Forrester's Against the Elves Campaign
- Thread starter Morrow
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LuYangShih
First Post
Fun Story Hour. Interesting Sorcerers, but unless you house rule Wizards as well, do you think you'll ever see a PC in your games take that instead of Sorcerer? Oh yeah, and clearly Foleful doesn't understand the concept of divinity and where Gods really come from. 
LuYangShih
First Post
To clarify my earlier statement:
Alright, Secular Humanoidism states that the "Gods" are nothing more than extremely powerful beings who utilize those powers to gain worship and dominion over lesser beings, correct? Clerics are the tool used to achieve this end.
However, Secular Humanoidism fails to address the following question:
1. If all the Gods are is incredibly powerful beings, why would they care whether or not they were worshipped? Sure, maybe a few of them would find it amusing to gain lesser beings unquestioned devotion, but there would have to be at least a few that wouldn't bother unless they gained something from it. So, why do the Gods require worship from the lesser beings?
The answer is clear to any who have studied the rise and fall of the beings we know as "Gods". The more beings that worship Gods, the more power they attain. Gods who have no worshippers have far less power than those with numerous supplicants. So, Gods gain power from the belief sentient beings place in them.
Secular Humanoidism does point out the interesting fact that Clerics can draw upon great power even when they claim they are not worshipping a specific deity. Yet, even those Clerics draw their powers from an established belief system. And they gain as much power as other, denominational Clerics.
I postulate the theory that "Gods" are simply representatives of a certain belief system. A focal point for a nexus of power emanating from belief and faith. Anyone who believes in the concept, application and power of that which a certain God represents believes in that particular God. So, a Cleric who believes in, say, war, battle, and strength of arm is gaining his power from Tempus as much as the Cleric who acknowledges where he draws his power from. And both grant Tempus greater amounts of power through their beliefs.
So, rather than the overlord and slave relationship that Secular Humanoidism claims exists, I think that Gods and their followers exist in a symbiotic relationship that strengthens and supports both. And indeed, the Gods are not false beacons of great power, but representatives of a belief system that grants great power. So, Secular Humanoidism is clearly mistaken in it's beliefs.
Alright, Secular Humanoidism states that the "Gods" are nothing more than extremely powerful beings who utilize those powers to gain worship and dominion over lesser beings, correct? Clerics are the tool used to achieve this end.
However, Secular Humanoidism fails to address the following question:
1. If all the Gods are is incredibly powerful beings, why would they care whether or not they were worshipped? Sure, maybe a few of them would find it amusing to gain lesser beings unquestioned devotion, but there would have to be at least a few that wouldn't bother unless they gained something from it. So, why do the Gods require worship from the lesser beings?
The answer is clear to any who have studied the rise and fall of the beings we know as "Gods". The more beings that worship Gods, the more power they attain. Gods who have no worshippers have far less power than those with numerous supplicants. So, Gods gain power from the belief sentient beings place in them.
Secular Humanoidism does point out the interesting fact that Clerics can draw upon great power even when they claim they are not worshipping a specific deity. Yet, even those Clerics draw their powers from an established belief system. And they gain as much power as other, denominational Clerics.
I postulate the theory that "Gods" are simply representatives of a certain belief system. A focal point for a nexus of power emanating from belief and faith. Anyone who believes in the concept, application and power of that which a certain God represents believes in that particular God. So, a Cleric who believes in, say, war, battle, and strength of arm is gaining his power from Tempus as much as the Cleric who acknowledges where he draws his power from. And both grant Tempus greater amounts of power through their beliefs.
So, rather than the overlord and slave relationship that Secular Humanoidism claims exists, I think that Gods and their followers exist in a symbiotic relationship that strengthens and supports both. And indeed, the Gods are not false beacons of great power, but representatives of a belief system that grants great power. So, Secular Humanoidism is clearly mistaken in it's beliefs.
LuYangShih
First Post
And to clarify my post above:
I'm bored and I want an update.
I'm bored and I want an update.
LuYangShih said:And to clarify my post above:
I'm bored and I want an update.
Quite right. I'm afraid I've been a little slow working on the ol' update. It'll go up sometime this week.
In the meantime why don't you read the Knights of Ill Fortune? Forrester's write-up of the first session is priceless.
Morrow
Serpenteye
First Post
This is one of the better story hours I've read on these boards.
Last edited:
AtE Session 7
Thar and Atarax begin the day by saying a few words over Kriggle’s corpse. They had not known the kobold long, but he had proved a valuable companion. When they were finished, Rhuun cut Kriggle’s jaw from his skull. Thar and Krikara knew well the damage that could be done if a cleric cast Speak with the Dead on their departed companion.
The party replenishes their supplies from Gariarch’s stores and heads off in the direction of Auntie Em’s cave. They choose a route that will take them near the center of Freetown, avoiding the route they took from Sanctuary to Gariarch’s camp.
After a few hours Krikara, who was scouting ahead, spotted a creature coming toward them. The strange creature was ten feet long, with a bulbous body, a round head with a huge mouth full of teeth, and ten spindly legs tipped with claws. The creature floated down the corridor, with its legs dangling behind it. As gruesome as it was, the creature had an additional unnatural quality. It’s legs were not evenly distributed on either side of its body, and it had an indescribably alien look that made it difficult to look at directly.
Krikara responded as she would to any surprise. She fired an arrow at the strange creature and dropped back toward the party. The creature responded with startling speed, flying up to Krikara and biting deeply into her shoulder. Krikara’s companions act quickly. Foleful’s ice knife wounds the creature severely, and Rhuun leaps forward and finishes it off with a single blow from her enchanted rapier.
Krikara complains that the bite has left her feeling strange. Thar can detect no poison in the wound, so heals her with his wand of cure light wounds.
Foleful identified the creature as a Rast, but posited that it had been somehow changed by a chaos effect similar to what they had experienced in Doon’s cave. The party joked grimly that it would be just their luck if the chaos-effect was contagious. Krikara squirmed uncomfortably at the thought.
The party continues on their journey. Some time later Krikara discovers four rat creatures, two of who were once goblins, and two which were once bugbears. The party chooses to go around the rat creatures, in spite of Moroku’s protests. “Yes, we’ve encountered these creatures before. Very boring, no warrior spirit at all.” Foleful assures him.
After traveling a short time Krikara once more hears something coming toward them down the tunnel. Moments later they all hear the high pitched screams of pain of the creature staggering toward them. Soon they see a single goblin, but like no goblin they have seen before. The young goblin is bulging with massive muscles that appear almost like tumors grafted onto his small frame.
Foleful attempts to entangle the goblin in a web spell, but the goblin tears right through, hardly noticing the grasping strands. As he gets closer, still screaming, Thar and Atarax recognize Chip, the young goblin they had met in Outer Sanctuary only a few days before. They also realize that in addition to inarticulate screaming, Chip is crying out to Zorn, insisting that Zorn can help him. The pair glance at each other. The last time they had seen Chip, he had been less than impressed by the leader of Sanctuary.
