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Story Hour
Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8282806" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p>Session 44: In Which Orryk Is Happy</p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p>Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant)/Wizard</p><p>Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)/Cleric (Knowledge)</p><p>Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/Ranger (Horizon Walker)</p><p>Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients)</p><p>Thneed - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Cleric (War)</p><p>Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore)</p><p></p><p>GM - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p></p><p>27 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 117) (immediately after)</p><p></p><p>Mo, having finished the good pipe stuff about the time the Glistenspray continued on the way downriver, floated gently down to the deck of the ship in his battle hammock.</p><p></p><p>Mo: I’ve figured it out! The funniest punchline to any joke is hitting a watermelon with a hammer.</p><p>Fiona: That’s what you were working on? We were fighting a fey.</p><p>Mo: You could have called me.</p><p>Orryk: We tried.</p><p>Joybell: I thought you were having a good time, so I wanted to leave you alone.</p><p></p><p>We rested on the boat and Mo sang a song so that we could rest better. Along toward evening we passed a village with a flag on the docks, but it wasn’t an urgent flag, so the Captain didn’t stop. We continued on our way and the rest of the day and the night passed.</p><p></p><p></p><p>28 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 118)</p><p></p><p>The next day started quiet, though there was a bit more activity on the ship as the day wore on with the sailors getting ready to make port in Erlin, at least for a bit.</p><p></p><p>Before we arrived, we asked about Erlin -- is it run by criminals or slavers? Is it okay or awful? We learned that it’s not run by criminals and it’s not full of people keeping slaves.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: It’s run by the stealthiest of criminals. That’s why no one knows.</p><p></p><p>It sounded to Joybell like a kind of okay town.</p><p></p><p>We arrived there around dinner time.</p><p></p><p>Orryk immediately jumped off the boat and started asking people about where we could go to find fire elementals. He was moving quickly around the docks asking questions, hardly standing still at all.</p><p></p><p>Orryk, to a random longshoreman on the docks: Have you seen things like this?</p><p></p><p>He summoned Omnath as a magma mephit.</p><p></p><p>Longshoreman: Umm, no?</p><p></p><p>While Orryk was having basically that same conversation with several different stevedores and longshoremen and sailors, Joybell asked someone if there was a druidic circle in town. She was told there was a small one in Sunlit and got directions.</p><p></p><p>Joybell, to Orryk: There’s a druid circle…</p><p>Orryk: Let’s go!</p><p></p><p>He headed off in the direction he happened to be facing. Joybell grabbed his arm and steered him in the right direction and we all trooped off.</p><p></p><p>When we got to the druid circle, Orryk immediately jumped in with asking about fire elementals and where we could find one. When Joybell started filling in information about fire portals, he told them about what Irlua at the Primal Atoll had told us about fire becoming too dominant and there being something of an incursion near Erlin.</p><p></p><p>Druid: There’s a known portal to the south of town. It’s about half a day down the river then a mile or so to the east. It occasionally spits out fire elementals. It’s been there for about six years.</p><p>Orryk: Anything else? (He summoned Omnath again.)</p><p>Druid: No, not mephits. But bigger than normal elementals. There was one report from a really, really drunk guy about a big burning bird coming out.</p><p>Joybell: That sounds beautiful.</p><p>Druid: No. Not really.</p><p>Mo: Assuming he was both drunk and right, what would that be?</p><p>Druid: A phoenix. They are forces of pure destruction and they cannot be killed.</p><p>Joybell: So how do you deal with them?</p><p>Druid: The only way we know of is to throw the egg through a portal, then close the portal.</p><p>Joybell: So it becomes the problem of whoever’s on the other side of the portal?</p><p>Druid: :<img class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" alt="🤷" title="Person shrugging :person_shrugging:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f937.png" data-shortname=":person_shrugging:" />:</p><p>Joybell, to Taman and Orryk: How do we close the portal?</p><p>Taman: We won’t know until we see the portal.</p><p></p><p>We got the information we needed about where to turn off the road to find the portal then thanked the druids and left. Since it was already dinner time and well on toward dark, Orryk reluctantly agreed to stay in Erlin overnight.</p><p></p><p>Mo went off to find us a place to stay. Taman and Joybell went shopping for holy water. Thneed stayed in the temple district going from temple to temple just observing -- she wanted to see what people do in them.</p><p></p><p>As she walked with Taman, Joybell noticed that the people seemed okay and happy in Erlin. And happy to see the party. Joybell got a few odd looks - Erlin has a reputation as a pretty hick-ish town with a heavily human population. Non-humans are unusual and tend to draw some attention.</p><p></p><p>Mo arranged rooms for us at an inn. He also arranged to perform for the night.</p><p></p><p>Mo, to Taman through the sending stones: Found an inn. The Golden Gallant. Playing in the tavern. Be drunk soon.</p><p></p><p>Taman and Joybell started heading toward The Golden Gallant, which was a pretty spiffy establishment run by a gentleman named Zuli.</p><p></p><p>While he was making the arrangements for the room, Mo talked to Zuli, who told him that most of the trade in town comes from the ranches up the Tulnod River, which heads into the Dunimar Mountains.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: I’d go visit the cows in the feedlots, but I think Scooby would just upset them.</p><p></p><p>Before his performance, Mo went to a fruit and vegetable vendor in the market and bought 6 big melons. Then just before he went on stage he borrowed Joybell’s warhammer.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Remember, this isn’t my warhammer. I’m just using it until we can return it to the dwarves. Be careful with it.