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The Kordovian Adventurers Guild
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<blockquote data-quote="Richards" data-source="post: 7200532" data-attributes="member: 508"><p><strong>ADVENTURE 37: DEVILS IN THE DETAILS</strong></p><p></p><p>Game Session Date: 12 August 2017</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>Jinkadoodle brought the dragonfly vessel to a shaky hover just above a field of wheat along the eastern outskirts of Greyhawk City. One by one, the others climbed down the rope ladder and disembarked, leaving Aithanar to pull it back up once everyone had departed the ship.</p><p></p><p>"We'll meet you back here at sundown!" he called down to the others, and then Jinkadoodle sent the dragonfly ship soaring up into the sky - he'd be spending the rest of the day practicing maneuvering the spelljamming vessel and getting used to sensing everything around the ship through the vessel's helm. Aithanar would be tending to the group's various animals, kept in the secret lower hold where one of the bedrooms had been converted to a stable of sorts.</p><p></p><p>As for the heroes, they had other things to do: shopping! Aerik had provided them with a list of the prominent magic shops in Greyhawk City and the heroes all had their accumulated riches stashed away with them. King Galrich had specifically instructed them to outfit themselves with the best magical equipment they could, and that's exactly what they intended to do. However, since Ingebold carried their only extradimensional source - the <em>portable hole</em> - capable of carrying all of their accumulated riches, the group needed to stay together, rather than each go their separate ways.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink and Finoula dropped off their armor at a respectable armorsmith's shop and paid in advance for the magical upgrades they wanted done; the gnome's red dragon plate mail could easily be modified to provide him resistance from fire-based attacks, whereas the elven ranger wanted her armor fortified to better protect her from sneak attacks and the like. Fortunately, Binkadink had a spare set of chain mail armor that he wore while his "good armor" was being upgraded; Finoula had no such set of backup armor and thus walked the streets of Greyhawk City in a comfortable outfit, the sword and whip strapped to her belt the only indicators of her adventurer status. At the same armorsmith, Ingebold purchased a beautifully-crafted suit of chainmail; she walked away more heavily-armored than when she arrived, in direct opposition to both Finoula and Binkadink. She also later picked up a pair of boots that increased her ability to leap and to move at a faster pace. "It'll be good t' no' be always fallin' behind th' rest of ye," she commented as she pulled on her new <em>boots of striding and springing</em>.</p><p></p><p>Darrien surrendered his <em>Arachnibow</em> at a famed weaponsmith's shop, to have it enhanced with an <em>icy burst</em> effect. Fortunately, he had a spare composite longbow to tide him over for the week or so it would take for the enhancement to be made. Castillan had in idea of what he wanted, but had to have it custom-made. He handed over his money, eager for the ring to be crafted that would allow him to effect the equivalent of a <em>dimension door</em> spell three times a day. He, too, was told to check back in a week's time.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert's purchases were mostly of spell scrolls and potions, and although they were ready for immediate use as-is he intended to study the scrolls carefully in the days to follow, to learn the secrets of the spells they contained. Then they'd be carefully inscribed into the spellbook section of his <em>Omnibook</em>, which would allow him to be able to cast those spells as needed. Of course, as he bought nearly two dozen spell scrolls, he'd be rather busy for several weeks inscribing these into his spellbook, but such were the ways of a wizard. He also traded in his <em>bracers of armor</em> for a more powerful set. Darrien picked up a few potions to tide him over; he got a few odd looks from the other customers and people who passed him in the streets, since he'd decided to embrace his heritage as a half-aquatic elf and had stopped taking the medicated raisins that had kept his skin and hair away from the greenish end of the color spectrum. His skin still had only a hint of green, seen only under certain lighting conditions, but his hair was now a thick, lustrous pine green.