“Hold Friend. Let us know what we can do to help you,” says Atarax, but when Chip gets dangerously close, still screaming Moroku engulfs him in a bolt of lightning.
The horribly altered young goblin screams even louder, clearly hurt, then rushes forward and strikes Moroku. The old orc is knocked through the air, sailing forty feet before hitting the cavern wall and falling to the ground.
Rhuun moves up to strike, but Thar stops her. “Chip, wait. We can help you.” Atarax moves up beside Thar and the pair attempts to calm the screaming youth. The two goblins ply their healing wands, attempting to stop the young goblins pain, but to no effect.
Moroku targets the young goblin with a dispel magic, which seems to only increase the young goblins pain. Thar and Atarax back off, still attempting to calm the young goblin, can only redirect his rage by striking the tunnel walls instead of the humanoids attempting to help him. Thar continues to heal the young goblins wounds while praying aloud to Maglibuyet, trying to calm him.
Moroku’s spell seems to have worked after all. Chips enhanced muscles are beginning to shrink. The young goblin tears off the light armor he is wearing with a single gesture revealing a discolored lump growing out of the center of his chest. The young goblin seems to shrink and drops to his knees, clearly in agony. The lump drops off his chest, leaving a large open wound. Blood begins to flow from the young goblins wounds, and Thar and Atarax act quickly to heal him before his expanding wounds tear Chip apart.
Soon the transformation is complete. Chip is once more they slight young goblin that Thar and Atarax remember. He sits on the floor of the tunnel, still shaking from pain and fear. While Chip recovers the party goes to work. Krikara does not detect magic from either the discarded lump or Chip himself. Foleful attempts object loresight on the lump and is surprised when it works. The lump is about five hours old, and was the beginnings of a third arm growing out of Chip’s chest. Foleful keeps that revelation to himself for the moment.
Thar and Atarax manage to learn that earlier in the day Chip had began to feel bad, and had decided to go for a walk against the wishes of the guards who protect outer Sanctuary. Soon he was overwhelmed by pain, and wandered aimlessly. The strangest thing, Chip explained, was that he kept thinking that Zorn was his friend. “I don’t even like Zorn,” admits the young goblin. “What happened to me?”
The party promises to help Chip, and save his mother from Sanctuary, but first they have to neutralize the source of the mind control seeking to make him, and them, love Zorn. Chip, although concerned about his mother, agrees to accompany the party.
Again the party continues toward Auntie Em’s home. Soon Krikara hears a Sanctuary patrol ahead. They aren’t particularly stealthy, talking about how wonderful Zorn is as they walk down the corridor toward the party. Krikara drops back, “Patrol coming. Talking about Zorn. Reveling in his joy, wonder, and beauty.” The party quickly hides.
For a brief moment they dare to hope that the patrol won’t notice them, but one member of the patrol glances into the shallow cave where the party has taken refuge. Before he can react, the party moves. Thar’s crossbow bolt and Foleful’s glue spell have no apparent effect, but Rhuun and Krikara both stab the surprised goblin and tumble out into the tunnel as his body drops to the floor.
Another member of the patrol, a mungaeli monk, tumbles toward Foleful. Rhuun manages to wound her as she rushes by, but she manages to get by and strike the Xvart, knocking him off of elemental. Foleful hits the wall and slides to the floor.
Krikara drops her sword, draws her bow and shoots the monk attacking Foleful, but cannot bring her down. Rhuun finds herself battling a large orcish monk, while the rest of the patrol moves up to engage the party. Atarax begins to sing and fires his crossbow at an advancing goblin. He hits, but the bolt seems to do no damage. Moroku casts magic missiles, which also seem to have no effect.
The mungaeli attempts to negotiate with Foleful, “Surrender and we’ll take you back to Sanctuary where you’ll be prosecuted under Zorn’s just law.” She claims that they will receive a fair trial for betraying Mikek.
Krikara, ever opposed to negotiation shoots the mungaeli in the back even as Atarax stops singing to exclaim that the party didn’t betray anyone. The fighting pauses momentarily as Atarax attempts to explain that it was Mikek and his companions who double crossed them.
The temporary reprieve does not last. The orc facing Rhuun, apparently sharing Krikara’s feelings about negotiation, takes another swing at Rhuun and battle erupts again. Moroku creates a flaming sphere around another member of the patrol, who rolls aside and yells, “Let’s get out of here!”
Most of the patrol breaks and runs back the way they had come. The mungaeli runs in the opposite direction, past Foleful. Only the orc holds his ground. Krikara scoops up her sword and tumles past the orc to flank him with Rhuun. The pair quickly brings him down.
Foleful climbs back atop Elemental and flies after the mungaeli, yelling that Zorn is wrong, that the party didn’t betray anyone, and undoubtedly questioning her about the nature of the good.
The rest of the party begins to examine their fallen foes. Chip is disturbed, “I know these guys. They were nice. I played catch with that guy over there.” Thar attempts to comfort the young goblin.
Soon they hear Foleful returning, with the mungaeli. “Hello everyone,” Foleful calls brightly, “Flinz here decided to negotiate.” He looks meaninfully at Moroku and the old orc immediately casts dispel magic on the gullible monk.
The mungaeli at first seems confused, then begins screaming, possibly even louder than Chip had. She drops into unconsciousness almost immediately. Although Flinz does not have Chip’s massive muscelature, her wounds do begin to open up as his did and Atarax applies his healing wand several times to keep her alive. Soon she stable, but still unconscious.
The party compares notes. Whatever is being done to Zorn’s followers makes them stronger and tougher. They seem resistant to normal weapons and even weak spells. The only good news is these effects can be removed.
The party discusses leaving Flinz behind. Even Foleful seems to feel that capturing her is a waste of time. Then she wakes up.
At first the mungaeli is confused. She had been a slave in Bugbeartown until she was saved by Zorn and his companions, Mikek and Bloody Pulp. She had come to Sanctuary and shortly thereafter had began a five month period where everything was, in her words, “Zorn, Zorn, Zorn, with some more Zorn on the side.”
Flinz had soon began training, and had been inside Inner Sanctuary. She estimated that Zorn had perhaps ninety fully trained followers inside inner Sanctuary.
The party is impatient to get to Auntie Em’s until Flinz explains that there are patrols looking for them everywhere. As soon as he returned, Mikek sent Bloody Pulp with a large group to advise Auntie Em to close up shop, and to guard her. “Everyone is looking for you. If you go there you will be captured or killed.”