</p><p>Taman: It’s a magical hammer. He can’t hurt it.</p><p></p><p>Mo’s performance was awesome. After some songs and some jokes and juggling the melons, he took a swing at one with the warhammer and was unable to break it. Fiona and Thneed, seeing what was about to happen, moved to the very back of the room. Joybell, enthralled, stayed up front. Mo, from the stage, called on her.</p><p></p><p>Mo, to Joybell in the audience: Little housewife, would you like to give it a try?</p><p></p><p>Joybell, happily playing the role of housewife (in full plate armor), jumped up and with the hammer she smashed the watermelon and the stool it was standing on, leaving a small dent in the planking of the stage.</p><p></p><p>The audience was delighted.</p><p></p><p>This gag was repeated for the after-dinner crowd and again for the late-night-drinking crowd. To great delight every time.</p><p></p><p>After the performances, Joybell gave Zuli a gold for the stool while Mo used prestidigitation to clean up the stage of watermelon debris.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: Next time you should turn into an ape to crush it.</p><p>Mo: Outdoor performance…</p><p></p><p>After that, we retired to our rooms and the night passed.</p><p></p><p></p><p>29 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 119)</p><p></p><p>The next morning, we headed out on foot on the road that paralleled the Hochor River. Orryk kept getting way ahead of the party then having to stop and wait, circling around and pacing because he couldn’t stand still, until we caught up.</p><p></p><p>We found our landmark for turning off the road -- there wasn’t really a track or a path, except maybe something like a game trail, going off toward the mountains. When we got to the landmark, Taman took a minute to check for portals and detected one about a mile away. He was able to get a bearing on it and then led us directly towards it.</p><p></p><p>We were travelling through a rocky area with some hillocks and rock outcrops and rock piles. After about half a mile of traveling, we saw a large ogre-sized chunk of fire streaking toward us faster than Orryk can move. It was well across the rocky gorge by the time we could even think of reacting to it, though still far away.</p><p></p><p>Fiona activated the Wings of Flying and took to the air. Orryk moved up and waited for it to come within range so he could use the Dominate Monster spell from the Ring. Mo jumped into the battle hammock and flew into the air, inspiring Joybell as he went.</p><p></p><p>Joybell rode forward as far as Scooby could go and fired off a couple of shots from the wand of magic missiles. Thneed moved forward and took two shots at it, then found herself a place in a bit of cover by one of the rock faces. Taman moved forward some then dumped a bottle of holy water on himself, casting protection from evil and good.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: That’s a good idea.</p><p></p><p>The elemental moved into range of Orryk’s held spell, and saved against his domination, but was too far away to attack.</p><p></p><p>(Mo's player: He made the save? You can do that?)</p><p></p><p>Fiona cast a guiding bolt on it -- doing damage and putting a glow on it so that the next attack would be at an advantage. Orryk made use of that, moving into a position where he could use his fists of unbroken air (rather than punching the living fire itself), hitting with both of his regular attacks and getting a crit with his extra punch.</p><p></p><p>Mo, from a position in the air in the battle hammock, cast a spell we hadn’t seen from him before.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Glass his ass, sea bass!</p><p></p><p>Then a giant spectral beer bottle appeared floating behind the elemental and the spiritual weapon swung at its head. When it hit the glass shattered, leaving the neck and part of the bottle behind. Mo then took a shot with his crossbow, but missed.</p><p></p><p>Joybell then charged the elemental and hit it twice with her wonderful loaner warhammer, dropping it.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Sorry, Orryk!</p><p></p><p>Orryk’s smile told her that his ring of fiery awesomeness (the Ring of Fire Elemental Command) was now fully powered up -- among the many benefits of this is that he is immune to fire damage. He created a bonfire right on his feet and stood there in the flames, just because he COULD.</p><p></p><p>Mo: How do you feel?</p><p>Orryk: Fantastic.</p><p>Joybell: Our work here is done. Should we head back….</p><p>Taman: I’d like to see the portal.</p><p>Orryk: So would I.</p><p></p><p>We continued on our way to the portal, but hadn’t walked for more than a minute when we saw two more of the ogre-sized fire elementals zooming our way.</p><p></p><p>Thneed moved into a position with some cover again and took two shots, hitting with both and getting a critical hit with one of them.</p><p></p><p>Thneed: Yeah!!</p><p></p><p>Mo moved forward and coughed up some smoke, winked at it, and lightning bolt shot out and hit the same elemental Thneed had shot.</p><p></p><p>Taman moved forward as far as he could and held his attack for one to get in range.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: Stay back and shoot at them.</p><p></p><p>Then he moved up ahead of Taman and waited to attack one that came to him. Both of them did, attacking him and hitting him with great arms of fire that could do him absolutely no damage at all. When the fiery barrage against him was over, he was standing there completely unhurt and un-singed.</p><p></p><p>Fiona cast a synaptic static spell on both of them -- doing them a lot of psychic damage and leaving them scrambled so that they were less effective in battle. Joybell thought about casting protection from energy (fire) on herself, but instead she rode up to one and attacked twice.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: I can’t do anything from range.</p><p></p><p>Joybell dropped one with her first attack, then went to the other one and hit it as well. In the process of attacking them, she was set on fire and took some damage from that.</p><p></p><p>Mo cast vicious mockery on the one remaining.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Hey! Your face is on fire!</p><p></p><p>Taman moved and dashed to get into combat with the elemental -- he dropped it with his rapier, catching fire and taking damage just as Joybell had.</p><p></p><p>Orryk, looking smug and cocky: You all could just go sit down and have some tea.