</p><p></p><p>By early afternoon, the heroes had attended to most of what they'd wished to accomplish. They grabbed a quick bite at an outdoor eatery, then strolled the streets of the unfamiliar city to see the sights. They were accosted at the site of a fountain by a one-handed beggar asking them for coins. He held out a small, filthy cloth sack in his left hand, his right arm ending in a stump. Castillan was in the process of handing him over five pieces of gold - a slightly comical process, given that the bounder was holding out the coins as if to pass them over but the beggar's sole hand was holding the cloth sack and he was thus unable to grab them - when a fearful cry rang out through the air.</p><p></p><p>"No! Leave me alone! Help! Help!" called what started out as a masculine voice but which got increasingly high-pitched in terror.</p><p></p><p>Castillan looked over at the sound, leaving the five coins held in his outstretched hand while the frustrated beggar desperately tried to figure out how to get them into his bag with only his left hand. Finoula stepped over and saw a heavy figure running into a nearby alley, pursued by a short man wearing a hooded cloak. The pursuer had a long dagger brandished in his right hand. "Hey!" she called, hoping to scare the attacker into fleeing upon realizing he was under observation.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink took matters a bit closer into hand. Extending his <em>gnomish stilt-boots</em> to increase the length of his strides, he raced up behind the pursuing attacker. While the heavyset man skidded around a corner and raced against one of the walls separating the city into districts, Binkadink sent his glaive crashing into the side of the pursuer's head. He was careful to twist the blade so the flat part of it struck the gnome's victim; in a strange city for the first time, the fighter had no intentions of slaying somebody his first day there. The hooded figure stumbled, slammed into a side wall, and collapsed into a heap of twisted limbs, his sharp dagger clattering to the cobbles of the alley. Rolling onto his back, his hood flipped back from his face, exposing a sharp, black beak and a face covered with dark feathers. Binkadink wasn't aware of it yet, but he'd just met up with his first kenku.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, ignorant of his gnomish savior behind him, the would-be victim raced straight for the wall ahead of him and fear helped him scamper up it and pull his bulk over the top, dropping down into the neighboring district in a move that would have made Castillan nod in begrudging appreciation.</p><p></p><p>But Castillan wasn't within sight of the fat man's impressive physical feat; he had finally turned his attention back to the beggar and deposited his coins into the filthy bag. With a nod of appreciation, the beggar made his way across the fountain and scampered away in a hurry. Turning, the bounder saw the reason why: two armed guardsman were fast approaching, apparently having heard the cries for help. Looking at the numerous coins sitting at the bottom of the fountain, Castillan could only imagine beggars were constantly being shooed away from such a source of easy money.</p><p></p><p>"What's going on here?" demanded one of the guardsmen, approaching Binkadink warily. The gnome had dropped his stilt-boots down to normal gnomish height, the better to look inoffensive, and although he still held his glaive he gripped it one-handed at his side and held his other hand in the air. The guardsmen were both armed with halberds, and had them pointed at the gnome responsible for this assault on an unconscious victim. Binkadink quickly gave his version of events, while the rest of the Kordovians approached.</p><p></p><p>"You're all going to have to come with us," said one of the guardsmen. "We'll let the magistrate sort things out." Binkadink went willingly with the guards and the others followed.</p><p></p><p>Inside the courtroom, the others filed into the rows of pew-like seats as Binkadink and the two guards stood before the magistrate's bench. The gnome had just begun telling his story when a page entered the room and approached the magistrate, whispering into the older man's ear once he got there.</p><p></p><p>The magistrate pounded on the bench with his gavel. "Clear the courtroom," he commanded, and the two or three others sitting in the viewing area got up to leave. So, too, did the stenographer, the bailey, and, at a nod from the magistrate, the two guards who had brought Binkadink in for questioning. Then, with the admonishment to "Remain here - the Guildmaster will be here shortly to hear your story," the magistrate got up himself and departed the room, leaving the seven bewildered heroes alone in the courtroom.</p><p></p><p>Moments later, the door opened up again and another hooded figure entered the room, his robes as dark as the magistrate's who had just departed. This one wore a mask hiding his face; he walked behind the magistrate's bench, took a seat, and looked down at the assembled heroes.</p><p></p><p>"Are you the individuals involved in the attack on the kenku?" demanded the masked man. Then, before any of them had a chance to answer, he pulled the mask from his face and stared directly at Finoula in complete astonishment. "<em>Feron</em>?" he asked.