The party, their plan foiled again, devolves begins arguing about what to do next. They regard the prospect of another night fighting off mind control with fear. It is Krikara who finds a solution. Thar memorized a stone shape spell to bypass the entrance to Auntie Em’s home. They could find a cave and use the spell to seal them in. It would stop anyone from wandering off, and Moroku, who hadn’t given blood and was thus likely immune to the mind control could cast dispel magic on anyone who displayed undue affection for Zorn. In the morning Thar could stone shape them back out again.
Foleful and Thar in particular are somewhat surprised that Krikara has struck upon such an elegant solution. “I don’t want to like it.” admits Thar, “but I do.”
The party travels away from the area they encountered the patrol for a couple hours, eventually settling on an acceptable cave not far from Doon’s home. Thar seals them in, and the party settes down to consider their options and await the seemingly inevitable intrusions into their minds.
The party turned their attention to wringing all the information they could out of Flinz. While she had never seen anyone in Sanctuary with a third arm, she did remember a few people who had complained of chest pain. Under careful questioning by Foleful, Flinz admitted that they had all eventually brought the problem to Zorn’s attention, and she hadn’t seen them again after that.
Thar questioned Flinz about Mikek. She admitted that Mikek was the only person she’s ever seen advise Zorn about the running of Sanctuary. Mikek, Bloody Pulp, and Egor were actually part of larger group of goblin rogues. The other members of the group were Targak, Andarg, Dools, and Zardel. Flinz offered that the group, “Didn’t seem to love Zorn as much as everyone else.”
“It’s almost as if they weren’t mind controlled,” offered Foleful, sarcastically.
“You know, Foleful, when you put it that way, I think your right.” Flinz replied with a look of recognition in her eye. Foleful favored Flinz with a broad grin.
Mikek was looking more and more like the brains behind the whole scheme. “You know Foleful,” said Thar, mimicking Flinz, “You were right. We really should have killed Mikek.”
However, the theory of Mikek as the goblin in charge didn’t hold up long. If Mikek was in charge, Thar wondered, why did he risk his life to take on Gariarch? Getting the stone shaping gauntlets was clearly important, but if you had an army of steriod-crazed mind controlled goblins, why take the risk yourself? This seemed more like the job for a trusted lieutainent, rather than the person in charge.
Foleful offered that perhaps there was someone giving Mikek orders, someone paranoid enough never to leave the protection of Inner Sanctuary, someone who set up their trusted follower, Mikek, to manage Zorn, and later to manipulate a gullible group of humanoids to take on Gariarch and bring back the gauntlets. Foleful began to refer to this theoretical individual as the Evil Genius.
The conversation turned back to the effect around Inner Sanctuary that prevented all divination. That kind of effect either indicated the presence of a powerful artifact, perhaps even Krikara’s buckler, or that the Evil Genius had access to some considerable spell power. It would take significantly more power than the party had ever seen to do the job.
As the evening wound down Thar expressed frustration that Maglibuyet had sent him into this apparent no-win situation. He complained that there was real power being thrown around, far more than this group was capable of dealing with. Why did Magilbuyet send him?
Krikara, perhaps a little fed up with all the complaining, offered, “Perhaps Maglibuyet sent you so as not to attract attention.” Thar stared at her, his jaw working ineffectually, and his head spinning. Then he turned and prepared to sleep.
Thar and Atarax begin the day by saying a few words over Kriggle’s corpse. They had not known the kobold long, but he had proved a valuable companion. When they were finished, Rhuun cut Kriggle’s jaw from his skull. Thar and Krikara knew well the damage that could be done if a cleric cast Speak with the Dead on their departed companion.
The party replenishes their supplies from Gariarch’s stores and heads off in the direction of Auntie Em’s cave. They choose a route that will take them near the center of Freetown, avoiding the route they took from Sanctuary to Gariarch’s camp.
After a few hours Krikara, who was scouting ahead, spotted a creature coming toward them. The strange creature was ten feet long, with a bulbous body, a round head with a huge mouth full of teeth, and ten spindly legs tipped with claws. The creature floated down the corridor, with its legs dangling behind it. As gruesome as it was, the creature had an additional unnatural quality. It’s legs were not evenly distributed on either side of its body, and it had an indescribably alien look that made it difficult to look at directly.
Krikara responded as she would to any surprise. She fired an arrow at the strange creature and dropped back toward the party. The creature responded with startling speed, flying up to Krikara and biting deeply into her shoulder. Krikara’s companions act quickly. Foleful’s ice knife wounds the creature severely, and Rhuun leaps forward and finishes it off with a single blow from her enchanted rapier.
Krikara complains that the bite has left her feeling strange. Thar can detect no poison in the wound, so heals her with his wand of cure light wounds.
Foleful identified the creature as a Rast, but posited that it had been somehow changed by a chaos effect similar to what they had experienced in Doon’s cave. The party joked grimly that it would be just their luck if the chaos-effect was contagious. Krikara squirmed uncomfortably at the thought.
The party continues on their journey. Some time later Krikara discovers four rat creatures, two of who were once goblins, and two which were once bugbears. The party chooses to go around the rat creatures, in spite of Moroku’s protests. “Yes, we’ve encountered these creatures before. Very boring, no warrior spirit at all.” Foleful assures him.
After traveling a short time Krikara once more hears something coming toward them down the tunnel. Moments later they all hear the high pitched screams of pain of the creature staggering toward them. Soon they see a single goblin, but like no goblin they have seen before. The young goblin is bulging with massive muscles that appear almost like tumors grafted onto his small frame.
Foleful attempts to entangle the goblin in a web spell, but the goblin tears right through, hardly noticing the grasping strands. As he gets closer, still screaming, Thar and Atarax recognize Chip, the young goblin they had met in Outer Sanctuary only a few days before. They also realize that in addition to inarticulate screaming, Chip is crying out to Zorn, insisting that Zorn can help him. The pair glance at each other. The last time they had seen Chip, he had been less than impressed by the leader of Sanctuary.
“Hold Friend. Let us know what we can do to help you,” says Atarax, but when Chip gets dangerously close, still screaming Moroku engulfs him in a bolt of lightning.
The horribly altered young goblin screams even louder, clearly hurt, then rushes forward and strikes Moroku. The old orc is knocked through the air, sailing forty feet before hitting the cavern wall and falling to the ground.
Rhuun moves up to strike, but Thar stops her. “Chip, wait. We can help you.” Atarax moves up beside Thar and the pair attempts to calm the screaming youth. The two goblins ply their healing wands, attempting to stop the young goblins pain, but to no effect.
Moroku targets the young goblin with a dispel magic, which seems to only increase the young goblins pain. Thar and Atarax back off, still attempting to calm the young goblin, can only redirect his rage by striking the tunnel walls instead of the humanoids attempting to help him. Thar continues to heal the young goblins wounds while praying aloud to Maglibuyet, trying to calm him.