</p><p>Joybell, indignant and irritated: What? I’m just going to sit back and pick daisies while you’re fighting these things?</p><p>Taman: I prefer to be up front. It’s vastly more entertaining.</p><p></p><p>While Joybell and Taman were putting out the fires on themselves, Thneed spotted two even bigger elementals coming up the gorge. It was maybe a minute after the first combat that we saw these two approaching.</p><p></p><p>Taman: The problem isn’t that more are coming or even that they’re getting bigger. It’s that we’re not getting any closer.</p><p></p><p>When he said that, though, we looked at the far wall of the gorge and were pretty sure we could see the mountain with the hole in it where the portal was.</p><p></p><p>Thneed put her hunter’s mark on one of them and used her war cleric ability to take three shots, hitting with all three and getting a critical hit with one. Then she moved to a sheltered place again. Taman ran up to the one Thneed had shot and attacked, hitting twice with his rapier. Because of the fire elemental being fire, he took some damage and he was once again aflame. Fiona shot the same one with magic missiles.</p><p></p><p>Joybell, having learned from the previous fight with fire elementals, cast protection from energy (fire) on herself and Scooby and moved to stand next to Orryk, despite being irritated with him.</p><p></p><p>Mo cast another Spiritual Weapon and attacked the same one, hitting it.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Glass his ass!</p><p></p><p>One of the fire elementals moved to engulf, or enflame, Orryk and Joybell -- they were both completely inside of the flames. The other attacked Taman, but missed because of his protection from good and evil.</p><p></p><p>Orryk had Omnath put out the flames on Scooby, which Joybell appreciated very much, then he himself attacked the elemental from within with the Medic’s Blade, hitting it twice with the sword and then once again with his unarmed strike.</p><p></p><p>Thneed used her war cleric ability to shoot at the one on Taman three times, hitting three times and doing a huge amount of damage to it. Taman, on fire, absorbed the fire damage with Absorb Elements, then used his planar warrior ability to do force damage with his rapier -- he hit twice. Unfortunately he then took some damage from the elemental’s retaliation.</p><p></p><p>Joybell cast Misty Step to get herself and Scooby out of the middle of the fire elemental then she pulled out the Javelin of Lightning. The elemental on Taman, which had been the focus of most of the party’s efforts, was flickering and looked to be in very bad shape. The one on Orryk had been hit a few times by Orryk but was mostly unhurt. Irritated by Orryk fussing at her and being all cocky about the party sitting this out so he could fight the elementals himself, Joybell very pointedly looked at Orryk, then threw the javelin at Taman’s badly wounded elemental. It died immediately. She then turned with a regular javelin and threw it at the one on Orryk, but missed.</p><p></p><p>Mo cast a vicious mockery on the one on Orryk.</p><p></p><p>Mo: Your mother was a match and your father was a fart.</p><p></p><p>We were all very focused on the combat and the bright flaming things we were fighting. And on intermittently being on fire ourselves.</p><p></p><p>(Note: Everyone in the party failed a perception check.)</p><p></p><p>The fire elemental attacked Orryk, its arms of fire pummeling him to absolutely no effect.</p><p></p><p>Omnath flew out of the range of the elemental, it not being immune to fire the way Orryk was. Orryk attacked and hit twice with the Medic’s Blade and once with this fist. Thneed moved her hunter’s mark and took two shots, hitting with both.</p><p></p><p>(Note: Thneed failed a perception check.)</p><p></p><p>Taman moved toward the one on Orryk, which looked to be about halfway dead, and put out the flames on himself.</p><p></p><p>(Note: Taman also didn’t see the Thing we weren’t seeing.)</p><p></p><p>Fiona cast acid splash on the elemental.</p><p></p><p>(Note: Fiona didn’t see the Thing.)</p><p></p><p>Joybell, really ticked at Orryk for woofing at her, put out the fire on herself.</p><p></p><p>(Note: Joybell didn’t see the Thing.)</p><p></p><p>Mo’s floating bottle spiritual weapon shanked into the elemental’s face, then Mo cast vicious mockery.</p><p></p><p>Mo: I’ve seen bonfires more threatening than you are.</p><p></p><p>(Note: Mo failed to see the Thing.)</p><p></p><p>The fire elemental moved around Orryk and attacked Thneed. Fortunately it missed, so she wasn’t hit or put on fire.</p><p></p><p>Orryk attacked with the Medic’s Blade twice and hit twice, then he also hit with his unarmed strike. Omnath, a dust mephit, moved closer to the elemental and breathed a cone of dust into its face, blinding the elemental. It was apparent to all, even Joybell, that Orryk was actually happier than we’d ever seen him and having a lot of fun.</p><p></p><p>(Note: Orryk and Omnath both failed to see the Thing.)</p><p></p><p>Thneed, with a huge elemental right on top of her, used the Basalt Amulet to go invisible, then she froze in place, hoping to go unnoticed. As she did so, she saw something huge, larger than Tallyxtillon, flying overhead, heading north toward Erlin. She gestured wildly, waving her arms and pointing at the sky. Unfortunately for the rest of the party, she was invisible while doing so.</p><p></p><p>Taman, blissfully unaware of the colossal thing flying overhead, attacked the elemental on Orryk.</p><p></p><p>(Taman's player: Don’t we have advantage? Why?</p><p>Orryk's player: Because it’s blind.</p><p>GM: Like the party.)</p><p></p><p>Taman hit the elemental twice with his rapier -- then he also saw the colossal fiery bird heading away to the north.</p><p></p><p>Taman: Oh, naughty word! Hey, Orryk!</p><p></p><p>Joybell pulled out the wand of magic missile, but the phoenix was flying too high and far away for her to shoot it, so she fired off a shot at the elemental. Mo shanked it with the spiritual weapon and that finally dropped the elemental.</p><p></p><p>We spent a second discussing the possibility of getting a portion of the party to the phoenix with dimension door spells, but by the time we even started contemplating the possibility, it was out of range.</p><p></p><p>We decided to continue to the portal. Orryk’s research had told him that there can be instructions encoded in how these portals are created that give the creatures that come through it a direction or instructions. The fire elementals were very laser-focused on the party as they came down the ravine. The phoenix seemed very laser focused as it flew north, probably on Erlin.