warrior, which caught him by surprise, and reduced him to nothing but dust (thank you, 3.0.) The party then turned on the surviving scholar, only to initially lose track of where he was! They searched the library frantically, while dodging around the beams of the sun trap’s rays, until they found a lever, which deactivated the sun when pulled. Meanwhile, Tal managed to find the scholar, who was hiding under a magical field of invisibility near the lever, but couldn’t fool the senses of Tal’s familiar violet. The desperate sage tried to attack the party with illusionary magic disguised as more powerful spells, but he was cut down with ease.

From here, the party explored the rest of the library and beyond it. To the south, there was nothing more than a hallway with two more bedrooms, leaving only one more door in the room that led north. The party steeled themselves and healed as best they could, for they could sense that Galeron’s captors were beyond this door, but they had only minutes to spare.

 

[LordVyreth]

The Nightmare Prince: The Final Battle!

Beyond the library, there was a gleaming metal room, though any relief about the room’s sterile appearance and general lack of horrifying decorations was ruined by the metal racks leaning against the wall, the pool of acid, and the hideous, scarred, demonic creature that was waiting for them. Roryn and Viett charged towards the creature, while Robin fired a hail of arrows at it and Tal supported them all with magic. However, when Nathee tumbled into the room as well, she suddenly attacked Viett! He was so shocked by this sudden treason that he barely resisted the full attack of Nathee’s, which consisted of almost a half dozen perfectly-positioned shots to vital areas, and somehow included a tail. To make matters worse, as Veran and Alkurvas struggled to enter the room to help, Sigmund suddenly started chuckling behind them. His body suddenly grew and warped, until he resembled a hideous, tentacled demon!

Meanwhile, the original demonic threat had a few surprises of its own. All of the “scars” it had suddenly opened, and the party realized to their disgust that its body was actually covered with dozens of tiny mouths! About ten massive, bladed tongues started lashing out of the mouths, and it used another pair of tongues on the soles of its feet to stride towards Roryn, and begin flying him with its tongues. Roryn and Robin began to attack the creature, while Viett did the best he could to hold of the sudden attack of Nathee, and Tal tried to help. However, she was literally too fast to even be touched, and all they could hit was her cultist robe disguise. However, after it was ripped a bit, it was clear why Nathee had turned on them, for her entire body was filled with mechanical implants! Mostly likely, she had been using illusions and the robes to hide her alterations, and the deep gnome’s ability to avoid magical detection had prevented the party from noticing. She managed to repeatedly attack Viett yet again, and finished this series of attacks by driving her mechanical tail right through Viett’s throat, killing him!

Meanwhile, Alkurvas was surprisingly holding his own against the monster that was once Sigmund. Even when Sigmund is able to hit, Alkurvas just shrugged off the blow like nothing happened. Just then, Veran demonstrated she had some surprises of her own, when she concentrated, and apparently summoned a Balor into the room! The party was just about to attack her for being yet another traitor, when the Balor started attacking Sigmund!

Meanwhile, Roryn and Robin were still fighting the many-mouthed monster. The creature had managed to retreat to the corner of the room after being almost killed by Robin’s arrows and Roryn’s enraged attacks. He did this easily enough by springing himself across the room by retracting and suddenly extending his feet tongues, but Roryn charged right after him. The demon responded by taking a deep breath, and then breathing fire out of every mouth at once! However, Roryn didn’t slow his charge at all, since he still remembered the death of his brother, and wanted revenge. The sooner this demon was destroyed, the sooner he could focus on his real enemy. He leapt right into the dome of fire that surrounded the beast, and finished it with one last decapitating cut. However, no sooner did he finish off the monster, than the tentacled creature teleported into the room, in a desperate attempt to flee the Balor! Roryn didn’t bother dealing with this new threat, but Tal and Robin were able to end the life of the miserable creature, letting the entire party plus their very unusual Balor ally focus on Nathee.

Despite this seemingly unbalanced situation, Nathee managed to hold her own for what seemed like forever. Even the Balor couldn’t get any good hits in, though he did prove himself useful when he was able to dispel the many magical effects her mechanical implants granted her, letting Robin and Roryn finally finish the creature. And so, the attempt by the party to avenge their fallen comrade has resulted in the death of two of his relatives, although in Nathee’s case, it was almost merciful to save her from enslavement by the Nightmare Prince.

The party had to continue on, but before they did, they had some questions to ask Veran. She had clearly seen this coming, for she began her explanation without prompting. “Yes, I know what you’re going to ask. My real name isn’t Veran, it’s Venymaran. Though it goes against my better nature, everything else that I said is true. But I did leave one thing out.” As she said this, her form changed as well. Wings grew out of her back, and horns grew on her head.

None of the surviving party members knew what she was, exactly, but Alkurvas was able to identify her immediately. “A succubus,” he said with a strangely satisfied tone, as if he always really knew.

“Correct. However, I am not your enemy, as I said. I want Khaspar dead even more than you do, and after he is, I need your protection to survive Bas’ vengeance. You can imprison me, or do whatever you want, but I’m happy just not being brutally killed by Bas’ minions for now. Now don’t think you’ll be rid of me now; you swore to your goddesses you’d protect me, and my true nature doesn’t change that. Besides, you need me if you ever want to defeat Khaspar. I know his weaknesses.”

Reluctantly, the party agrees to take her along for now. After all, only Roryn, Robin, and Tal remained of the original party, and only she and Alkurvas was left among their other allies. They were in no shape to turn down any aid.

Beyond the interrogation chamber, there was a spiral staircase that led up and down. Venym commented, “Khaspar will likely be at the top floor by now, preparing his defenses against you.” With that in mind, the group decided to head down. In the floor below them, they found what looked like another prison, but it was currently empty. Further down, there were a number of strange iron chests, but there would be plenty of time to investigate them later. Finally, on the floor below that, which was a basement at least a few hundred feet below the rest of the Manor, they found a strange cavern dominated by a strange machine. And there at the top of a chute that led into the machine, they finally found Galeron! Roryn and Robin quickly broke him out of his restraints, while Alkurvas investigated his wounds and confirmed that he was not another shape shifted or mechanical enemy.

“Galeron, I’m glad to see you’re safe!” Tal enthusiastically said, after Alkurvas confirmed he was who he appeared to be. However, his expression soon darkened. “Um, we do have some bad news, however. I’m afraid that Thorrun…”

“I know,” Galeron curtly said. “The Nightmare Prince bragged about it. We can bring him back later, however. Our first task is to finally bring justice to Khaspar.”

Venym nodded. “However, we can’t do it today. Those enemies in the library and interrogation chamber weakened all of us, and your priest will be useless in a fight unless we can get him his equipment back. I propose that we search the treasure chests from the room above us, and then rest here tonight. Khaspar will be prepared for us, of course, but he’s too arrogant to run from the fight itself or let his minions finish us off. He’ll give us our chance.”

Introductions were made between Venym and Galeron, which went about a poorly as expected, and then the chests were looted. Even they weren’t safe; the chests themselves were magnetized and released blasts of ice and transformative magic when opened, but a few appropriate spells made short work of the chests’ defensives. Galeron’s equipment was indeed in the chests, and once he was freed, Galeron was able to finally restore Danae and her familiar to health, though Grockith was still completely comatose. In addition, the mechanical implants had so infected Danae’s mephit familiar that when he was healed, he found he was missing an eye, a leg, and an arm! Danae decided to tuck the poor maimed familiar into a magical planar pocket until he can be healed. Galeron was also able to use his remaining spells to heal the health and life force lost by various party members, though he refused to heal Venym. She snarled at him angrily, but there’s wasn’t much she could do. After all, she needed the rest of the party, and it’s not like Galeron made a vow to help her like the others did. She again let them rest in her rope-tricked hiding spots, and as they rested and prepared for the next day, she explained what she knew about Khaspar to them.