</p><p></p><p>Finoula stood up from her seat and addressed the man behind the magistrate's desk. "Uh, no, Your Honor. My name is Finoula Cloudshadow; I'm Feron's older sister."</p><p></p><p>"Well, I'll be damned," replied the once-masked man. "Full elf, I see, now that I look harder. Well." He cleared his throat, then continued with what he was going to say. "I am <strong>Guildmaster Rale Bodkin</strong>. I once adventured with Feron - in fact, she and I were <em>very close</em>, if you know what I mean - but now I am one of the secret leaders of this city, running the only legitimate thieves' guild and a guild of stage actors. I'm also the head of the Collectors, a band of kenku information brokers. The kenku you attacked, <strong>K'Klark</strong>, he works for me. Would you care to explain yourselves?"</p><p></p><p>Binkadink explained what had happened, taking special care to point out how he'd attacked with the flat of his blade when he could have easily slain the kenku. Rale listened quietly, nodding to himself on occasion. At the end of the gnome's account, Rale explained what was going on. "There's been a rash of devil sightings throughout the city recently. And, perhaps not coincidentally, there have also been attacks against certain of my establishments. It's my belief that the two are related, that there's a rival in town using devils to try to bring down my Guild. K'Klark was looking into a recent lead when you encountered him. I want you to pick up where he left off. The man he was after, <strong>Dunkleman</strong>, owns a handful of warehouses. He's gone to ground after K'Klark went after him, but I’ve got my Collectors looking for him. In the meantime, I want you to check into his warehouses, see if you can find anything implicating him in the devil attacks. Do that for me, and we'll forget the cost of K'Klark’s healing. Agreed?"</p><p></p><p>"Agreed," replied Binkadink. Rale gave them the address to the warehouse he wanted them to check out and gave them instructions to report back to one of his associates, <strong>Chunk</strong>, the owner of a nearby pawnshop. "Chunk'll be able to get word back to me," Rale replied.</p><p></p><p>The group filed out of the courtroom and headed to the location of Dunkleman's warehouse. It was in the shoddier end of town, a section referred to as "the Styes." The warehouse, once they got to it, was fairly unimpressive-looking; a single-story structure, with only one set of doors leading to a muddy street. A cheap-looking padlock attached to a metal chain wound through the two door handles provided the only visible protection.</p><p></p><p>"This will be a piece of cake," scoffed Castillan, whipping out his lockpicking set.</p><p></p><p>"Not so fast, elf boy," advised Gilbert Fung. "We do some prep spells first." He cast a <em>mage armor</em> spell on himself and Mudpie, while Finoula and Darrien each cast <em>barkskin</em> spells on themselves. Gilbert and Hagan each chose to protect themselves with <em>stoneskin</em> spells, while Ingebold cast a <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell centered on herself. "If it's devils we be up against, 'specially summoned ones, ye'll be wantin' t' stay close t' me," she advised.</p><p></p><p>"Hey, Gilbert, how about a <em>mage armor </em>spell for me as well?" asked Finoula. She felt particularly vulnerable without any type of armor, since hers was back at the armorsmith's being upgraded.</p><p></p><p>"I got no more <em>mage armor</em> spells ready," responded Gilbert. "But here," he said, digging through his pack, "You can have this." He handed her over a potion vial. She drank it down in a gulp, wincing at the unpleasant aftertaste, and then her skin erupted in goose bumps all over as she started feeling itchy all over. "It a 'Winkidew Special'," the mage advised, as Finoula's visible skin turned a bright bluish shade.</p><p></p><p>The ranger frowned at Gilbert. "I look ridiculous!" she complained.</p><p></p><p>"I can turn your hair blue, to match," offered Binkadink, smirking at the thought of changing somebody's hair color <em>on request</em> for once.</p><p></p><p>"No thanks," grumbled Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"We just explain you a rare strain of friendly drow," offered Gilbert, smiling.</p><p></p><p>"Just open the lock already, Castillan," commanded Finoula. "I think we're all done with our prepping out here." Castillan dutifully gave a quick twist of his wrist and the lock popped open in his hand. He pulled out the chain and opened the doors, revealing the warehouse's interior. All but the back right corner - which was walled off, likely as an office room - was one large, open room with crates and barrels stacked in a haphazard fashion. There were flickering lights in the back left corner; as the group approached, they saw numerous black candles in place around a magic circle carved in the warehouse floor. Lying in the middle of this circle was a human with a sacrificial knife - one of these with a blade that curved back and forth like a wriggling snake - sticking out of his heart. He wore tattered clothes and an expression of pain frozen on his face.