</p><p></p><p>We charged the final quarter mile to the portal, moving as fast as we could. The part of the rock face that appeared to be where the elementals were emerging was the entrance to a natural cave. Inside that cave, there was a circle on the floor, inscribed with many painted and carved runes and words in Ignan, which Orryk can speak and read. He told us that the circle is made so that when something comes within ½ mile of the portal, without a special item in their possession, the portal sends out fire elementals to attack them. If the intruders persist through the fire elementals, then the phoenix emerges after a time to go attack Erlin.</p><p></p><p>We figured out that if this portal gets turned off, the phoenix will return to the plane of fire.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Why would someone set this up targeting Erlin?</p><p>Mo: First we close it.</p><p></p><p>But we needed to figure out how to do that.</p><p></p><p>Orryk was examining the portal, gathering what knowledge he could from it about how to teleport to the plane of fire. Taman was also examining the portal, because of his interest in planar travel and so on. Taman and Mo, who was also looking at it, noticed that something seemed kind of weird or off about the portal.</p><p></p><p>Taman: Something’s weird.</p><p>Mo: What’s the weird?</p><p>(Taman's player: I speak through the GM.)</p><p></p><p>Taman: Even given what it’s doing, it seems like there’s some complication we’re missing. Something else is happening.</p><p></p><p>Thneed put her foot into the circle. Nothing happened.</p><p></p><p>Taman showed Fiona all the things that seemed off to him.</p><p></p><p>Thneed went all the way into the circle. Nothing happened.</p><p></p><p>Joybell and Taman went to search the rest of the cave. Taman found a camouflaged niche that had some vials and gems, some arrows, and some art pieces. We collected all of it and dropped it in a bag of holding to look over later.</p><p></p><p>Orryk: Joybell, do you want to pummel this circle and see if you can disrupt it?</p><p>Joybell: Sure. But maybe there’s a better way. Or can someone guide me so it’s carefully placed smashing.</p><p>Fiona: Or I could cast dispel magic.</p><p></p><p>We decided on that course of action first. Thneed suggested dispelling the Erlin part of the programming first, to maybe see if that would get the phoenix less focused on destroying the city.</p><p></p><p>Orryk and Mo helped Fiona choose the best approach to dispelling the magic, including Mo inspiring her, and she did an amazing job. As she worked with the dispel magic there was a flicker and then the gate to the Elemental Plane of Fire was gone. Underneath it there was a gate, scribed with words and symbols in Infernal. It was a gate to Stygia, the fifth plane of Hell.</p><p></p><p>Orryk wrote down all the runes and markings. As he did so he talked with Fiona and Mo and got the impression that if Fiona had been less deft with the dispel magic, she would have opened the gate to Stygia in the process of closing the gate to the Plane of Fire, allowing at least one devil to come through. The fire portal was hiding the gate to Stygia.</p><p></p><p>Taman and Thneed looked at the cave, and at the entrance, to see if they could get a sense of how long it had been since anyone other than us had been here. (Note: Thneed failed miserably at doing Ranger naughty word. As she does.) Taman told us that it appeared that the cave got used monthly. Ish.</p><p></p><p>While Fiona sat down and began casting detect magic, Joybell took a look at the art objects we’d found. They were all dark themed -- turquoise figurines of devils, two gold birdcages with little stylized villages inside the cages, a necklace with a claw pendant. There were no documents or items that in any way identified their owners.</p><p></p><p>When Fiona’s spell went off she told us that there were 7 magical arrows and 3 magical vials.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: Can you scry on whoever set these portals up?</p><p>Fiona: Not today.</p><p></p><p>After Fiona thought about it for a bit, she realized that she wouldn’t be able to even if she had the spell prepared.</p><p></p><p>Taman borrowed the Broom of Flying and flew up into the sky, looking toward Erlin to see if the phoenix was attacking. There was no sign of any of that. He took some time flying around and having fun before he returned to the cave.</p><p></p><p>While he was out exploring, the rest of us talked about Stygia and its ruler, Levistus, who is trapped in the ice of his plane. Because he is trapped himself, Levistus offers his services to those who are trapped or who feel they are, in exchange for their souls.</p><p></p><p>Joybell: We’ve dealt with Orcus worshippers. And cultists of the Outer Hunger. This is our first devil worshipper.</p><p></p><p>We figured that there was every good chance that the devil worshipper who set this up lives in Erlin, though Joybell pointed out that having the phoenix destroy the city argued against that.</p><p></p><p>Orryk, Mo, and Taman all helped Fiona close the gate -- which she did very successfully, dispelling and breaking it.</p><p></p><p>Joybell wanted to leave a message saying that we did this. Mo left a message in Dwarven using the Flute of Scribing claiming the territory in the name of the Tundra Queen. Joybell, unable to read that, wrote with the tip of a javelin:</p><p></p><p>Wonderful</p><p>The ^ Knights of Luminosity</p><p></p><p>Based on how quickly we got the gate closed, and the fact that Taman didn’t see any smoke or damage when he flew up to look at Erlin, we didn’t think that the phoenix had made it all the way to the city. We also figured that the person who built these portals -- the obvious one to the plane of fire and the hidden one to Stygia -- would know that the phoenix had been summoned and that it had either peeled off or disappeared and not attacked the city. Having one appearing over the horizon then not destroying anything would be the kind of news that would spread through the city.</p><p></p><p>Thneed did a check to sense for her greater favored enemy, fiends, and detected none within five miles. Though honestly we didn’t expect that there would be any.</p><p></p><p>We headed back to town and arrived there with no problems.