“Khaspar is a wizard, but he has many special powers. For one thing, he is a half-machine, like many of his servants. He also had made a pact with elemental beings from the plane of water, and is now nearly completely composed of water and ice. He isn’t so powerful that he totally transformed, so he lacks any weakness to water, but he is nearly immune to cold effects and many other things. Also, his own cold magic will be much more powerful, so expect him to surround himself with freezing temperatures and use a lot of ice magic. If you have any way to set up elemental defenses to cold, I would use them.”

With that, the party rested for the night, with the exception of Alkurvas. He explained he had to leave for now, to prepare for the fight as well, but he’ll be back in the morning to help the party finish this.


Meanwhile, back in the storage room, another, much different prisoner of Khaspar was just regaining consciousness. His name was Sinael, and back in Methosilang, he was known to be a master thief. He had heard about this Nightmare Prince through rumors, and decided that anyone with the power to call himself royalty must have some really valuable treasure. In retrospect, this was probably a mistake, as he was easily captured. Khaspar had him shipped into storage, after bathing him in a chemical that kept him frozen and unconscious, with the intent on performing some terrible experiments on him when the time comes. However, he had forgotten about Sinael when the party first rose to greater strength, and Sinael had been trapped here ever since. Well, he had been trapped until now. He suddenly regained consciousness in the tube, which had broken and slowly started leaking the preservative fluid in the fight with the hydra. It now was empty, so Sinael easily but cautiously escaped it and the box it was in. From there, he heard a strange music to the south, and was compelled to follow it. It soon led him to a strange drow bard, who introduced himself. “My name is Alkurvas. I had heard about your plight recently, and helped engineer you escape. Right now, I am traveling with a party that seeks to end Khaspar’s reign personally, but their last expert on stealthy and the hidden blade was, well, not on their side in the literal sense. They need someone who can help them, and if you do succeed, not only will you have your freedom and your revenge on the man that sealed you away here, but also a goodly sum of the wealthy he possesses.”

Sinael was interested, especially after hearing this last part, and willing let Alkurvas lead him to the party. Once the party woke, Alkurvas introduced the party to him and him to the party, and then vouched for his trustworthiness. The party still performed a very thorough series of tests on him, of course, but finally accepted that he seemed true enough, and he too was ready for this final battle.

After final preparations, which included Galeron providing energy resistance spells on nearly everyone in the party (except for Venym, of course, and Alkurvas, who said he didn’t need one,) the party again climbed the spiral stairway, until it ended at the fourth floor. Carefully, the party opened the door, and was immediately blasted with stinging cold air.

The room beyond the stairs was freezing, and gave the same hum of the strange technology that much of Dragovigis had. Four glass windows line the right wall, and though the cold of the air has made it impossible to see through the windows, there were clearly four dark shapes on the other side. Khaspar’s elven bard cohort was leaning against the left wall, seemingly unconcerned about the fight at all, while it appeared that Khaspar himself was standing in the middle of the room, waiting for the party! However, when the party poured into the room, ready to fight, Galeron (who had prepared a True Seeing spell before the fight started out of concern for just this sort of problem,) realized that it was an illusion, and the real Khaspar was flying in the air above them! As he warned the party about this, Khaspar responded, and the fight began in earnest.

Before the party could react further, the glass walls on the right side opened, and four creatures emerged from them. Two of them appeared to be failed experiments, and they fell out, apparently dead. However, the other two were far more active. One appeared to be a chimera, except that it had the now standard mechanical implants, and the normal goat head was replaced with a bull-like head, similar to those that gorgons have. The other monster looked like a salamander, except made of ice instead of fire, and it had another eight strange snake-like heads in addition to its normal head. Sinael began to move towards and then up the wall, to tray and catch Khaspar, while Danae and Tal fired long-range spells at the gorgimera. Roryn also charged the gorgimera, while Venym flew over it to help by using magic from above. However, she flew a little too close, and the monster breathed a jet of strange gas on her. She tried to scream, but it ended immediately, as her body turned to stone, and she went crashing to the ground. Meanwhile, Khaspar chuckled from above, and cast a spell on Roryn. Immediately, the mind of the enraged dwarf was snapped like a fragile twig, and he began to look on both friend and foe with an expression of insanity. The fight had only begun, and two members of the party were lost. It wasn’t looking good.

Meanwhile, Mortanis, Khaspar’s cohort, took one look at Alkurvas and shrunk back with an expression of hatred and fear. Alkurvas walked up to him while unsheathing his sword, and the two spent essentially the rest of the fight attacking each other. Alkurvas ended up being out of the fight as well as a result, but at least he was able to keep one of Khaspar’s most powerful allies out of the fight.

Elsewhere, Galeron moved up to attack the Salamander, and Robin and Tal hammered at the gorgimera from a distance. Khaspar used the delay in the party’s rush to fly out of the room through a hole in the eastern wall. He fired a cold-substituted delayed fireball into the room, but Danae knew it for what it was and yelled for everyone to quickly get out of its way. She also created a wall of force around the upper hole that Khaspar just escaped out of, forcing him to make any further attacks through the normal ground-level door. This proved to be a wise move, for while Roryn was still insane, he currently was mad with hatred, and attacked the first thing he detected, which turned out to be Khaspar (though still invisible, Roryn was able to hear him.) The attack so caught Khaspar off guard that he fired one last attack, a cold-altered chain of lightning, and fled out of the room entirely.

This gave the party the chance it needed to finish off the gorgimera and salamander. The latter was doing massive damage to Galeron, but nearly all of it was cold-based, so Galeron laughed it off. Further, Galeron had prepared a fire shield before the fight, which not only minimized the cold damage he took, but burned the salamander with flames every time it tried attacking. Soon, both it and the gorgimera were dead, and the party was able to continue on, while leaving the mad Roryn, petrified Venym, and distracted Alkurvas behind.

The next room, however, was no safer than this one. The floors were all sloped downward, and the entire place was filled with a strange gas that not only blocked their vision, but also ate away at them like acid, though it appeared to be entire cold. The party stumbled carefully around the room, as they watched their cold defenses slowly get eaten away. Fortunately, all of them could either fly at this point or were very careful and lucky, for none slipped on the ice as they made their way down the slope. This proved to be very fortunate, because the bottom of the slope was filled with spikes, which would have undoubtedly pierced anyone who was sliding involuntarily down the slope! At the bottom, however, they discovered that Khaspar had left them another surprise. The wall to the next room was blocked by another wall of force, and the only one would had the means to destroy it was Danae. She didn’t prepare any disintegration beams to destroy it, but as a guilded mage, she could draw from the spell pool periodically, and use that to gain the appropriate magical power and destroy the wall. However, it took a while, because it was very hard to concentrate and draw from the pool, not to mention actually use the spell, as the cold from the room and the fog started to get past her magical buffers and sting her skin.

Finally, however, she got through the wall, and the party dashed into the next room. Finally, they had found a room that was a normal temperature again. However, Khaspar wasn’t in the room. Instead, there was a hole in the ceiling with a ladder that presumably let them reach the fourth floor again (after the sloped room dropped them back to the third,) and another one of the short demons like the one seen from the ambush at TIE’s mountain chained to the floor. It looked at the party with both hatred and a little bit of fear and sorrow, perhaps because it was trapped by the chain. Very carefully, the party explored the room, fearing more traps or Khaspar’s reinforcements. This fear was well justified, for as soon as Robin got near the demon, there was a “click” noise, and a massive weight dropped out of the ceiling and onto the creature! It died instantly, and released a massive wave of negative retributive energy, which further struck everyone in the already weak party. As the party was recovering from the damage, and the disgust of the thought that Khaspar would slaughter his own minions to harm the party, Sinael continued to walk across the ceiling, and thus was the first one to get to the ladder and start climbing up the shaft. Tal, his familiar, Galeron, and Robin were also near the ladder, when Khaspar leaned over at the party, and smiled. He cast a spell while holding up a strange magical rod, and it enhanced the strength of his already powerful cone of cold, which blasted down the shaft and expanded at the bottom, hitting Sinael and all of the gathering throng around it. Sinael was able to evade the blast by suddenly diving between the ladder rungs, but while many of the other heroes were able to partially dive out of the way of the blast, all of them were caught in it at least a little. Tal and his familiar were hit by the blast the worst, and the cold completely seared a few layers of skin of Tal, while numbing him completely. He collapsed on the ground, dying, and his familiar was even worse. The ice had frozen her completely solid, and she fell to the ground, and shattered in a number of broken, and quite dead, pieces!