</p><p></p><p>Everyone approached cautiously. "Nobody enter circle," warned Gilbert. Darrien peered into an open crate close to the circle and found a pile of dark-colored robes. Ingebold cast a <em>detect magic</em> spell and peered closely at the circle, then at the entire back of the warehouse, including the office where Hagan, after having peeked into the window and seeing it empty of people, was entering through the sole door. "Th' circle's safe," she advised. "It's not radiatin' any magic at all."</p><p></p><p>Inside the office, Hagan found a piece of paper atop the desk. Picking it up, he read over the contents and then returned to read it to the group. "Listen to this," he said. "'Sacrifice a human by midnight tonight to ensure the completion of the next of our goals.' It's signed 'High Priest Dunkleman'."</p><p></p><p>"So this Dunkleman guy is behind this," concluded Darrien.</p><p></p><p>"Not so fast," advised Gilbert, examining the magic circle, as Binkadink piped up with, "I don't like this. It's almost <em>too</em> perfect."</p><p></p><p>"I agree, gnome. This no proper magic circle. You couldn't summon a devil using this. Couldn't summon <em>anything</em>. It all stage dressing."</p><p></p><p>Binkadink poked at the corpse with his glaive, sliding the tip of the blade underneath him and flipping him over. Rigidity had already possessed the corpse - he'd apparently been dead for some time, probably since the previous night. But what Binkadink wanted to see was how much blood had pooled beneath the corpse, and the answer was evident to all who could see it: not nearly enough. "This poor guy, whoever he was, wasn't even killed here," surmised the gnome.</p><p></p><p>"Then it's a setup," concluded Finoula. "Do you think this Rale guy is behind it? That he sent us here to find this, so we'd implicate Dunkleman?"</p><p></p><p>"Not sure what he'd gain by doing that," commented Gilbert. "But <em>somebody</em> framing Dunkleman as guy behind devil attacks."</p><p></p><p>That was all <strong>Niedelmeyer</strong> needed to hear. He'd been left here by his master to wait until the setup in the warehouse had been discovered. If, as his master had hoped, this led to Dunkleman being set up as a patsy, he was to allow the discoverers to live and go about their merry way passing on the fabrications about who was behind the devil attacks in the city. But if they didn't fall for the story, then he had been given express permission to take them all out. Dismissing the <em>major illusion</em> cloaking him as a stack of crates, Niedelmeyer struck.</p><p></p><p>Darrien was the closest target at hand, so the barbed devil slashed out at him from behind with his wicked claws. "Look out!" cried Finoula, seeing the creature's claws coming down on the half-elf, and Darrien spun in place, seeing too late the fierce claws bearing down on him. He had no time to dodge, so he instinctively raised an arm to try to block the razor-sharp claws from ripping off his face...</p><p></p><p>...but then, inexplicably, the claws stopped a mere inches from the half-elf ranger's upthrust arm. There was a horrendous noise, like fingernails scraping along a piece of slate, and Niedelmeyer's claws scraped off the invisible barrier around Ingebold afforded by her <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell. The spell provided a handful of benefits, but the important one at hand was preventing evil summoned creatures from approaching within ten feet of the spell's focal point. Darrien was fortunately just inside that invisible barrier.</p><p></p><p>Niedelmeyer shrieked in rage at being denied his victim as Finoula raced forward, stepping outside the protective barrier of Ingebold's <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell. But she had no thoughts of squaring off against this barbed devil just yet; activating her magic amulet, her body became a bolt of lightning that coursed through Niedelmeyer's fiendish body and deposited the ranger back in her normal form a good ten feet away. She glanced at her foe, hoping to see him doubled over in pain at her attack, but no such luck; many devils had an inherent resistance against spells and their effects, and it looks like this time she had failed to overcome his magical protection.</p><p></p><p>Still, it seemed like a fine idea to Hagan, so he copied Finoula's attack as best he could. While he didn't have an <em>amulet of lightning</em> as she did, he did know how to cast a <em>lightning bolt</em> spell and he stepped forth and did just that, careful to line up his attack so it wouldn't hit Finoula on the other side of the barbed devil. Unfortunately, the sorcerer was no more effective with his electrical attack than the elven ranger had been at hers.