</p><p></p><p>While we were going we took a look at the treasure we’d gotten from the cave. We had found:</p><p></p><p>9 1000-gp gems</p><p></p><p>5 250-gp art objects, to wit:</p><p>2 gold birdcages with stylized/generic towns inside them</p><p>a set of turquoise figurines which had representations of all the different types of devils</p><p>a silver necklace with a pendant in the shape of a claw</p><p>a gold bracelet sized for a large creature</p><p></p><p>7 magical arrows (later identified as +2 Arrows) (Taman)</p><p>1 bottle of magical oil (later identified as Oil of Etherealness)</p><p>2 magical potions (later identified as Superior Healing and Supreme Healing)</p><p></p><p>As we poked through what we’d found, that potion of Supreme Healing is <em>nice</em>, we realized that whoever had cached that in the cave was going to be looking for us.</p><p></p><p>We took a short rest just before we got to town, mostly so Thneed could do her ranger thing again and detect for fiends. Her 5 mile radius on that ability covered the entire city. She detected no fiends.</p><p></p><p>Cool.</p><p></p><p>Treasure:</p><p>The gems break down to a 1000-gp gem for each of us and 500 extra gold when we cash three of them in for money. We also get 208 gp each for the art objects (with 2 left over for the party kitty).</p><p></p><p>Joybell will keep the turquoise devils as part of her share of the treasure. That seems like it could be a useful learning tool, since it appears we’re going to be dealing with fiends.</p><p></p><p>Total for each person: 1708 gp worth of gem and gold (once we sell the freely exchangeable items). (Joybell will get a 1000 gp gem, 458 gp, and the 250 gp art object.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8282806, member: 7016699"] Session 44: In Which Orryk Is Happy Dramatis Personae: Orryk - Forest Gnome Monk (Way of the Four Elements, variant)/Wizard Fiona - Half-Elf Wizard (Evoker)/Cleric (Knowledge) Taman - Human (variant) Rogue (Inquisitive)/Ranger (Horizon Walker) Joybell - Forest Gnome Paladin (Oath of the Ancients) Thneed - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Cleric (War) Mo - Goliath Bard (College of Lore) GM - Everyone Else 27 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 117) (immediately after) Mo, having finished the good pipe stuff about the time the Glistenspray continued on the way downriver, floated gently down to the deck of the ship in his battle hammock. Mo: I’ve figured it out! The funniest punchline to any joke is hitting a watermelon with a hammer. Fiona: That’s what you were working on? We were fighting a fey. Mo: You could have called me. Orryk: We tried. Joybell: I thought you were having a good time, so I wanted to leave you alone. We rested on the boat and Mo sang a song so that we could rest better. Along toward evening we passed a village with a flag on the docks, but it wasn’t an urgent flag, so the Captain didn’t stop. We continued on our way and the rest of the day and the night passed. 28 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 118) The next day started quiet, though there was a bit more activity on the ship as the day wore on with the sailors getting ready to make port in Erlin, at least for a bit. Before we arrived, we asked about Erlin -- is it run by criminals or slavers? Is it okay or awful? We learned that it’s not run by criminals and it’s not full of people keeping slaves. Orryk: It’s run by the stealthiest of criminals. That’s why no one knows. It sounded to Joybell like a kind of okay town. We arrived there around dinner time. Orryk immediately jumped off the boat and started asking people about where we could go to find fire elementals. He was moving quickly around the docks asking questions, hardly standing still at all. Orryk, to a random longshoreman on the docks: Have you seen things like this? He summoned Omnath as a magma mephit. Longshoreman: Umm, no? While Orryk was having basically that same conversation with several different stevedores and longshoremen and sailors, Joybell asked someone if there was a druidic circle in town. She was told there was a small one in Sunlit and got directions. Joybell, to Orryk: There’s a druid circle… Orryk: Let’s go! He headed off in the direction he happened to be facing. Joybell grabbed his arm and steered him in the right direction and we all trooped off. When we got to the druid circle, Orryk immediately jumped in with asking about fire elementals and where we could find one. When Joybell started filling in information about fire portals, he told them about what Irlua at the Primal Atoll had told us about fire becoming too dominant and there being something of an incursion near Erlin. Druid: There’s a known portal to the south of town. It’s about half a day down the river then a mile or so to the east. It occasionally spits out fire elementals. It’s been there for about six years. Orryk: Anything else? (He summoned Omnath again.) Druid: No, not mephits. But bigger than normal elementals. There was one report from a really, really drunk guy about a big burning bird coming out. Joybell: That sounds beautiful. Druid: No. Not really. Mo: Assuming he was both drunk and right, what would that be? Druid: A phoenix. They are forces of pure destruction and they cannot be killed. Joybell: So how do you deal with them? Druid: The only way we know of is to throw the egg through a portal, then close the portal. Joybell: So it becomes the problem of whoever’s on the other side of the portal? Druid: :🤷: Joybell, to Taman and Orryk: How do we close the portal? Taman: We won’t know until we see the portal. We got the information we needed about where to turn off the road to find the portal then thanked the druids and left. Since it was already dinner time and well on toward dark, Orryk reluctantly agreed to stay in Erlin overnight. Mo went off to find us a place to stay. Taman and Joybell went shopping for holy water. Thneed stayed in the temple district going from temple to temple just observing -- she wanted to see what people do in them. As she walked with Taman, Joybell noticed that the people seemed okay and happy in Erlin. And happy to see the party. Joybell got a few odd looks - Erlin has a reputation as a pretty hick-ish town with a heavily human population. Non-humans are unusual and tend to draw some attention. Mo arranged rooms for us at an inn. He also arranged to perform for the night. Mo, to Taman through the sending stones: Found an inn. The Golden Gallant. Playing in the tavern. Be drunk soon. Taman and Joybell started heading toward The Golden Gallant, which was a pretty spiffy establishment run by a gentleman named Zuli. While he was making the arrangements for the room, Mo talked to Zuli, who told him that most of the trade in town comes from the ranches up the Tulnod River, which heads into the Dunimar