As Galeron healed Tal, Sinael and the others quickly scrambled or flew up the shaft, desperate to finish this before things got even worse and more of them were killed. Khaspar had anticipated their charge, however, and flew farther back into the next room. As soon as they reached the top, Galeron immediately recognized it for what it was; the viewing chamber where he first saw Bas. The window was currently open when the party arrived, so all of them got a chance to witness the horror of Bas first-hand, but the room also contained a new addition by Khaspar: a hideous golem stitched together from the flesh of dozens of dragons. The party prepared to deal with this new threat, when another figure joined the fray, and for once, it was an ally.


His name was Zethar, and he was a Ghaele Eladrin. Or at least he will be one day, but for now, he was still merely an apprentice. However, before he could finish his training, he was called by his superiors. “Zethar,” they said, “It’s time for you to go to the plane that we have been assigned to watch over.”

“But almighty ones,” he said, “I haven’t finished my ascension yet. Can I handle the threats that exist beyond our home yet?”

“It appears we have no choice. The plane is in mortal peril, and the best chance that we have of saving it could soon be destroyed. Now, I want you to help them, but try to avoid showing all of your power for now. Try to work as their guardian for now, and avoid revealing your heritage to others.”

“I understand,” Zethar replied. His superiors worked their magic, and soon he was speeding towards the manor from above.


With a loud crash, the window that was watching Bas shattered, and a strange figure flew in. He looked to the party, and said, “Don’t worry, I’m here to help.” So saying, he began to rip into the dragon-flesh golem. Galeron and Robin helped finish the horrid thing, while Danae and Sinael went after a surprised Khaspar. Now finally heavily wounded, he fled while creating another wall of force in front of him. With Khaspar again gone, the party turned entirely on the golem, destroying it quickly. The wall of force was still a problem, however, and Danae no longer had any magic left to destroy it. However, the windows were still there, and Zethar was able to carry Galeron out one window and into another on the other side of the wall.

While the others climbed, flew, or walked (in Sinael’s case,) between the windows, Galeron and Zethar confronted Khaspar again. Desperately, he fired another blast of cold out of his staff, but it didn’t even slow down the two resolved fighters. Both struck him hard, but he suddenly disappeared in the middle of Galeron’s killing blow, and laughed as he faded away. The party quickly regrouped, to try and find him before it was too late.

Just then, Alkurvas had managed to catch up to the others. After hearing of Khaspar’s escape, he quickly realized where the Prince could have gone. “The machine in the basement; he must have gone there! We have to hurry, before he can repair or even improve himself using it!”

When the party had reached the basement, they saw Khaspar already in the machine, being altered by dozens of strange instruments. “You haven’t won yet!” he yelled. “In a matter of minutes, I’ll be back, and more powerful than ever!” Just then, some of the instruments started behaving erratically, as if they were malfunctioning. Blades that previously were used to attach new parts with care instead were cutting him to pieces, and other machines were ripping apart his limbs, burning him with acid, and attaching new parts to him that were so heavy, they were crushing him. Finally, the machine expelled Khaspar again, but he was barely alive. He was little more than a twisted, warped husk of humanity wrapped in a now-useless metal shell, but that didn’t stop Galeron from finishing him off once and for all.

“What happened?” a confused Robin asked.

“I think I know,” Galeron replied, as he heaved the remains of Khaspar unto his back. Onto Khaspar’s chest, words were burned with the acid. “I always knew,” Galeron read. “I guess Bas had the last laugh after all.”

OOC Notes: And finally, so ends the longest adventure I’ve ever written. There were a lot of weird plot twists in this one, as you can tell. Here are the final details on everyone’s player and character’s relationships.

Eric played Galeron, and also played Nathee when he was captured. He knew that she would eventually betray the party from the start, but managed to keep the secret for over a month of playing. He even was disappointed when she finally died, and though there were better places that would’ve killed the party much more effectively. I also have to give it to him for playing the tough role-playing choices that Galeron had to make very well.

Chris played Viett, and eventually Roryn as well when his player left. He also played Zethar in the final battle, since Viett was killed the game before and Roryn was a non-entity in the final battle after being driven insane.

Danae, Tal and Robin were more consistent during the game, and nothing really happened to them, except for Danae’s player Jess being absent for a game, and Danae’s subsequent coma during that period. She frequently reminds me, however, that her familiar had never left the pocket since being healed by the swarm maiming!

Sinael was played by Rob, a new player. He doesn’t show up too often in the later games, though, but he’ll play a few characters for the next few adventures.

Alkurvas, Sigmund, and Venym were NPCs. The secrets for Sigmund and Venym have more or less all been revealed, but Alkurvas’ secret will have to wait.

Again, I was just glad the thing ended on a high note. The ending was more or less as I planned, and it lasted forever. The battle itself took an entire game session to finish. It was rough, but it could have been a lot worse if Venym didn’t tell them how to prepare defensively for the fight. The fact that they owe all their lives to a succubus will come back to haunt the party again.

Oh, and the tongue demon is a Canor Factum, another creature I created. Like my other unique creatures, feel free to ask for the creature’s stats if you are interested, but again it’s based on a video game idea I had, so I want you to keep my name on the creature and mention who made it when you use it.

 

[LordVyreth]

Aftermath and A New Threat

As the party was examining Khaspar’s remains, not to mention removing anything of value from the body, Tal noticed a strange, black fluid was leaking from the broken machine. It evaporated as it leaked out, and Tal realized it was the same as the essence of Bas that he helped destroy in the dwarven village, so long ago. He quickly told the others, “I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we can now use teleportation magic while in the Manor. The bad news is that Bas likely knows that we are here and that her servant is dead. She’ll be sending her most powerful forces to finish us very soon.”

With that news, the party hurried to finish their investigation of the Manor. They first examined Khaspar’s machine, and were surprised to find another person was still in it! He appeared to be unconscious, but he woke up shortly after they pulled him out of the machine. After waking up and realizing where he was, he thanked the party and explained how he was. “My name is Jarrle, and I’m a wizard of Methosilang.”

Danae suddenly took interest. “The same Jarrle who’s famous for his research in shadow magic?” Jarrle nodded. “Yes, that is I. I was studying the undead for research, when I was captured by some of the Nightmare Prince’s minions. He was trying to get me to reveal Methosilang secrets until a few days ago, when he seemingly forgot about me. I guess you made sure he had bigger concerns,” he said, while looking at Khaspar’s broken body.

The party took Jarrle along with them as they fled the manor. When they reached the stairs, Tal used his staff to open a hole in the wall, letting them all see what was happening by Bas. Already, the sky was getting dark with clouds of flying demons and other monsters, and they knew this place would likely be wiped clean by the demons soon enough. Escape suddenly became a concern, since they can’t use the subway by now. However, Alkurvas had an idea. “The subways were running using the same power that the machine provided, so they’re likely out of order by now. We can probably escape the immediate area using them, and then get home after we find our way back to the surface.”

The party quickly fled, though they did stop long enough for Tal to disconnect the planetary trap from the library, remove many of the protections blocking the books, and pile both the trap and the books into a portable hole for future investigation. In addition, they grabbed Venymaran’s petrified body, and brought it along as well. They also stopped to get the children from the courtyard, and then to rescue the slaves from the Slave’s Tunnel. They encountered no resistance so far. As Alkurvas explained it, the destruction of the machine didn’t affect the bodies of Khaspar’s many half-machine slaves, but it did free them from his control, and most of them were probably currently getting revenge on The Nightmare Prince’s remaining followers.