</p><p></p><p>From within the safety of the <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell, Darrien sent a flurry of arrows, one after the other, at the barbed devil. Each struck true, but they snapped in half upon striking the devils' spiny hide or else just got caught up in the numerous barbs and spines poking out of the creature's rough skin. Assessing the situation with a calculating eye, the ranger deemed his arrows to be ineffective against the barbed devil; obviously, a different approach would be needed.</p><p></p><p>Castillan was the next to attack. Using various crates as stepping stones, he dashed behind the barbed devil and stabbed at it with his short sword. He managed to penetrate the beast's hide, and fortunately his blade was just long enough to prevent any of the spines from piercing his hand in return. But quick as a flash, the barbed devil spun around and raked his claws against the bounder's body before grappling him in a bear hug that pierced through his studded leather armor in a variety of places. Fortunately for the bounder, Niedelmeyer was well aware he was fighting seven opponents and couldn't focus his concentration on just one foe, so he dropped Castillan from his embrace and spun, snarling, to face the rest of his enemies.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert cast a <em>haste</em> spell that encompassed all of his friends. "See how you like that, Pokey!" he taunted.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink rushed up the edge of the confines of Ingebold's protective spell and lashed out with his glaive. Surprisingly, the nimble devil avoided the thrust of his blade. But then Finoula reversed her course as another flash of lightning, this time ending up right where she'd been before her first such attack. She was saddened to see this one had not managed to overcome the barbed devil's innate spell resistance either. And neither did Hagan's follow-up <em>lightning bolt</em> attack, which passed through Niedelmeyer's body without the devil even seeming to notice.</p><p></p><p>But perhaps that was because the barbed devil's focus was on Ingebold. In the midst of furious combat, it had singled her out as the likely caster of the <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell. So it blasted at her with a pair of <em>scorching rays</em> that took the dwarven cleric completely by surprise. She responded in kind, though, casting a <em>holy smite</em> spell on the barbed devil that caused him quite a bit of consternation. That gave Castillan enough time to stagger back into the radius of her <em>magic circle against evil</em>, safe at least against Niedelmeyer's physical attacks.</p><p></p><p>Darrien had figured out his follow-on attack, given his arrows weren't likely to be of much use. Touching the amber amulet he wore around his neck, he summoned forth the giant praying mantis that lived within it. The mantis manifested directly behind Niedelmeyer and snatched at him with its fearsome claws, but the barbed devil dodged the giant insect's attacks.</p><p></p><p>Binkadink stabbed at the fiend again and again with his magical glaive, this time managing to penetrate deeply with several of his attacks. Niedelmeyer took a step back but refused to divert his attention from his intended target: two more <em>scorching rays</em> went blasting into Ingebold's form, and she staggered back a step from the onslaught. Begrudgingly, she was forced to cast a healing spell upon herself instead of attacking the barbed devil like she wanted, but she realized she'd be no good to the group if she dropped into unconsciousness, or - even worse - allowed herself to be slain because of her own stubborn pride.</p><p></p><p>Hagan cast another <em>lightning bolt</em> spell at the wounded barbed devil, and the third time seemed to be the charm. Niedelmeyer staggered under the electrical attack, all but dead on his feet. Finoula stepped up beside him and slashed down at the devil with her longsword <em>Tahlmalaera</em>, and the recent <em>fiend bane</em> enhancement to her sword was all it took to slay the barbed beast. The fiend's body exploded in a puff of rancid gas, leaving nothing behind but a nasty odor.</p><p></p><p>"Good job, everyone," Ingebold called to the group at large, as they started lining up to be healed. After having his wounds sealed up, Castillan approached Hagan and asked to see the paper the half-orc had unearthed in the warehouse office before battle began. Looking over the written words with a practiced eye, he deduced the letter had been written by a right-handed man using his left hand, possibly in an attempt to disguise his handwriting.