Mountains. Joybell: I’d go visit the cows in the feedlots, but I think Scooby would just upset them. Before his performance, Mo went to a fruit and vegetable vendor in the market and bought 6 big melons. Then just before he went on stage he borrowed Joybell’s warhammer. Joybell: Remember, this isn’t my warhammer. I’m just using it until we can return it to the dwarves. Be careful with it. Taman: It’s a magical hammer. He can’t hurt it. Mo’s performance was awesome. After some songs and some jokes and juggling the melons, he took a swing at one with the warhammer and was unable to break it. Fiona and Thneed, seeing what was about to happen, moved to the very back of the room. Joybell, enthralled, stayed up front. Mo, from the stage, called on her. Mo, to Joybell in the audience: Little housewife, would you like to give it a try? Joybell, happily playing the role of housewife (in full plate armor), jumped up and with the hammer she smashed the watermelon and the stool it was standing on, leaving a small dent in the planking of the stage. The audience was delighted. This gag was repeated for the after-dinner crowd and again for the late-night-drinking crowd. To great delight every time. After the performances, Joybell gave Zuli a gold for the stool while Mo used prestidigitation to clean up the stage of watermelon debris. Orryk: Next time you should turn into an ape to crush it. Mo: Outdoor performance… After that, we retired to our rooms and the night passed. 29 Harfastin 748 (Campaign day 119) The next morning, we headed out on foot on the road that paralleled the Hochor River. Orryk kept getting way ahead of the party then having to stop and wait, circling around and pacing because he couldn’t stand still, until we caught up. We found our landmark for turning off the road -- there wasn’t really a track or a path, except maybe something like a game trail, going off toward the mountains. When we got to the landmark, Taman took a minute to check for portals and detected one about a mile away. He was able to get a bearing on it and then led us directly towards it. We were travelling through a rocky area with some hillocks and rock outcrops and rock piles. After about half a mile of traveling, we saw a large ogre-sized chunk of fire streaking toward us faster than Orryk can move. It was well across the rocky gorge by the time we could even think of reacting to it, though still far away. Fiona activated the Wings of Flying and took to the air. Orryk moved up and waited for it to come within range so he could use the Dominate Monster spell from the Ring. Mo jumped into the battle hammock and flew into the air, inspiring Joybell as he went. Joybell rode forward as far as Scooby could go and fired off a couple of shots from the wand of magic missiles. Thneed moved forward and took two shots at it, then found herself a place in a bit of cover by one of the rock faces. Taman moved forward some then dumped a bottle of holy water on himself, casting protection from evil and good. Joybell: That’s a good idea. The elemental moved into range of Orryk’s held spell, and saved against his domination, but was too far away to attack. (Mo's player: He made the save? You can do that?) Fiona cast a guiding bolt on it -- doing damage and putting a glow on it so that the next attack would be at an advantage. Orryk made use of that, moving into a position where he could use his fists of unbroken air (rather than punching the living fire itself), hitting with both of his regular attacks and getting a crit with his extra punch. Mo, from a position in the air in the battle hammock, cast a spell we hadn’t seen from him before. Mo: Glass his ass, sea bass! Then a giant spectral beer bottle appeared floating behind the elemental and the spiritual weapon swung at its head. When it hit the glass shattered, leaving the neck and part of the bottle behind. Mo then took a shot with his crossbow, but missed. Joybell then charged the elemental and hit it twice with her wonderful loaner warhammer, dropping it. Joybell: Sorry, Orryk! Orryk’s smile told her that his ring of fiery awesomeness (the Ring of Fire Elemental Command) was now fully powered up -- among the many benefits of this is that he is immune to fire damage. He created a bonfire right on his feet and stood there in the flames, just because he COULD. Mo: How do you feel? Orryk: Fantastic. Joybell: Our work here is done. Should we head back…. Taman: I’d like to see the portal. Orryk: So would I. We continued on our way to the portal, but hadn’t walked for more than a minute when we saw two more of the ogre-sized fire elementals zooming our way. Thneed moved into a position with some cover again and took two shots, hitting with both and getting a critical hit with one of them. Thneed: Yeah!! Mo moved forward and coughed up some smoke, winked at it, and lightning bolt shot out and hit the same elemental Thneed had shot. Taman moved forward as far as he could and held his attack for one to get in range. Orryk: Stay back and shoot at them. Then he moved up ahead of Taman and waited to attack one that came to him. Both of them did, attacking him and hitting him with great arms of fire that could do him absolutely no damage at all. When the fiery barrage against him was over, he was standing there completely unhurt and un-singed. Fiona cast a synaptic static spell on both of them -- doing them a lot of psychic damage and leaving them scrambled so that they were less effective in battle. Joybell thought about casting protection from energy (fire) on herself, but instead she rode up to one and attacked twice. Joybell: I can’t do anything from range. Joybell dropped one with her first attack, then went to the other one and hit it as well. In the process of attacking them, she was set on fire and took some damage from that. Mo cast vicious mockery on the one remaining. Mo: Hey! Your face is on fire! Taman moved and dashed to get into combat with the elemental -- he dropped it with his rapier, catching fire and taking damage just as Joybell had. Orryk, looking smug and cocky: You all could just go sit down and have some tea. Joybell, indignant and irritated: What? I’m just going to sit back and pick daisies while you’re fighting these things? Taman: I prefer to be up front. It’s vastly more entertaining. While Joybell and Taman were putting out the fires on themselves, Thneed spotted two even bigger elementals coming up the gorge. It was maybe a minute after the first combat that we saw these two approaching. Taman: The problem isn’t that more are coming or even that they’re getting bigger. It’s