The next few days were tedious, but they were fairly easy. Danae periodically teleported their supplies back to Methosilang, but the party themselves went with the former slaves, at least until they safely reached the nearest Methosilang city. From there, they parted ways, and the heroes returned once again to Methosilang. However, before they began their journey, they had a discussion with Alkurvas. Tal began, “Alkurvas, I suspect I know why you have been so knowledgeable about this place. You’re another avatar, aren’t you?”

Alkurvas smiled, and Tal got excited. He already suspected who this was, and as a bard, it was quite the honor. “You’re Merida, the goddess of music, right?” he asked, and Alkurvas nodded, and changed appearance slightly.

Now, he/she was ready for their reward, and this time, the heroes who saw Lady Memory in the dream so long ago had an image of themselves wandering in darkness, or fighting a roper or some other underground monster, or just traversing some strange caverns. At any rate, all of them imagined themselves underground, and they appeared to be someplace that was no where near Methosilang or any other community of the kingdom. “Now that you had your lost memory,” Alkurvas/Merida said, “What is your question?”

The party discussed this for a while. Danae in particular was hoping she could learn more about her own past. She knew that her mother died the same time she was born, and yet any attempt to raise her had failed. She, like her father, needed to know if some force was preventing her soul from returning. If so, what? And if she refused to be raised, why? What would make her want to avoid seeing her husband and daughter again? But Danae also knew that this wasn’t the time for selfishness. Bas was the priority, and finding a way to stop her was the priority. The others agreed, and the question of how to stop Bas was asked Merida.

He/she replied, “That’s not an easy question, I’m afraid. After all, if we had an easy answer, we would have stopped her ourselves. The problem is really a matter of solving three riddles: how to find her, how to defeat her, and how to destroy her permanently.”

Tal smiled. “Well, at least we have an answer to the first question now. We saw her body personally.”

But Merida shook his/her head. “And? You saw a valley, nothing more. Teleporting directly into the valley is impossible, for the same reason you couldn’t teleport directly to Khaspar’s Manor, and our enemies can’t enter Methosilang just as easily. And you still lack a sufficient visual target to teleport to nearby. The Manor would work now, sure, but now entering it would be suicide, and the Manor itself will surely be razed to prevent exactly an attack of this sort. You still need to find a way to learn Bas’ physical location, and it won’t be easy.”

He continued, “Second, you need to defeat her. First of all, you’ll need an army, or you’ll be simply overwhelmed. Delaspie is no longer strong enough to withstand her forces, and of course the undead and orcs will be no help. That means you will have to mobilize Methosilang. Of course, they’ll need your help to stop Bas’ most powerful servants, including the Strife Masters, and any other allies of power that you find will be most helpful.

“Finally, destroying Bas will be needed to prevent her from gaining strength again. If she manages to totally emerge from the crater, she’ll be nearly unstoppable, but as long as she is trapped, she can be destroyed, though it will be very difficult. Remember, we gods need two elements to survive: our spiritual body, and the mortal connection through an avatar. Bas is a fallen goddess, so in many ways these two bodies have become one with her. When she fell, her spiritual form became a physical one, and both were nearly helpless. Somehow, she regained enough of her spiritual might to attract worshippers, but still she remains trapped in her physical body. If you can destroy it, you might be able to destroy her. At worst, you’ll sever her last way of accessing the Material plane, making her totally helpless. But that, I’m afraid, is all I can say for now. When you continue on your journey to Methosilang from here on, I won’t be coming with.” He said his goodbyes to the party, and began his preparations to leave.

However, the party first had two other friends to say goodbye to: Roryn and Viett. Roryn, though still insane at the end of the battle, was fatigued after his period of rage, and was subdued by the party long enough for Galeron to finally heal him of his insanity. With their mutual enemy defeated, Roryn realized he had to move on. “I will take my brother with me, if I may,” he said before leaving. “My people should be the ones to bring him back from the dead, if indeed he wants to be brought back. Thank you for helping us defeat The Nightmare Prince, but Viett was always the one to choose our battles for us. If he truly won’t be coming back, I will have to spend a long time deciding what to do with my life now.”

As they left, however, Alkurvas had one last thing to say. “Those two are similar to you in some ways. Like you, they had a very strange dream, but it was not the same person, nor for the same reason. Whoever sent that dream apparently broke some rule to do it, and their current fate demonstrates the fate of those who break the rules. I’m not sure if your Lady Memory broke the same rules, but if she did, she was far more subtle about it. Still, be careful. The fates have a way of correcting divine crimes.”

With their final goodbyes said, the party returned home. After their long journey on foot, everyone was eager to return home using teleportation magic. Back at Methosilang, both old and new friends of the party decided to stay in Tal and Tsine’s manor, while planning their next move. They, as always, had a lot of shopping to do, and spent the next few days unloading most of the equipment they found in Khaspar’s lair, and buying new equipment. The only three noteworthy items were the ones they found in the armory that “Sigmund” directed them to. Not surprisingly, these didn’t turn out to be as reliable as the party hoped they’d be. One of the items, an intelligent sword, was actually quite beneficial. Its moral alignment was dedicated to both freedom and good will towards others, so it was clear why none of Khaspar’s minions could wield it. However, it and Robin got along very well, and Robin immediately took it for his blade. The cape and ring that were also in the room were less helpful. The cape was apparently Wings of Flying according to all magical examinations, and Robin decided to take that as well. However, when he tried to test it out in the courtyard of the manor, though he thought he was flying freely in the skies of Methosilang, the rest of the party noticed that he was actually prancing around like a ninny inside the courtyard, and Danae immediately realized the cape was cursed. Robin refused to listen to them when they explained that his experience of flying was just a delusion, though even he couldn’t explain how exactly the entire party was flying right behind him! Eventually, though, they were able to get it off of him (especially considering how futile his attempts to fly away from them were!) and he spent some of his money to get a real pair of Wings of Flying. The other item from the armory, a Ring of Protection, was kept in storage at the manor, and its effects will prove humorous as well when finally used.

However, as they explored the town, it was also even more obvious than normal that things in town were becoming worse as paranoia further gripped it. Many people were even treating the party with overt hostility, and apparently many of the town’s nobles have been tried for treason! Some have already been judged and even executed, but everyone is being very quiet about the details, and it seems the crown is keeping everything quiet at the moment and strongly discouraging the populace from talking about the trials. Fearing the worst, Tal tried to track down Lerissa, and found that she was also arrested, but apparently hasn’t been tried yet. The reason for the arrest is still being kept quiet, though, as are all details of the arrest itself.

Finally, a few days after their initial arrival, the party itself was the victim of the law. They were all resting at Tal’s home, when suddenly a voice shouted from outside, “Tal, Galeron, Thorrun, Robin, Fnipper, Danae and Tebryn! We have your house surrounded! We are placing your under arrest for treason! We request that you come out and surrender without a fight. Resist and we will use the full force of the army of Methosilang to arrest you!”

Tal looked out the window, and realized that they weren’t kidding about the full force. The police knew how powerful the party had gotten, and they weren’t taking any chances. The speaker, in fact, was Princess Amira Stael, the eldest daughter of King and Queen Stael, the current successor to the throne, and a paladin of no small regard herself. With her were a couple clerics of Bha-Ael and casters from Danae’s spell guild, and strange creatures that resembled polygonal pentagons. Meanwhile, Jarrle, who noticed that his name wasn’t called and realized that his already poor reputation would be tarnished even further if he was caught here, checked to see if the back way was clear. When he peaked out of a window, he saw a strange cylindrical creature with five arms, a number of tiny spherical monsters, and more of the odd shaped creatures with varying numbers of sides. Meanwhile, circling above the hose was a number of mounted knights, who were riding griffons that themselves looked odd, like they were some sort of improved or flawless-looking variety. Also waiting in the air, though he was invisible and thus unseen except by the newly-resurrected Violet, was a strange wizard. When Tal described him to Danae, she immediate recognized him. “Damien,” she simply said. “He’s a strange one, he is. He was actually discovered in an expedition to a recently-excavated tomb from the olden days, before the Puppet and the Head that Rules the Claw. However, despite his strange origins, he adapted to the new world around him very quickly. He’s been working towards a position in the royal family for a while now, but he doesn’t seem to be totally allied with them either. Still, he is very powerful, and if he was recruited for this arrest, he won’t hesitate to strike us down if we try anything funny.”