Moroku’s spell seems to have worked after all. Chips enhanced muscles are beginning to shrink. The young goblin tears off the light armor he is wearing with a single gesture revealing a discolored lump growing out of the center of his chest. The young goblin seems to shrink and drops to his knees, clearly in agony. The lump drops off his chest, leaving a large open wound. Blood begins to flow from the young goblins wounds, and Thar and Atarax act quickly to heal him before his expanding wounds tear Chip apart.
Soon the transformation is complete. Chip is once more they slight young goblin that Thar and Atarax remember. He sits on the floor of the tunnel, still shaking from pain and fear. While Chip recovers the party goes to work. Krikara does not detect magic from either the discarded lump or Chip himself. Foleful attempts object loresight on the lump and is surprised when it works. The lump is about five hours old, and was the beginnings of a third arm growing out of Chip’s chest. Foleful keeps that revelation to himself for the moment.
Thar and Atarax manage to learn that earlier in the day Chip had began to feel bad, and had decided to go for a walk against the wishes of the guards who protect outer Sanctuary. Soon he was overwhelmed by pain, and wandered aimlessly. The strangest thing, Chip explained, was that he kept thinking that Zorn was his friend. “I don’t even like Zorn,” admits the young goblin. “What happened to me?”
The party promises to help Chip, and save his mother from Sanctuary, but first they have to neutralize the source of the mind control seeking to make him, and them, love Zorn. Chip, although concerned about his mother, agrees to accompany the party.
Again the party continues toward Auntie Em’s home. Soon Krikara hears a Sanctuary patrol ahead. They aren’t particularly stealthy, talking about how wonderful Zorn is as they walk down the corridor toward the party. Krikara drops back, “Patrol coming. Talking about Zorn. Reveling in his joy, wonder, and beauty.” The party quickly hides.
For a brief moment they dare to hope that the patrol won’t notice them, but one member of the patrol glances into the shallow cave where the party has taken refuge. Before he can react, the party moves. Thar’s crossbow bolt and Foleful’s glue spell have no apparent effect, but Rhuun and Krikara both stab the surprised goblin and tumble out into the tunnel as his body drops to the floor.
Another member of the patrol, a mungaeli monk, tumbles toward Foleful. Rhuun manages to wound her as she rushes by, but she manages to get by and strike the Xvart, knocking him off of elemental. Foleful hits the wall and slides to the floor.
Krikara drops her sword, draws her bow and shoots the monk attacking Foleful, but cannot bring her down. Rhuun finds herself battling a large orcish monk, while the rest of the patrol moves up to engage the party. Atarax begins to sing and fires his crossbow at an advancing goblin. He hits, but the bolt seems to do no damage. Moroku casts magic missiles, which also seem to have no effect.
The mungaeli attempts to negotiate with Foleful, “Surrender and we’ll take you back to Sanctuary where you’ll be prosecuted under Zorn’s just law.” She claims that they will receive a fair trial for betraying Mikek.
Krikara, ever opposed to negotiation shoots the mungaeli in the back even as Atarax stops singing to exclaim that the party didn’t betray anyone. The fighting pauses momentarily as Atarax attempts to explain that it was Mikek and his companions who double crossed them.
The temporary reprieve does not last. The orc facing Rhuun, apparently sharing Krikara’s feelings about negotiation, takes another swing at Rhuun and battle erupts again. Moroku creates a flaming sphere around another member of the patrol, who rolls aside and yells, “Let’s get out of here!”
Most of the patrol breaks and runs back the way they had come. The mungaeli runs in the opposite direction, past Foleful. Only the orc holds his ground. Krikara scoops up her sword and tumles past the orc to flank him with Rhuun. The pair quickly brings him down.
Foleful climbs back atop Elemental and flies after the mungaeli, yelling that Zorn is wrong, that the party didn’t betray anyone, and undoubtedly questioning her about the nature of the good.
The rest of the party begins to examine their fallen foes. Chip is disturbed, “I know these guys. They were nice. I played catch with that guy over there.” Thar attempts to comfort the young goblin.
Soon they hear Foleful returning, with the mungaeli. “Hello everyone,” Foleful calls brightly, “Flinz here decided to negotiate.” He looks meaninfully at Moroku and the old orc immediately casts dispel magic on the gullible monk.
The mungaeli at first seems confused, then begins screaming, possibly even louder than Chip had. She drops into unconsciousness almost immediately. Although Flinz does not have Chip’s massive muscelature, her wounds do begin to open up as his did and Atarax applies his healing wand several times to keep her alive. Soon she stable, but still unconscious.
The party compares notes. Whatever is being done to Zorn’s followers makes them stronger and tougher. They seem resistant to normal weapons and even weak spells. The only good news is these effects can be removed.
The party discusses leaving Flinz behind. Even Foleful seems to feel that capturing her is a waste of time. Then she wakes up.
At first the mungaeli is confused. She had been a slave in Bugbeartown until she was saved by Zorn and his companions, Mikek and Bloody Pulp. She had come to Sanctuary and shortly thereafter had began a five month period where everything was, in her words, “Zorn, Zorn, Zorn, with some more Zorn on the side.”
Flinz had soon began training, and had been inside Inner Sanctuary. She estimated that Zorn had perhaps ninety fully trained followers inside inner Sanctuary.
The party is impatient to get to Auntie Em’s until Flinz explains that there are patrols looking for them everywhere. As soon as he returned, Mikek sent Bloody Pulp with a large group to advise Auntie Em to close up shop, and to guard her. “Everyone is looking for you. If you go there you will be captured or killed.”
The party, their plan foiled again, devolves begins arguing about what to do next. They regard the prospect of another night fighting off mind control with fear. It is Krikara who finds a solution. Thar memorized a stone shape spell to bypass the entrance to Auntie Em’s home. They could find a cave and use the spell to seal them in. It would stop anyone from wandering off, and Moroku, who hadn’t given blood and was thus likely immune to the mind control could cast dispel magic on anyone who displayed undue affection for Zorn. In the morning Thar could stone shape them back out again.
Foleful and Thar in particular are somewhat surprised that Krikara has struck upon such an elegant solution. “I don’t want to like it.” admits Thar, “but I do.”
The party travels away from the area they encountered the patrol for a couple hours, eventually settling on an acceptable cave not far from Doon’s home. Thar seals them in, and the party settes down to consider their options and await the seemingly inevitable intrusions into their minds.
The party turned their attention to wringing all the information they could out of Flinz. While she had never seen anyone in Sanctuary with a third arm, she did remember a few people who had complained of chest pain. Under careful questioning by Foleful, Flinz admitted that they had all eventually brought the problem to Zorn’s attention, and she hadn’t seen them again after that.