that we’re not getting any closer. When he said that, though, we looked at the far wall of the gorge and were pretty sure we could see the mountain with the hole in it where the portal was. Thneed put her hunter’s mark on one of them and used her war cleric ability to take three shots, hitting with all three and getting a critical hit with one. Then she moved to a sheltered place again. Taman ran up to the one Thneed had shot and attacked, hitting twice with his rapier. Because of the fire elemental being fire, he took some damage and he was once again aflame. Fiona shot the same one with magic missiles. Joybell, having learned from the previous fight with fire elementals, cast protection from energy (fire) on herself and Scooby and moved to stand next to Orryk, despite being irritated with him. Mo cast another Spiritual Weapon and attacked the same one, hitting it. Mo: Glass his ass! One of the fire elementals moved to engulf, or enflame, Orryk and Joybell -- they were both completely inside of the flames. The other attacked Taman, but missed because of his protection from good and evil. Orryk had Omnath put out the flames on Scooby, which Joybell appreciated very much, then he himself attacked the elemental from within with the Medic’s Blade, hitting it twice with the sword and then once again with his unarmed strike. Thneed used her war cleric ability to shoot at the one on Taman three times, hitting three times and doing a huge amount of damage to it. Taman, on fire, absorbed the fire damage with Absorb Elements, then used his planar warrior ability to do force damage with his rapier -- he hit twice. Unfortunately he then took some damage from the elemental’s retaliation. Joybell cast Misty Step to get herself and Scooby out of the middle of the fire elemental then she pulled out the Javelin of Lightning. The elemental on Taman, which had been the focus of most of the party’s efforts, was flickering and looked to be in very bad shape. The one on Orryk had been hit a few times by Orryk but was mostly unhurt. Irritated by Orryk fussing at her and being all cocky about the party sitting this out so he could fight the elementals himself, Joybell very pointedly looked at Orryk, then threw the javelin at Taman’s badly wounded elemental. It died immediately. She then turned with a regular javelin and threw it at the one on Orryk, but missed. Mo cast a vicious mockery on the one on Orryk. Mo: Your mother was a match and your father was a fart. We were all very focused on the combat and the bright flaming things we were fighting. And on intermittently being on fire ourselves. (Note: Everyone in the party failed a perception check.) The fire elemental attacked Orryk, its arms of fire pummeling him to absolutely no effect. Omnath flew out of the range of the elemental, it not being immune to fire the way Orryk was. Orryk attacked and hit twice with the Medic’s Blade and once with this fist. Thneed moved her hunter’s mark and took two shots, hitting with both. (Note: Thneed failed a perception check.) Taman moved toward the one on Orryk, which looked to be about halfway dead, and put out the flames on himself. (Note: Taman also didn’t see the Thing we weren’t seeing.) Fiona cast acid splash on the elemental. (Note: Fiona didn’t see the Thing.) Joybell, really ticked at Orryk for woofing at her, put out the fire on herself. (Note: Joybell didn’t see the Thing.) Mo’s floating bottle spiritual weapon shanked into the elemental’s face, then Mo cast vicious mockery. Mo: I’ve seen bonfires more threatening than you are. (Note: Mo failed to see the Thing.) The fire elemental moved around Orryk and attacked Thneed. Fortunately it missed, so she wasn’t hit or put on fire. Orryk attacked with the Medic’s Blade twice and hit twice, then he also hit with his unarmed strike. Omnath, a dust mephit, moved closer to the elemental and breathed a cone of dust into its face, blinding the elemental. It was apparent to all, even Joybell, that Orryk was actually happier than we’d ever seen him and having a lot of fun. (Note: Orryk and Omnath both failed to see the Thing.) Thneed, with a huge elemental right on top of her, used the Basalt Amulet to go invisible, then she froze in place, hoping to go unnoticed. As she did so, she saw something huge, larger than Tallyxtillon, flying overhead, heading north toward Erlin. She gestured wildly, waving her arms and pointing at the sky. Unfortunately for the rest of the party, she was invisible while doing so. Taman, blissfully unaware of the colossal thing flying overhead, attacked the elemental on Orryk. (Taman's player: Don’t we have advantage? Why? Orryk's player: Because it’s blind. GM: Like the party.) Taman hit the elemental twice with his rapier -- then he also saw the colossal fiery bird heading away to the north. Taman: Oh, naughty word! Hey, Orryk! Joybell pulled out the wand of magic missile, but the phoenix was flying too high and far away for her to shoot it, so she fired off a shot at the elemental. Mo shanked it with the spiritual weapon and that finally dropped the elemental. We spent a second discussing the possibility of getting a portion of the party to the phoenix with dimension door spells, but by the time we even started contemplating the possibility, it was out of range. We decided to continue to the portal. Orryk’s research had told him that there can be instructions encoded in how these portals are created that give the creatures that come through it a direction or instructions. The fire elementals were very laser-focused on the party as they came down the ravine. The phoenix seemed very laser focused as it flew north, probably on Erlin. We charged the final quarter mile to the portal, moving as fast as we could. The part of the rock face that appeared to be where the elementals were emerging was the entrance to a natural cave. Inside that cave, there was a circle on the floor, inscribed with many painted and carved runes and words in Ignan, which Orryk can speak and read. He told us that the circle is made so that when something comes within ½ mile of the portal, without a special item in their possession, the portal sends out fire elementals to attack them. If the intruders persist through the fire elementals, then the phoenix emerges after a time to go attack Erlin. We figured out that if this portal gets turned off, the phoenix will return to the plane of fire. Joybell: Why would someone set this up targeting Erlin? Mo: First we close it. But we needed to figure out how to do that. Orryk was examining the portal, gathering what knowledge he could from it about how