The group quickly met to plan their next move. There were plenty of concerns; the statue of a succubus that was currently in their house being among the most problematic, as were the piles of books that they got from Khaspar’s library and that now litter the floors of the rooms! Danae had already gotten a good look at them, and they included some very interesting tomes, including one that seemed to be research on the trajectory of extremely large objects over very long distances. Between this book and some of what they heard up to this point, this could suggest that Bas is getting very close to using the moons as cataclysmic weapons! However, it was currently buried with piles of far more disturbing books on dark magic, torture, and demonic creatures, and they really didn’t have time to hide them all again!

Finally, Tal came up with a plan. He noticed, for one thing, that Sinael was practicing in the training room below and that the police apparently didn’t even know he was with the group. He quickly sent a message down to him using the buildings communication tubes. “Sinael,” he began, “There is a secret room near your current location. Go there, and don’t come out until tonight. Once you do, try and hide the books and Venymaran’s statue if you can.”

Next, Tal tried to stall for time. He called out, “Amira, we won’t resist, so don’t worry. However, in light of the many years of service and great good we have performed in the service of Methosilang, would you consider letting us arrive at the prison under our own power, instead of losing our dignity in this way?”

There was a pause, but not a long one, “While I do personally recognize and appreciate your service to the city, the evidence that we have gathered casts even some of your greatest accomplishments in a new light. Further, you know that we can’t trust adventurers as powerful as you to remain free.”

Tal tried negotiating this point a few times, but Amira would not budge. Finally, Zethar had an idea, though he clearly seemed reluctant to use it. “Let me try to speak to them,” he said. “I will reveal my true nature to them if it will help you, and they don’t think of me as a member of your team yet.”

He walked outside, and spoke to Amira, “People of Methosilang,” he shouted, “I am Zethar!” As he said this, he revealed his true, Eladrin form, and Amira and many of the other spell-casters of the group knew what he was instantly. “As you know, it is a product of my very nature that I am a good being, and I have traveled with this group and found now ill upon them. Does not my witness give them some right to have dignity in this situation?”

There was another pause, and a longer one this time, but Amira finally said, “While we recognize the truth of your nature and respect your claims, I’m afraid the court of law still takes precedent in this situation. Also, while we know that you are a bastion of goodness by your very nature, your kind are also known for their tendency to ignore or defy laws for the sake of the greater good, and thus we can’t recognize your vouching for them as a legitimate form of law. However, as you are not charged with any crimes, you are allowed to go free if you so desire. In addition, if you want to bear witness to the party at the trail, you are of course welcome to.”

Zethar returned to the party to decide what to do next, and Tal said, “It’s okay, just go. If we go quietly, we can at least keep the house from being searched for a while. Watch it, and take care of Venym at least when you can. But despite your prejudices, don’t kill her! We gave our word that we would protect her, after all.”

Reluctantly, Zethar agreed, and left the manor as a free man. Tal, Robin, Thorrun, Galeron, Danae, and even Jarrle were led outside, and taken to a nearby wagon which was protected by an anti-magic field. The party, after finishing their greatest mission and again helping make the world a safer place, were taken to prison for treason. And all Galeron could think of was “Not again!”

OOC Notes: Unfortunately, no one could remember exactly what Alkurvas told the party, so I had to improvise here in the story hour. As you noticed, we had yet another new player, who is currently playing Jarrle. Meanwhile, Roryn’s player Jared will be playing Damien for a short time.

 

[LordVyreth]

Pre-Trial Planning, or Tal's Boo Boo

A few hours later, the party was trapped in jail, waiting for their legal council to arrive. Jarrle was separated from the group at some point, and has yet to return, and the others are concerned that something might have happened to them. Tal was already getting suspicious; this whole thing felt like it was more than simple paranoia, especially after Galeron pointed out that Khaspar mentioned Bas had agents in Methosilang. Most likely, there was a traitor. Of course, they were also concerned about the giant, scaly half-ogre who they were sharing the cell with them, especially the way he was just staring at them, grunting occasionally.

Meanwhile, Zethar was still watching the house. For now, the guards left to ensure that the party was taken to their cell safely and won’t try anything funny, but the house will likely be examined soon. Using his inherent magical powers, he turned invisible, and then snuck into the manor. His first concern was Venym, which was still petrified in the middle of the mansion. Zethar used an alternate form of magic to render her invisible as well, and then began the long, painful process of dragging her out of the city. Fortunately, his ability to fly and turn ethereal sped the process up a bit. Once safely out of the city, Zethar briefly pondered just destroying the wretched being right there. But no, he couldn’t. His goal was to watch over and help the heroes, and he won’t betray their trust so easily. Plus, as they said, they did largely owe their lives to this creature. Sighing, he worked his magic and undid the petrification effect.

Venymaran recovered almost instantly, and was just about to continue attacking Khaspar when she noticed that he, the rest of the party, and the Manor itself were no where to be seen. She grew suspicious, and then hostile when she saw Zethar. Before she could attack him, however, he spoke up, “Do not worry, demon, I am not your enemy today.”

Venym calmed slightly, but she was still clearly suspicious. “Who are you? What happened to me since I was transformed?”

“For starters, you had your vengeance. Khaspar is dead, and his Manor is likely a ruin by now. Fortunately for you, the heroes of Methosilang decided your help make you worth saving, and took you to Methosilang with them. However, they have run into some legal trouble, and no longer can protect you. In fact, your continued presence near the city would have endangered both them and you, so I acted in their stead to remove you before that could happen. Now, go, before you endanger us further.”

Venym bristled at this claim. “Why should I trust you for this? I know you kind to lie before. My deal with the party was that they would protect me further following the death of Khaspar. If Bas discovers me, I’m as good as dead.”

This just seemed to make Zethar angry, however. “Now listen, fiend. You’re not dealing with the party any more, you’re dealing with me. The only reason I decided to save you and let you leave alive was because I respect the heroes and their choices, but if you insist on causing a problem, I will do what I must. Now go protect yourself if you can!”

Venym was still angry, but Zethar had his sword out now, and she knew she couldn’t defeat him in a straight-up battle. “Very well,” she hissed. “But this isn’t over, between us or the party.” With that, she flew off to the west, and out of sight. Zethar prepared to return to Methosilang, and keep watch over Tal’s house.

Back in Methosilang, Damien was at the guild house of the Arcane Order, where he has residence despite not actually belonging to the order. Since the arrest, he has been thinking about the party and what they found on their journeys. He was getting suspicious. The increasing paranoia of the city, the rise of so many factions that are opposed to Methosilang, yet seemingly have no allegiance with the orcs or undead, the splitting of old allies, and the increasing arrests of people at all social levels were just too much to be coincidence. And when he thought about it, many of the problems started a few months ago when those two Malefactor drow allegedly defected. Everything was tied together, and the heroes of Methosilang seemed to be the only people who were actively stopping it. He decided it was time to enter the game himself, and went out to speak to the party.

Speaking of the party, they were finally ready to meet their defense attorney for their trial. They were given objects which bound their magical powers, and led out to the courthouse itself. What they saw there wasn’t exactly heartening. It appeared that there was a struggle between the attorneys, who were each trying to get out of defending these “lost causes.” The party watch in despair for a few minutes, when the doors behind them burst open, and in strode Lancaster Stael himself! As usual, he was riding his pet/mount black stag, and didn’t even seem to notice the outrage this was causing. He looked to the party, smiled, and said, “I will defend these innocents personally.”

The other attorneys certainly didn’t have any trouble with this, and were still shouting their thanks as he led the party out of the room to plan their strategy.

Tal was the first to speak up. “Your majesty, thank you for helping us. We believe that we are the victim of some elaborate attempt to frame us, and that there might be a traitor that is leading the entire plan.”