Thar questioned Flinz about Mikek. She admitted that Mikek was the only person she’s ever seen advise Zorn about the running of Sanctuary. Mikek, Bloody Pulp, and Egor were actually part of larger group of goblin rogues. The other members of the group were Targak, Andarg, Dools, and Zardel. Flinz offered that the group, “Didn’t seem to love Zorn as much as everyone else.”
“It’s almost as if they weren’t mind controlled,” offered Foleful, sarcastically.
“You know, Foleful, when you put it that way, I think your right.” Flinz replied with a look of recognition in her eye. Foleful favored Flinz with a broad grin.
Mikek was looking more and more like the brains behind the whole scheme. “You know Foleful,” said Thar, mimicking Flinz, “You were right. We really should have killed Mikek.”
However, the theory of Mikek as the goblin in charge didn’t hold up long. If Mikek was in charge, Thar wondered, why did he risk his life to take on Gariarch? Getting the stone shaping gauntlets was clearly important, but if you had an army of steriod-crazed mind controlled goblins, why take the risk yourself? This seemed more like the job for a trusted lieutainent, rather than the person in charge.
Foleful offered that perhaps there was someone giving Mikek orders, someone paranoid enough never to leave the protection of Inner Sanctuary, someone who set up their trusted follower, Mikek, to manage Zorn, and later to manipulate a gullible group of humanoids to take on Gariarch and bring back the gauntlets. Foleful began to refer to this theoretical individual as the Evil Genius.
The conversation turned back to the effect around Inner Sanctuary that prevented all divination. That kind of effect either indicated the presence of a powerful artifact, perhaps even Krikara’s buckler, or that the Evil Genius had access to some considerable spell power. It would take significantly more power than the party had ever seen to do the job.
As the evening wound down Thar expressed frustration that Maglibuyet had sent him into this apparent no-win situation. He complained that there was real power being thrown around, far more than this group was capable of dealing with. Why did Magilbuyet send him?
Krikara, perhaps a little fed up with all the complaining, offered, “Perhaps Maglibuyet sent you so as not to attract attention.” Thar stared at her, his jaw working ineffectually, and his head spinning. Then he turned and prepared to sleep.
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AtE Session 8
7th of Charder
The party, Thar in particular, fights off another bout of mind control during the night, but this time no one appears effected. In the morning the party decides to return to Gariarch’s camp, traveling through the area they know to be patrolled. Hopefully they’ll encounter another patrol and capture someone a little more observant then Flinz. Rhuun retrieves her sap from her backpack and sticks it in her belt. Krikara manages to scrounge a small sack and create a makeshift sap of her own.
Thar hopes to learn more at Gariarch’s camp. “Why did he leave Sanctuary?” Thar asks, “No one forced him out in the strictest sense. As far as we know he just picked up and left with all of his loot, all his followers, and a bunch of prisoners. He cleared out and then hid. What could scare him?”
If they cannot get to Auntie Em, they need to seek out the only person they know of who may be able to neutralize Auntie Em’s sympathetic magic, her sister Auntie Annie. That will require a journey through the Hellmouth to Gulg, a dangerous course, but perhaps their only option. Foleful believes that distance should decrease the effectiveness of the mind control, thus improving their chances of success.
Again Krikara scouts ahead as the party, and soon she hears a wet slapping, squishing sound approaching. She drops back to the party, and soon they seen a strange many tentacled creature dragging itself down the tunnel toward them. The creature would clearly be more comfortable in a marsh or swamp, and has the same not-quite-right quality that the rast possessed the day before. The party’s first volley of attacks had little effect. Krikara’s arrows and Atarax’s charm monster spell both appeared ineffective against the chaos infused aberration. The tentacled thing was able to squirm under the full brunt of Moroku’s lighting bolt, and Foleful’s stinking cloud does not slow the creature down at all.
Atarax begins singing and the party backs away from the advancing creature, but Foleful is not fast enough. A long tentacle streaks out of the stinking cloud, wraps around him, and drags him back in. “No, I’m poisonous! I’m poisonous!” he shrieks as he is dragged out of sight.
The party cannot see their opponent through the cloud, so Thar dispels it, almost yelling the prayer which accompanies the spell in his frustration.
Atarax seizes the initiative, "Swamp brother! We’re so happy to see you. I suggest that you don’t touch the xvart, he’s poisonous.”
The tentacled creature promptly drops Foleful. Elemental charges forward to scoop up Foleful, but is caught by another tentacle. Meanwhile, Foleful, incapacitated by his own stinking cloud, begins hallucinating from his contact with the chaos creature.
Elemental manages to squirm free of the tentacle and drag Foleful out of harms way. The party attempts to bring down the creature. Atarax’s alchemist fire and Thar’s magic stone spell prove ineffective, but Moroku manages to bring down the beast with two volley’s of magic missiles.
The party takes stock and heals Foleful and Elemental. Foleful seems confused and flighty after his contact with the tentacled creature, but the party can do nothing for him, so they continue their journey.
[Game Note: Foleful’s player had great fun playing him after he took a considerable amount of wisdom damage during the battle.]
Soon they reach Gariarch’s camp. Krikara reports the party that she hears the chewing noises that are indicitave of the rat-creatures. Foleful seems gleeful at the opportunity to observe the creatures in action, and atop Elemental, flies into the main cavern of the camp. “Hey guys,” he calls back, “We have guests, and they seem like really nice guys.”
The four goblins, turned into rat creatures by the mysterious contagion do not, in fact, seem like nice guys. They charge Foleful, raking the little xvart with their claws. Foleful panics and drops solid fog over the entire area. This does succeed in slowing the rat creatures, but it also delays his escape long enough for them to claw at him again.
Thar casts freedom of movement on Rhuun and Krikara and they move into the cloud, quickly dispatching the rat creatures trapped there.
Soon the cloud has disbursed and Foleful able to pull himself together enough to cast some more divinations. He casts a thought capture near a goblin slave which was killed by swords, and gets a clear image of Mikek, very businesslike, running the goblin through. He casts another thought capture near a goblin slave killed by a morningstar, and gasps in surprise at the image he receives. He sees a bugbear come around the corner and crush the goblins skull with a morningstar. It is not seeing a surviving bugbear which shocks Foleful. It is that the bugbear looks distressingly like Egor.
The party is shocked. “Egor, the little goblin who stood in back and couldn’t hit anything with that bow of his? A bugbear? What’s going on here?”
Foleful casts a final thought capture near Gariarch and receives the bugbear’s last thoughts. “Gotta get them before they get away.” Then there is nothing but pain and surprise.
Thar casts speak with the dead on one of Gariarch’s lieutainents. “Why did Gariarch leave bugbeartown and come here?”
"The rat bastards."
“Who are the rat bastards?”
“Sneaking, little cheating rat-bastards. Jermelaine. And the shapeshifters.”
The party looked at each other in surprise. “What did the shapeshifters do?”
“They shapechanged into one of us. Caused chaos.”