to teleport to the plane of fire. Taman was also examining the portal, because of his interest in planar travel and so on. Taman and Mo, who was also looking at it, noticed that something seemed kind of weird or off about the portal. Taman: Something’s weird. Mo: What’s the weird? (Taman's player: I speak through the GM.) Taman: Even given what it’s doing, it seems like there’s some complication we’re missing. Something else is happening. Thneed put her foot into the circle. Nothing happened. Taman showed Fiona all the things that seemed off to him. Thneed went all the way into the circle. Nothing happened. Joybell and Taman went to search the rest of the cave. Taman found a camouflaged niche that had some vials and gems, some arrows, and some art pieces. We collected all of it and dropped it in a bag of holding to look over later. Orryk: Joybell, do you want to pummel this circle and see if you can disrupt it? Joybell: Sure. But maybe there’s a better way. Or can someone guide me so it’s carefully placed smashing. Fiona: Or I could cast dispel magic. We decided on that course of action first. Thneed suggested dispelling the Erlin part of the programming first, to maybe see if that would get the phoenix less focused on destroying the city. Orryk and Mo helped Fiona choose the best approach to dispelling the magic, including Mo inspiring her, and she did an amazing job. As she worked with the dispel magic there was a flicker and then the gate to the Elemental Plane of Fire was gone. Underneath it there was a gate, scribed with words and symbols in Infernal. It was a gate to Stygia, the fifth plane of Hell. Orryk wrote down all the runes and markings. As he did so he talked with Fiona and Mo and got the impression that if Fiona had been less deft with the dispel magic, she would have opened the gate to Stygia in the process of closing the gate to the Plane of Fire, allowing at least one devil to come through. The fire portal was hiding the gate to Stygia. Taman and Thneed looked at the cave, and at the entrance, to see if they could get a sense of how long it had been since anyone other than us had been here. (Note: Thneed failed miserably at doing Ranger naughty word. As she does.) Taman told us that it appeared that the cave got used monthly. Ish. While Fiona sat down and began casting detect magic, Joybell took a look at the art objects we’d found. They were all dark themed -- turquoise figurines of devils, two gold birdcages with little stylized villages inside the cages, a necklace with a claw pendant. There were no documents or items that in any way identified their owners. When Fiona’s spell went off she told us that there were 7 magical arrows and 3 magical vials. Joybell: Can you scry on whoever set these portals up? Fiona: Not today. After Fiona thought about it for a bit, she realized that she wouldn’t be able to even if she had the spell prepared. Taman borrowed the Broom of Flying and flew up into the sky, looking toward Erlin to see if the phoenix was attacking. There was no sign of any of that. He took some time flying around and having fun before he returned to the cave. While he was out exploring, the rest of us talked about Stygia and its ruler, Levistus, who is trapped in the ice of his plane. Because he is trapped himself, Levistus offers his services to those who are trapped or who feel they are, in exchange for their souls. Joybell: We’ve dealt with Orcus worshippers. And cultists of the Outer Hunger. This is our first devil worshipper. We figured that there was every good chance that the devil worshipper who set this up lives in Erlin, though Joybell pointed out that having the phoenix destroy the city argued against that. Orryk, Mo, and Taman all helped Fiona close the gate -- which she did very successfully, dispelling and breaking it. Joybell wanted to leave a message saying that we did this. Mo left a message in Dwarven using the Flute of Scribing claiming the territory in the name of the Tundra Queen. Joybell, unable to read that, wrote with the tip of a javelin: Wonderful The ^ Knights of Luminosity Based on how quickly we got the gate closed, and the fact that Taman didn’t see any smoke or damage when he flew up to look at Erlin, we didn’t think that the phoenix had made it all the way to the city. We also figured that the person who built these portals -- the obvious one to the plane of fire and the hidden one to Stygia -- would know that the phoenix had been summoned and that it had either peeled off or disappeared and not attacked the city. Having one appearing over the horizon then not destroying anything would be the kind of news that would spread through the city. Thneed did a check to sense for her greater favored enemy, fiends, and detected none within five miles. Though honestly we didn’t expect that there would be any. We headed back to town and arrived there with no problems. While we were going we took a look at the treasure we’d gotten from the cave. We had found: 9 1000-gp gems 5 250-gp art objects, to wit: 2 gold birdcages with stylized/generic towns inside them a set of turquoise figurines which had representations of all the different types of devils a silver necklace with a pendant in the shape of a claw a gold bracelet sized for a large creature 7 magical arrows (later identified as +2 Arrows) (Taman) 1 bottle of magical oil (later identified as Oil of Etherealness) 2 magical potions (later identified as Superior Healing and Supreme Healing) As we poked through what we’d found, that potion of Supreme Healing is [I]nice[/I], we realized that whoever had cached that in the cave was going to be looking for us. We took a short rest just before we got to town, mostly so Thneed could do her ranger thing again and detect for fiends. Her 5 mile radius on that ability covered the entire city. She detected no fiends. Cool. Treasure: The gems break down to a 1000-gp gem for each of us and 500 extra gold when we cash three of them in for money. We also get 208 gp each for the art objects (with 2 left over for the party kitty). Joybell will keep the turquoise devils as part of her share of the treasure. That seems like it could be a useful learning tool, since it appears we’re going to be dealing with fiends. Total for each person: 1708 gp worth of gem and gold (once we sell the freely exchangeable items). (Joybell will get a 1000 gp gem, 458 gp, and the 250 gp art object.) [/QUOTE]
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Erkonin (Campaign #1) [Session 46: Making Deals with Devils is Stupid as well as Bad]
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