Lancaster looked troubled by this possibility, “Who do you think it could be?”

Tal shook his head, “At this point, I wouldn’t trust anyone below the king and queen.”

Lancaster was suddenly even more disturbed. “Well, I didn’t want to even consider it, but there is my younger sister, Hestine. She never really seemed to care about the kingdom, but in the last few years, she has been getting worse. Consorting with strange people, sneaking out of the palace at random hours, and who knows what else? Some even think she has ties to the Thief’s Guild!”

The discussion continued for hours, with the heroes thinking of every ally and scrap of evidence they knew of. They asked for Lerissa, the drow noblewoman they rescued so long ago, and Setisth, the lizardwoman who once served the orcs, but had long ago defected. They asked for Quercus’ sister Shekuldellstra, and for the half-dragon orc paladin that apparently had ties to Facetous. They even asked about Rothaire, the sailor they hired on their expedition to the south, and Shedell’s friend Fenthrip, who helped the party throughout much of that expedition. However, while Lancaster promised to try and find Shekuldellstra, Rothaire, and the paladin, the rest of their suggestions were less promising. Lerissa, as they already knew, had been arrested, and Setisth had long ago been considered military property. As for Fenthrip, he had also been arrested months ago, and he already been tried…and executed.

Galeron, who personally knew Fenthrip through their religious studies, was beside himself. “Executed!? For what?”

“Treason,” Lancaster said sadly, and then said, “The same as you. And most likely, over far less evidence than your conspirators might have fabricated for you.”

The party prepared to rest for the night, and try to think of some way to save themselves, but Tal had something to say before then. For the first time, he despaired about the trial, and though it meant breaking a very important vow, he decided that he had to let Methosilang know about one of the few allies they may have. “Lancaster, I have to tell you something…” he began.

Before long, he had told him everything about Dragovigis, from its location to Facetous. He also told about the eggs that the party had helped Methosilang steal from the orcs, and that he did some research on while in Dragovigis. “Those eggs that we recovered, they’re not normal eggs,” he began. “The large ones belong to a couple species of special dragons, which rarely if ever can be found on our plane. The dragons are extremely powerful, and a fully-grown one could defeat even the most powerful of the dragons from our plane. The others are even stranger. The multi-colored ones are apparently part of some strange breeding project, which tried to combine the powers of multiple types of dragons into one being. The ones that radiate evil actually are from dragons from the planes of the demons and devils, and are just as fiendish as the other natives of those planes. I implore you to destroy the eggs, especially the ones of the fiendish and multi-colored dragons. And the others may be too dangerous to keep around as well. If the creatures in them hatched and they proved unfriendly, they could decimate much of Methosilang even as hatchlings.”

Lancaster nodded when Tal finished, and said, “Don’t worry. I will guard this news with my life. And I’ll make sure that those eggs never fall into the wrong hands. I vow as a champion of the city that I will keep them safe.”

Satisfied, Tal returned to his cell. However, in time, he would discover that speaking of things he vowed to keep secret would be his greatest mistake.

OOC Notes: Yes, breaking a vow to a god who also happens to control an army consisting off all the good and neutral dragons on a planet and who also have access to advanced technology is indeed a very bad idea, though I’ll save the reason why for another day.

 

[LordVyreth]

True Heroes: The Trial of the Century

Later that night, back at Tal’s manor, Zethar was busy making his greatest mistake. He saw some lights in the manor, and decided to investigate. The fact that he could turn invisible or go ethereal before investigating did not, sadly, cross his mind. Meanwhile, Sinael finally had enough of waiting in the secret room, and also heard the strange noises coming from upstairs. He prepared to investigate as well.

Unfortunately, Sinael chose to investigate a little too late. Zethar flew into the manor through a window, only to find a pair of rogues searching through the books the party found from Khaspar’s manor. Zethar silently congratulated himself on at least getting Venym out of the way in time, and then prepared to deal with the intruders, relying on his protections against evil to help him. What he didn’t know, however, was that the rogues in question were not evil, and they were much faster than he was. They quickly surrounded him, and while he was confused by the attacks from many sides, they attacked his most vital points repeatedly, killing him almost instantly!

While they looked in wonder as his body dissolved into glowing particles, Sinael finally entered the room. The two rogues prepared to deal with this new threat, until one of them was suddenly attacked by what was clearly a very experienced drow rogue. With their advantage gone, the rogues grabbed a bag full of books and other suspicious items found in Tal’s house, and fled.

Sinael, who didn’t know Zethar was even there and didn’t see anything odd about the pile of particles, thanked his savior. “I owe you my life, sir. But may I ask who you are?”

The drow nodded. “My name is Annaryl Truesight. I am what your culture calls a Melefactor drow. I first came to this city a few months ago. My kingdom was once under the de facto leadership of a being called Kulstra, or as she’s better known, the Lady of Blood. After years of living without any understanding or need of gods, she brought to us knowledge of the goddess Bas, who gave us the power of divine aid once again, and had us make war on the Benefactor drow and the surface races again. However, she was killed recently, and when she died, the alliance between Bas and our people broke up. There was a power vacuum, and many were killed in the wars for control that followed. I finally had enough, and decided to defect to the Benefactor drow of Methosilang, in the hope that they would grant me sanctuary in exchange for information. However, while Bas lost her alliance with the drow race, she did still have some individual followers, and many of them tried to get into Methosilang as well while posing as refugees. By the time I arrived, they learned about this plan and no longer trusted any of the refugees. However, I soon discovered things were even worse than that. There was another refugee who arrived at the same time as me, but he was one of Bas’ spies. We were both discovered for what we were, but instead of freeing me and imprisoning the traitor, both of us were taken into military custody. The spy had been given considerably more freedom than me, and I believe that he is working with at traitor very high up in your government. They have some sort of plan to contact Bas with information about Methosilang’s location! I finally was able to escape a few days ago when they focused all of your security on capturing the Heroes of Methosilang, and when I realized that they were the very group that killed the Lady of Blood, I decided to seek out their allies to help them, as I believe that only they can reveal who the traitor is.”

Sinael nodded. “I understand, but we need more help if want to aid them. For now, we need a place to hide for the night. If those thieves were also working with the traitor, they’ll report both of us, so it won’t be safe to hide here any more. What about the Arcane Order? One of the Heroes is a very prominent mage of the order named Danae. She might have friends that can help us.”

Sinael and Annaryl fled into the night, and when they reached the Order, they found Damien. Neither of them was initially concerned, since neither of them was there to actually see who was in the arresting party, and Damien further made them relax when he explained that he was also interested in helping the party. He let them hide at his place for the night, where Annaryl told him his story as well.

The next day, the military were ready for their legitimate investigation of the Hero’s manor, when they found Zethar’s remains. Unlike Sinael, they had someone who recognized them as the remains of a good outsider, and suspicious about who it was and what he (or she) was doing in the suspect’s manor, they had him raised. Zethar returned without incident, but the return had a serious effect on his physical health. He was questioned by the law officers, but was given a room to recover from his ordeal after he told his story. Again, he wasn’t really considered a suspect, but the rogues that killed him weren’t caught either (not surprisingly,) but an investigation will be underway.

As he rested in his room, Zethar mediated on his recent performance. He was supposed to be the guardian for the heroes, and yet here he was, away from them without any way to help them. Of course, the shame of being killed by a pair of random thugs didn’t help his performance. He decided that while he did want to help the party, he might not be ready to do so just yet, and he decided to return home to seek further advice, which proved that he wasn’t ready yet in the field of planar studies either. In a matter of moments, he was gone from this plane.

A week passed. Lancaster and the heroes desperately planned their defense, while Damien, Sinael, and Annaryl tried to discover who the traitor was and how to rescue the party if the trial failed. Finally, despite attempts by Lancaster to delay the trial, the court couldn’t wait any longer. People wanted closure and for justice to be done, and the royalty was eager to find someone to lay the blame. The trial began, even though neither Shekuldellstra nor the half-dragon paladin responded to their summonings from the church, and for some reason, Rothaire was a witness for the prosecution!