“What’s so important about the stone gauntlets?”
“They meld stone, dumbass.” And with that the bugbear’s spirit was free.
The whole party began talking at once. “So even the Jermelaine aren’t a coincidence? They were sent to keep an eye on Gariarch?”
“The evil genius is using the Jermelaine? I was hoping they would work for us.”
“Shapechangers. Well, that explains Egor.”
“Probably Mikek’s entire group are shapechangers. It just keeps getting better.”
“One of us could be a shapechanger right now, and we’d never know it.”
“No wonder Gariarch cleared out.”
During the conversation Atarax trails off in mid sentence, but recovers quickly and only Krikara pays much attention. Thar decides they’ve covered all the ground their going to in one night and goes into Gariarch’s cave to meditate. Krikara begins teaching Atarax to speak darkcreeper, and the others disperse.
It is second watch when Krikara hears Flinz and Chip talking. Chip is saying that he can’t wait to get back to Zorn. Krikara wanders over to where Rhuun stands on watch and explains what she heard. Rhuun doesn’t hesitate, the pair pull out their saps, walk over to Flinz and Chip, and bludgeon them into unconciousness. The rest of the party is awoken by Flinz’s cries, but by the time they arrive Rhuun is already chaining the pair to the wall.
Krikara quickly explains what she heard. Foleful is enraged. He casts as summon monster spell. Thar, surprised and disgusted smacks the xvart on the back of the head, trying to disrupt the spell, but Foleful completes the incantation. An earth elemental stirge pops into existence, but the rest of the party destroys it before it can latch onto Chip. The party is angered by Foleful’s behavior, but he insists that Chip and Flinz must be killed, “For all we know the Evil Genius is looking at us through those eyes!”
Eventually they manage to calm Foleful down and return to sleep, but the night is disrupted a second time when Krikara hears Atarax talking to the prisoners about his love for Zorn. The party is awakened again as Krikara angrily confronts the goblin bard, but he manages to pacify them, explaining that he was just trying to get information out of them.
8th of Charder
The next day Thar begins by casting a zone of truth around the party and instructing everyone to say that they don’t love Zorn. Chip and Flinz are unable to pass the test, but everyone else seems fine. Foleful eventually badgers them into admitting the truth, mostly by taking advantage of Flinz’s low pain tolerance. They explain that they intended to conceal their loyalty to Zorn and slip away while no one was looking.
Thar casts a remove disease spell on Foleful to neutralize any ill effects from the rat-goblins bite and follows it up with a restoration in the hopes of neutralizing any lasting effects from his encounter with the chaos creature. Foleful immediately feels much better and admits that his encounter with the tentacled aberation left his confused.
While Thar works Krikara huddles with Moroku. When they’re done talking Moroku turns to Atarax and casts a dispel magic. Atarax seems confused for a minute and then admits that he was under the same compulsion as Flinz and Chip.
Atarax comes up with a more dependable test for mind control. He explains that his horn of good creates an effect that will neutralize mind control in the area for a short time. He offers that the effect could be used to reveal who was mind controlled, and Moroku could then dispel the effect. The party tests the theory on Chip and Flinz, who immediately return to normal and are quite distressed to once more have their minds played with.
[Game Note: Somewhere along the line we deduced that area dispels were ineffective against the sympathetic magic mind control. In other mind control action, Forrester ruled that since Atarax hadn’t actually instructed Krikara to do anything, she didn’t realize he had effected her with a Charm Monster spell either during the periods in the protection from evil effect, or after it wore off completely.]
Soon thereafter the party leaves for Gulg. They travel through the Hellmouth, dodging dangerous creatures and using their elaborate combination of stone shape, the horn of good, and Moroku’s dispel magic spells to keep themselves free of mental domination. When they reach Gulg, four and a half days later, none of them love Zorn and they are all hopeful that Auntie Annie will be able to help them.
Somewhere along the trip, Thar casts a sending to communicate with Filbin, the cleric he had trained back and Blarkarg camp. “It’s all going to hell here. How are you doing?”
“Fine boss. We’re not slaves yet.”
13th of Charder
The party enters Gulg through the same hidden route that Atarax and Foleful used to leave it not long before. They soon find Auntie Annie’s shop. The tall, gaunt, old woman is behind a counter set up outside and she greets Atarax warmly.
Atarax begins by negotiating a price to alter the cloak that he took from the cat-demons, but soon moves on to more important things. Auntie Annie admits that she has heard from her sister about the rat-disease in Sanctuary. When Atarax mentions that Auntie Em had spoken unkindly of her sister, Annie offers that Em is jealous of her talents, or just thought that Atarax was trying to use his connection with Annie to get a discount.
Atarax begins asking about some of the effects they have seen and attributed to sympathetic magic. Auntie Annie seems disbelieving at the tails of greatly increased strength, but is interested enough to invite the party inside her shop.
Atarax asks Flinz to tell Auntie Annie her story. He attempts to make further inquiries about Auntie Em and her capabilites but Annie grows impatient with the little information he offers. Foleful turns to the others, “Huddle. Do we have anything to lose here?” he asks forcefully. “Do we have anything to lose?!”
The party looks at each other, and one by one shakes their heads. “We don’t know anything that our enemies don’t know already.” says Thar. “Tell her all of it.”
So Atarax tells all, including their suspicions about Auntie Em’s part of the mind control plot, and their thoughts that Em is responsible for giving the humanoids following Zorn increased strength.
Eventually Annie cuts Atarax off. “There is no way that my sister has the power to do this. Do you have any idea of the raw power it would take to maintain a charm effect over that many creatures? To transform that many creatures. It can’t be done.”
However the party keeps on her. Thar offers that this might be a case of professional rivalry, that ‘it can’t be done,’ really means, ‘I couldn’t do it.’ Auntie Annie is admitant the Auntie Em couldn’t be responsible for these effects, but eventually seems convinced that impossible or not, what the party describes is really happening. She does offer one interesting observation. “How do you get strength like that?” she asks. “You can’t just create it. You have to borrow it.”
Auntie Annie decides to talk to her sister. She leads Atarax into another room, where he stands, invisible, while Annie smears oil on a mirror and says a few words over it. Soon the reflection swirls and another room appears in the mirror. A bell rings and moments later another old woman walks across the room to stand before the mirror. As they stand looking at each other Atarax thinks that it really could be a reflection. The two are nearly identical.
The two great each other, and Annie tells her sister that she has heard about trouble in Freetown. Em admits there has been, “The cutest little group of adventurers, attacking people and causing trouble.” She also offers the rat-disease and other weird things have been happening.
The two sisters exchange pleasantries and agree that they should see each other more often. Auntie Em assures her sister that everything is business as usual, she has no reason to worry.
When the conversation is over Atarax and Auntie Annie rejoin the party. Atarax agrees that Auntie Em did seem to be telling the truth, but points out that she didn’t offer a lot of detail. He is convinced that Auntie Em is hiding the truth by not providing a lot of detail, rather than by lying.
Auntie Annie maintains that her sister is not powerful enough to be responsible for the effects the party has described. She does have an idea. She pulls a book off the shelf and shows them a picture of a giant with a third arm growing out of its chest, an Athach. “The third arm would have been something like this, wouldn’t it?”
The party agrees. Auntie Annie reiterates that in order to get the kind of strength they had discribed, someone specializing in sympathetic magic would have to find something like an Atthach and take a piece of it, like a fingernail, or even better, blood. It is possible that such an effect would also cause the growth of a third arm. However, in order to get the strength that the party describes, and give it to so many people, it would take a lot of blood.
The party puts aside the question of how this was done for a while, and asks Annie if she could create something to protect them from the mind control effect.
“Yes,” responds, “but I’ll need a sample of your blood.”
The room goes silent, then the party cries, almost in unison, “No!”
7th of Charder
The party, Thar in particular, fights off another bout of mind control during the night, but this time no one appears effected. In the morning the party decides to return to Gariarch’s camp, traveling through the area they know to be patrolled. Hopefully they’ll encounter another patrol and capture someone a little more observant then Flinz. Rhuun retrieves her sap from her backpack and sticks it in her belt. Krikara manages to scrounge a small sack and create a makeshift sap of her own.
Thar hopes to learn more at Gariarch’s camp. “Why did he leave Sanctuary?” Thar asks, “No one forced him out in the strictest sense. As far as we know he just picked up and left with all of his loot, all his followers, and a bunch of prisoners. He cleared out and then hid. What could scare him?”
If they cannot get to Auntie Em, they need to seek out the only person they know of who may be able to neutralize Auntie Em’s sympathetic magic, her sister Auntie Annie. That will require a journey through the Hellmouth to Gulg, a dangerous course, but perhaps their only option. Foleful believes that distance should decrease the effectiveness of the mind control, thus improving their chances of success.
Again Krikara scouts ahead as the party, and soon she hears a wet slapping, squishing sound approaching. She drops back to the party, and soon they seen a strange many tentacled creature dragging itself down the tunnel toward them. The creature would clearly be more comfortable in a marsh or swamp, and has the same not-quite-right quality that the rast possessed the day before. The party’s first volley of attacks had little effect. Krikara’s arrows and Atarax’s charm monster spell both appeared ineffective against the chaos infused aberration. The tentacled thing was able to squirm under the full brunt of Moroku’s lighting bolt, and Foleful’s stinking cloud does not slow the creature down at all.
Atarax begins singing and the party backs away from the advancing creature, but Foleful is not fast enough. A long tentacle streaks out of the stinking cloud, wraps around him, and drags him back in. “No, I’m poisonous! I’m poisonous!” he shrieks as he is dragged out of sight.
The party cannot see their opponent through the cloud, so Thar dispels it, almost yelling the prayer which accompanies the spell in his frustration.
Atarax seizes the initiative, "Swamp brother! We’re so happy to see you. I suggest that you don’t touch the xvart, he’s poisonous.”
The tentacled creature promptly drops Foleful. Elemental charges forward to scoop up Foleful, but is caught by another tentacle. Meanwhile, Foleful, incapacitated by his own stinking cloud, begins hallucinating from his contact with the chaos creature.
Elemental manages to squirm free of the tentacle and drag Foleful out of harms way. The party attempts to bring down the creature. Atarax’s alchemist fire and Thar’s magic stone spell prove ineffective, but Moroku manages to bring down the beast with two volley’s of magic missiles.
The party takes stock and heals Foleful and Elemental. Foleful seems confused and flighty after his contact with the tentacled creature, but the party can do nothing for him, so they continue their journey.
[Game Note: Foleful’s player had great fun playing him after he took a considerable amount of wisdom damage during the battle.]
Soon they reach Gariarch’s camp. Krikara reports the party that she hears the chewing noises that are indicitave of the rat-creatures. Foleful seems gleeful at the opportunity to observe the creatures in action, and atop Elemental, flies into the main cavern of the camp. “Hey guys,” he calls back, “We have guests, and they seem like really nice guys.”
The four goblins, turned into rat creatures by the mysterious contagion do not, in fact, seem like nice guys. They charge Foleful, raking the little xvart with their claws. Foleful panics and drops solid fog over the entire area. This does succeed in slowing the rat creatures, but it also delays his escape long enough for them to claw at him again.
Thar casts freedom of movement on Rhuun and Krikara and they move into the cloud, quickly dispatching the rat creatures trapped there.
Soon the cloud has disbursed and Foleful able to pull himself together enough to cast some more divinations. He casts a thought capture near a goblin slave which was killed by swords, and gets a clear image of Mikek, very businesslike, running the goblin through. He casts another thought capture near a goblin slave killed by a morningstar, and gasps in surprise at the image he receives. He sees a bugbear come around the corner and crush the goblins skull with a morningstar. It is not seeing a surviving bugbear which shocks Foleful. It is that the bugbear looks distressingly like Egor.
The party is shocked. “Egor, the little goblin who stood in back and couldn’t hit anything with that bow of his? A bugbear? What’s going on here?”
Foleful casts a final thought capture near Gariarch and receives the bugbear’s last thoughts. “Gotta get them before they get away.” Then there is nothing but pain and surprise.
Thar casts speak with the dead on one of Gariarch’s lieutainents. “Why did Gariarch leave bugbeartown and come here?”
"The rat bastards."
“Who are the rat bastards?”
“Sneaking, little cheating rat-bastards. Jermelaine. And the shapeshifters.”
The party looked at each other in surprise. “What did the shapeshifters do?”
“They shapechanged into one of us. Caused chaos.”
“What’s so important about the stone gauntlets?”
“They meld stone, dumbass.” And with that the bugbear’s spirit was free.
The whole party began talking at once. “So even the Jermelaine aren’t a coincidence? They were sent to keep an eye on Gariarch?”
“The evil genius is using the Jermelaine? I was hoping they would work for us.”
“Shapechangers. Well, that explains Egor.”
“Probably Mikek’s entire group are shapechangers. It just keeps getting better.”
“One of us could be a shapechanger right now, and we’d never know it.”
“No wonder Gariarch cleared out.”
During the conversation Atarax trails off in mid sentence, but recovers quickly and only Krikara pays much attention. Thar decides they’ve covered all the ground their going to in one night and goes into Gariarch’s cave to meditate. Krikara begins teaching Atarax to speak darkcreeper, and the others disperse.