The trial began. The party still had Lancaster as their lawyer, which at least lent some credibility to their cause, while the prosecutor was an all-business dwarf named Thrat Lawhammer. From the opening statements, Thrat was full of confidence, as if aware of the own inevitability of his victory, and Lancaster seemed doubtful and worried, and the jury picked it up. The evidence didn’t help either, and the case against the party was very well orchestrated. First of all, there were documents found at the party during the “investigation.” More likely, of course, the same visitors that killed Zethar and stole many of Khaspar’s books planted it, but despite Zethar’s report, that angle was never explored. Next, there was a letter that was discovered at the Delaspie/Orc Empire battlefield, and which was apparently written for the party by none other than Phellis Mune, their leopard-headed Strife Master friend. It read:

My friends, I have heard about your attempts to defeat our rival for Bas’ affection. Tal, I know about your magical prowess, and I recommend you prepare fire magic against him. Good luck sneaking past his forces, I admit your attempts to infuse yourself with draconic elements might make you stand out. Robin, your bow may do well in this battle, since he is fond of using flight magic. Galeron, I know you’re new to this organization, but I’ve heard much of your might and ability to mercilessly our enemies, no matter who they are. That ruthlessness will do you well here. Again, I wish you well; if you pull this off, we will easily become Bas’ favored servants. I will remain here in the south, and make sure the Prince’s Death will not have too unbalancing an effect on the war. After all, we want Delaspie ruined, but not too quickly!

Your friend,
Phellis Mune


Again, things weren’t looking good. The prosecution also had the previous trial of Fenthrip, who was accused and successfully convicted on many charges that the party now shares, and then the testimony of Rothaire, their hired sailor. According to him, they left the continent to meet with agents of Bas and perform dark rituals, not to mention summoning undead, training orcs, leading armies of orcs, and basically accuse them of helping every force that Methosilang has opposed for years! But the worst testimony had yet to come, for Lerissa herself was a witness against the party! She told the jury, with total sincerity and without any seeming doubt or hesitation, that she and the party were working together since before the time they supposedly rescued her at the Bas Temple! They were the ones to rig the trial to take over the temple, they spent the whole time rescuing Lerissa to really formulate their plans, and they have been solely responsible for uniting various enemies under the banner of a false god for years now, all while playing as heroes and making the public afraid of this false god of theirs!

There was little the party could do to stop this carriage wreck. Most of their best witnesses never showed up, were ruled ineligible (like Setisth eventually was,) or turned against them. The best they could do was try for all the information they found on their various Bas raids, but it didn’t do much. They never did manage to find a book of Bas, and their cloaks weren’t considered compelling evidence. They tried to get the statue they recovered from Kulstra’s temple to be considered valuable evidence, but the statue radiated no magic, and they had no real way to know where it was or who made it. Finally, Tal, having had enough, speaks up during his own questioning. He says that the public and the jury know him, and they know the heroes. They know that Galeron and Therron have dedicated years of public service to the church, they know that they have saved the people of Methosilang on many occasions, and they know that their adventures have cost them many of their friends. He glares at Lerissa and Rothaire as he points out that some of the people he saved were those in this very room, and chose to speak out against him for some reason.

It was a very good speech, and it appeared to have turned at least a few of the jurors’ opinions around. However, in the end, it was too late. Of the ten jurors, eight ruled them guilty, one said innocent, and one abstained. At least 7 were needed to actually convict them, so there officially judged guilty of treason!

And that’s when things first went to Hades. His eagerness to help overshadowing his reasoning, Sinael leapt out of the audience, and tried to single-handedly free the party! This lasted for about five seconds, however, for while Lancaster (who was still riding his stupid stag,) might be on the party’s side, he still respected the law of the land first, and he was NOT about to have someone commit such a crime in the city’s highest court. Without even exerting himself, he ran Sinael down, a lance in hand. He easily ran him completely through, and tossed the dying thief off to the side. However, while Sinael’s actual attack was totally ineffective, it was a convenient distraction, and that was when Damien struck. He flew out of the audience, literally, and grabbed the first two heroes he could find, which turned out to be Robin and Danae. The three quickly used the chaos of Sinael’s attack to get out of the crowd, and Damien was able to quickly teleport them out of the city!

OOC Notes: This was Chris’ fourth character death, but his next character will last quite a bit longer than poor Zethar. In fact, you already met him (thanks to the miracle of Story Hour artistic license,) but I won’t formally introduce him until the next update.

 

[Neurotic]

OOC Notes: I was genuinely surprised at how the party handled the orcs at the shrine. I especially thought they’d at least left the wounded, diseased, pacifist orc cleric alive, and I had to make a few small changes to my next large adventure as a result. Still, I got a few good future adventure seeds from here, including some I just developed writing this recap!

I read your adventure with great interest. It is one of few home made adventures in which you cannot guess what happens next

While not so detailed in descriptions as Shackled City (understandably after 2 years it is still captivating. Especialy as you heed ever more advice from Lela I cannot judge your grammar as I'm not native speaker but style is definitively improving. Keep up the good work!

 

[LordVyreth]

True Heroes: The Jailbreak

Wow, thanks Neurotic for the kind words. Honestly, I was just about to get disgusted with this project over all. It didn't look like anyone was reading this at all, between the total lack of comments and the tiny number of views, and I was thinking of just ending the Story Hour entirely. But it helps to know that there are still some people interested in this, and I'd like to hear some comments from my other readers as well, just so I know how I'm doing, what parts interested you lately, and where you think the story's going. I still have over a year of backlog to catch up on, but considering that I got about a year and a half's worth of games into the Story Hour already, I'm not doing so bad!

Anyway, on to the next update...

The next night, back in the cell, Tal and the other captives received an unusual visitor. There was a guard exchange, and the new guard wasn’t one that they’d seen before. He looked around carefully, before speaking to the party. “Don’t worry, I’m here to help. My name is Annaryl.”

He then told the party the same story that he told Sinael and Damien earlier, but he included some new information that he had discovered that very day. “With Damien’s help, I was able to access some classified files. It appears that the military has been constructing a strange magical transport. Apparently, it contained materials scavenged from the towns that Bas’ forces attacked over a year ago. I fear that the materials might be a few drops of Bas’ essence. It won’t be enough to block out an entire town, but it should be enough to protect the vessel itself. Ever since the town got paranoid, they’ve been guarding the ways out of town very carefully, and clearly neither the drow nor the traitors of Methosilang were trusted enough that they could just teleport into Bas’ properties. I suspect that the traitor will be using this vehicle to pass out of town undetected. If successful, he will be able to reveal the location of Methosilang to Bas, where it will be easy prey, especially since the traitor can trick the army into an ambush or into abandoning the city at a critical time. We have to find him and escape before the vessel is completed!

“Fortunately, I have been in contact with Robin, Danae, and Damien, who agreed to aid in your cause. At around two AM tomorrow, I’ll be able to gain access to the generator that is creating your cell’s anti-magic field. I’ll be able to disable it, but only for about ten seconds. Use those seconds to escape your cell any way you can. From there, you can reach the armory on the floor above you, to regain your weapons. Your friends will be using this opportunity to attack the prison and distract the guards, so resistance shouldn’t be too bad at first. Once you’re re-equipped and reunited, I recommend you find some authority figures in the jail, who might explain better who’s in charge here. I even heard that Hestine Stael has been staying here lately for some reason, which alone makes me suspicious that she might be the treacherous force at work here. If you can interrogate her, you might be able to get some idea just what is going on here.”

Annaryl then entered the cell, and replaced the party’s chamber pot with a new one. He winked at the party, and turned over the new one, revealed a hiding spot. “I’ll be able to sneak some items to you using this pot. If there are any light items from your equipment, I can get them hidden in here before tomorrow.”