It is second watch when Krikara hears Flinz and Chip talking. Chip is saying that he can’t wait to get back to Zorn. Krikara wanders over to where Rhuun stands on watch and explains what she heard. Rhuun doesn’t hesitate, the pair pull out their saps, walk over to Flinz and Chip, and bludgeon them into unconciousness. The rest of the party is awoken by Flinz’s cries, but by the time they arrive Rhuun is already chaining the pair to the wall.
Krikara quickly explains what she heard. Foleful is enraged. He casts as summon monster spell. Thar, surprised and disgusted smacks the xvart on the back of the head, trying to disrupt the spell, but Foleful completes the incantation. An earth elemental stirge pops into existence, but the rest of the party destroys it before it can latch onto Chip. The party is angered by Foleful’s behavior, but he insists that Chip and Flinz must be killed, “For all we know the Evil Genius is looking at us through those eyes!”
Eventually they manage to calm Foleful down and return to sleep, but the night is disrupted a second time when Krikara hears Atarax talking to the prisoners about his love for Zorn. The party is awakened again as Krikara angrily confronts the goblin bard, but he manages to pacify them, explaining that he was just trying to get information out of them.
8th of Charder
The next day Thar begins by casting a zone of truth around the party and instructing everyone to say that they don’t love Zorn. Chip and Flinz are unable to pass the test, but everyone else seems fine. Foleful eventually badgers them into admitting the truth, mostly by taking advantage of Flinz’s low pain tolerance. They explain that they intended to conceal their loyalty to Zorn and slip away while no one was looking.
Thar casts a remove disease spell on Foleful to neutralize any ill effects from the rat-goblins bite and follows it up with a restoration in the hopes of neutralizing any lasting effects from his encounter with the chaos creature. Foleful immediately feels much better and admits that his encounter with the tentacled aberation left his confused.
While Thar works Krikara huddles with Moroku. When they’re done talking Moroku turns to Atarax and casts a dispel magic. Atarax seems confused for a minute and then admits that he was under the same compulsion as Flinz and Chip.
Atarax comes up with a more dependable test for mind control. He explains that his horn of good creates an effect that will neutralize mind control in the area for a short time. He offers that the effect could be used to reveal who was mind controlled, and Moroku could then dispel the effect. The party tests the theory on Chip and Flinz, who immediately return to normal and are quite distressed to once more have their minds played with.
[Game Note: Somewhere along the line we deduced that area dispels were ineffective against the sympathetic magic mind control. In other mind control action, Forrester ruled that since Atarax hadn’t actually instructed Krikara to do anything, she didn’t realize he had effected her with a Charm Monster spell either during the periods in the protection from evil effect, or after it wore off completely.]
Soon thereafter the party leaves for Gulg. They travel through the Hellmouth, dodging dangerous creatures and using their elaborate combination of stone shape, the horn of good, and Moroku’s dispel magic spells to keep themselves free of mental domination. When they reach Gulg, four and a half days later, none of them love Zorn and they are all hopeful that Auntie Annie will be able to help them.
Somewhere along the trip, Thar casts a sending to communicate with Filbin, the cleric he had trained back and Blarkarg camp. “It’s all going to hell here. How are you doing?”
“Fine boss. We’re not slaves yet.”
13th of Charder
The party enters Gulg through the same hidden route that Atarax and Foleful used to leave it not long before. They soon find Auntie Annie’s shop. The tall, gaunt, old woman is behind a counter set up outside and she greets Atarax warmly.
Atarax begins by negotiating a price to alter the cloak that he took from the cat-demons, but soon moves on to more important things. Auntie Annie admits that she has heard from her sister about the rat-disease in Sanctuary. When Atarax mentions that Auntie Em had spoken unkindly of her sister, Annie offers that Em is jealous of her talents, or just thought that Atarax was trying to use his connection with Annie to get a discount.
Atarax begins asking about some of the effects they have seen and attributed to sympathetic magic. Auntie Annie seems disbelieving at the tails of greatly increased strength, but is interested enough to invite the party inside her shop.
Atarax asks Flinz to tell Auntie Annie her story. He attempts to make further inquiries about Auntie Em and her capabilites but Annie grows impatient with the little information he offers. Foleful turns to the others, “Huddle. Do we have anything to lose here?” he asks forcefully. “Do we have anything to lose?!”
The party looks at each other, and one by one shakes their heads. “We don’t know anything that our enemies don’t know already.” says Thar. “Tell her all of it.”
So Atarax tells all, including their suspicions about Auntie Em’s part of the mind control plot, and their thoughts that Em is responsible for giving the humanoids following Zorn increased strength.
Eventually Annie cuts Atarax off. “There is no way that my sister has the power to do this. Do you have any idea of the raw power it would take to maintain a charm effect over that many creatures? To transform that many creatures. It can’t be done.”
However the party keeps on her. Thar offers that this might be a case of professional rivalry, that ‘it can’t be done,’ really means, ‘I couldn’t do it.’ Auntie Annie is admitant the Auntie Em couldn’t be responsible for these effects, but eventually seems convinced that impossible or not, what the party describes is really happening. She does offer one interesting observation. “How do you get strength like that?” she asks. “You can’t just create it. You have to borrow it.”
Auntie Annie decides to talk to her sister. She leads Atarax into another room, where he stands, invisible, while Annie smears oil on a mirror and says a few words over it. Soon the reflection swirls and another room appears in the mirror. A bell rings and moments later another old woman walks across the room to stand before the mirror. As they stand looking at each other Atarax thinks that it really could be a reflection. The two are nearly identical.
The two great each other, and Annie tells her sister that she has heard about trouble in Freetown. Em admits there has been, “The cutest little group of adventurers, attacking people and causing trouble.” She also offers the rat-disease and other weird things have been happening.
The two sisters exchange pleasantries and agree that they should see each other more often. Auntie Em assures her sister that everything is business as usual, she has no reason to worry.
When the conversation is over Atarax and Auntie Annie rejoin the party. Atarax agrees that Auntie Em did seem to be telling the truth, but points out that she didn’t offer a lot of detail. He is convinced that Auntie Em is hiding the truth by not providing a lot of detail, rather than by lying.
Auntie Annie maintains that her sister is not powerful enough to be responsible for the effects the party has described. She does have an idea. She pulls a book off the shelf and shows them a picture of a giant with a third arm growing out of its chest, an Athach. “The third arm would have been something like this, wouldn’t it?”
The party agrees. Auntie Annie reiterates that in order to get the kind of strength they had discribed, someone specializing in sympathetic magic would have to find something like an Atthach and take a piece of it, like a fingernail, or even better, blood. It is possible that such an effect would also cause the growth of a third arm. However, in order to get the strength that the party describes, and give it to so many people, it would take a lot of blood.
The party puts aside the question of how this was done for a while, and asks Annie if she could create something to protect them from the mind control effect.
“Yes,” responds, “but I’ll need a sample of your blood.”
The room goes silent, then the party cries, almost in unison, “No!”
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