The party spoke, and agreed to get some of Sinael’s Potions of Fire Breath, and Galeron and Thorrun’s holy symbols, letting them use magic to escape. Annaryl nodded, and sure enough, by the next night, the items were there and ready. In the meantime, the party had to decide what to do with their scaly, half-ogre cell mate. Tal decided to interrogate him.

“Um, listen, um, err, what is your name exactly?” Tal began.

“Err,” the ogre replied, making it hard to tell if that was his name or if he was just repeating Tal.

“Well, um, Err, what exactly are you in here for?”

“Don’t know,” Err said. “Me enter city, and they bring me here. Don’t know why.”

Tal turned to the party, “Probably another victim of the city’s paranoia. I think we can trust him.” He looked back at Err. “Well, we’re planning on escaping tomorrow. Do you want to come with?”

“Can me get big sword back?” Err asked.

“Probably, yeah.”

“Okay.”

With that settled, the party prepared for their escape. The plan was a simple one. Galeron will turn himself and as much of the party as he can ethereal, where they’ll float into the armory to re-supply, rescue anyone still trapped in the jail, and then find and deal with Hestine.

At almost exactly two AM, Galeron suddenly felt the presence of his goddess’ power again. He looked at Thorrun, who returned an affirmative glance. At the same time, the sound of battle could be heard from above. The rescue party had arrived, and it was time to go. Galeron, Tal, and Thorrun escaped while ethereal, but Err and Sinael remained behind to try and deal with the guards. That didn’t go very well, though, because Sinael either severely underestimated the strength of the guard or overestimated the potion’s power, because it barely singed the well-trained warrior. The guard gave a yell, and soon another guard burst in from a side room.

Meanwhile, Galeron and the others reached the Armory, and began to re-equip. Outside of the armory, Robin, Danae, and Damien had their hands full with the front gate guards. Robin, as the only one among them with any real combat ability, chose to stand in the doorway and absorb the attacks, despite his general preference for archery. Fortunately, with two powerful spell casters backing him up, the enemy didn’t last long. The two initial guards fell almost instantly to a chain-lightning blast and a fireball, and when two more guards arrived, Damien trapped one in a wall of force almost instantly. Robin concentrated on the last of the group while Danae went into the armory to get her own stuff. After all, she had been captured and stripped of her gear before her rescue, and she and Robin had been relying on lesser, spare equipment that they didn’t sell from the Manor incident. Damien started to look for a way to the lower level where the rest of the party was. About this time, Galeron and the others finished getting their equipment, and prepared to go back to help their imprisoned friends. He and Tal floated back into the cell, while Thorrun left through the door to help the rescuing team.

As soon as they returned, Tal and Galeron realized they had a flaw in their plan. Namely, as soon as they returned to the cell, they re-entered the anti-magic field, which had long since re-activated, and fell to the ground in heap! The guards, who had been laughing and playing target practice with Sinael and Err using their bows, were suddenly aware that they had two more, far better equipped allies. Thinking quickly, Galeron dove through bars with his hand outstretched, and thus let his hand leave the effect of the field. He used his magic to magically hold the guards in place, while Tal emulated his trick and used his outstretched hand to magically unlock the door, freeing all four of them. They quickly pummeled the guards into unconsciousness, and Sinael and Err took whatever they could use of their equipment for themselves, before being rendered ethereal from another of Galeron’s spells and led up to the ground level.

Damien, who thought there were still people left to be rescued, was the first to find the staircase between the basement and ground floor, but he rushed down it before anyone from either group could follow him. He ended up running headlong into a group of spell-slinging defenders, who were hiding behind shutters in a side room. They quickly charmed the surprised wizard, and ordered him to help them. He was confused about how his allies were, and spent the rest of the upcoming fight futilely begging both groups to stop their aggression. Fortunately, the far more useful Tal, Galeron, Thorrun, and the newly-equipped Danae and Robin found the stairs as well, and a magic battle between the two groups erupted. The wizard of the defenders managed to slow the party down by magically coating the stairs with grease and filling the room with webbing, but a few doses of alchemist’s fire by Tal removed both obstacles quickly enough. The party easily burst down the door leading to the defenders, and Galeron and Thorrun attacked the spell casters up close while Robin and Danae attacked them from through the shutters. Err, meanwhile, spent the entire duration of the fighting getting his sword and other equipment back, and then attacking the guard that was trapped in a wall of force, without ever noticing the invisible wall that was blocking his shots.

“Err, stop attacking that guy,” Galeron ordered as the party returned from the basement.

“Okay,” Err said, beginning a long history of Err doing exactly what the party suggests.

After just a few minutes of rest and healing, the party was ready to continue their exploration of the prison, in an attempt to find Hestine and get some answers out of her. The first floor was empty at this point, with the exception of the door from the entrance way that the first guard reinforcements came out of, so the party went that way. They found the stairs immediately from the corridor, and ignored all other doors in the hallway to get up the stairs as quickly as possible.

The second floor was guarded by more of the strange polygonal creatures that had previously been a part of the arresting team, but these resembled spheres with ten thrashing tentacles. They appeared to be well-prepared for the party, but despite this and some strange hesitation by Damien (possibly second thoughts from helping convicted criminals, or an aftereffect of the charm magic,) the party overpowered them easily, and then went about searching the rooms on this floor. They found what appeared to be the control room for the anti-magic generator, but left it alone, since it no longer mattered to them.

Finally, when exploring one of the bedrooms found on this floor, the party was surprised by a sudden attack from Hestine herself, who apparently was very good at stealth and brutal attacks on unaware enemies. However, despite her ambush and the fact that she was willing to use lethal force while the party generally concentrated on subduing her, they quickly forced her to surrender. She was nonetheless still royalty, and she had her pride. She confidently said, “You do realize that reinforcements are coming, right? And if you do anything to harm me, my family will make your punishment that much worse.”

Tal shook his head, and tried to persuade her. “Don’t worry, we’re not the villains here, despite how this looks. Practically all the evidence at the trial was fake, and we think that there is a traitor very high up in the city’s authorities. In fact, your brother even hinted that he was suspicious of you, and we’d like some answers.”

Hestine looked shocked, and stammered out, “I can’t believe my own family would suspect me of treason! But you’re right, there has been something going on lately. Both Lancaster and Amira have been incredibly suspicious lately, and I don’t know if either of them is hiding something. I will admit that I haven’t exactly been honest with my family lately, though. I have made some new…”contacts” with the local thief’s guild. Well, what do you want from me? Do you have any idea how boring it is to be confined to a castle your whole life? At least Amira and Lancaster were able to enter the military, and go out and do something with their lives. But as the youngest of the family, they had to protect me to ensure that there will be someone to succeed the king and queen if my brother and sister both died, so I was never allowed to do anything! And anyway, I think I got some information that could help you. My “training” came in handy when I was wandering this place, and I noticed a very well-hidden secret passageway in one of the cells in the basement. I decided to stick around to investigate it, but that plan was obviously shot to Hades by you people. However, if you are telling the truth, maybe you can investigate it and do what I can’t.”

She and Tal spent the entire conversation watching and listening to each other carefully, since neither trusted the other at all, but both seemed honest to the other. To further seal the deal, Hestine said, “Look, the guards will come for you shortly. You hide here for a few minutes, and I’ll tell them you escaped out the window. That way, you should be able to reach the secret passageway in relative peace. Does that sound okay?”

The party dubiously accepted the plan, and a few minutes later, Hestine was as good as her word. However, just to be on the safe side, Danae suggested the party reach the basement again by using her magic to “hop” into and out of the Plane of Shadows, making sure they won’t have to deal with any stragglers among the guards. They agreed, and soon they reached the basement and discovered the passageway Hestine mentioned. They opened it, and carefully entered the dark path, not knowing what was waiting for them or who their ultimate enemy would be.

OOC Notes: Err is the newest character for Chris. He actually didn’t have a name, but I spelled out his grunt as best as I could. His intelligence, charisma, and possibly even wisdom were all sixes, I believe!

Expect the finale to this adventure and an announcement from me about some changes to my update schedule next weekend.