</p><p></p><p>Having gathered all the information they could from the warehouse, the group headed over to Chunk's Pawnshop to check in. But as they approached, they heard screams of terror and ran into a herd of frenzied people. "Run!" cried a woman as she fled past. "Another devil attack!" screamed another.</p><p></p><p>The heroes surged forward through the panicked crowd, fighting their way toward Chunk's. They heard bellowing and the crashing of furniture from inside the building.</p><p></p><p>Finoula, perhaps because of her current lack of armor, was the first to reach the doors to the pawnshop. Stepping inside, she saw a large man in well-worn leather armor - Chunk himself, no doubt - rounding from behind a counter with a large cudgel in his hand. But there in the middle of the shop was a human-sized creature wearing an odd assortment of chains. It slammed down at a table of merchandise with its chains, causing the table to rupture in two and all of the goods displayed there to crash to the floor. The ranger raced up to the chain devil and slashed out with <em>Tahlmalaera</em>; if the fiend was surprised at being attacked by a bright blue elf it gave no indication. Instead, it slammed at her with its chains, causing blood to erupt from Finoula's nose.</p><p></p><p>Ingebold stepped into the store next, invoking the words to a <em>spiritual weapon</em> spell as she did so. A dwarven warhammer made of pure force materialized before her and crashed into the chain devil, knocking its chain-shrouded head back by the force of the blow. <strong>Bonecruncher</strong> just grunted and carried on his attacks.</p><p></p><p>Darrien entered the pawnshop, called out to Chunk to stay back, and fired his composite bow at the chain devil. The arrow was deflected off a swinging chain; whether this was intentional on the part of the fiend or just random luck was open to debate. But Hagan entered just behind Darrien and rather than attack from a distance as the ranger had done the sorcerer ran straight up to the chain devil, ducking his head slightly beneath the hovering <em>spiritual weapon</em>. Hagan blasted at it with one of his most powerful spells, and although the <em>cone of cold</em> hit Bonecruncher head-on, all that happened was the sorcerer learned the hard way that chain devils are immune to cold. Wezhley hissed in annoyance on Hagan's shoulder at his master's failure to harm their fiendish foe.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert and Mudpie entered next, and the wizard had his earth elemental familiar strike at the fiend with its rocky fists. The attack held the chain devil's attention long enough for Castillan to lope around behind it - but not so much that it wasn't able to slam at the bounder with a quick-striking chain as he fled past. Still, the bounder took the pain in stride as he continued his move: striking deep into the devil's body with his short sword, twisting the blade once it was in. Bonecruncher cried out in pain, and Finoula once again made the finishing stroke with <em>Tahlmalaera</em>. The chain devil's body crashed to the ground amidst a cacophony of clattering metal links, but once it landed it was gone in a flash.</p><p></p><p>"Thanks," replied Chunk, wiping the sweat from his forehead and getting a good look at those who had taken care of the devil who had suddenly appeared and started trashing his place. "Hey, are you guys Rale's new crew?" he asked. "I was told you'd be checking in later."</p><p></p><p>"Well, we're working with him for the moment," replied Finoula, brow furrowing at the look Chunk was giving her until she remembered she was bright blue. She gave Chunk a rundown of what they had found at the warehouse, and how it looked like somebody was trying to put the blame of the devil attacks on this Dunkleman character.</p><p></p><p>"I never heard of him," admitted Chunk. "But I'll pass on your report to Rale, once one of my useless assistants shows back up!" Several other rogues worked for Chunk, but they'd all hightailed it once the chain devil appeared.</p><p></p><p>A tinkling of the bell above the front door alerted the group to the presence of another person entering the pawnshop. Looking up to see if it was one of the shop's other workers, the group saw another hooded, cloaked figure - and once he pulled back the hood, that this was another kenku.</p><p></p><p>"I'm <strong>Skrawk</strong>," he said by way of introduction. "You the new guys working for Rale?"</p><p></p><p>"For now, at least," offered up Castillan. "What's up?"</p><p></p><p>"I'm here to report in to Chunk, but I can let you guys know as well. We found Dunkleman. One of the Collectors trailed him to a small manor house on Silver Street. He went inside about half an hour or so ago but hasn't come back out since."</p><p></p><p>"You guys want to go check this out?" asked Chunk.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert sighed. "Might as well. Give me address to manor house."</p><p></p><p>As one might expect by the name of the street on which the manor house was situated, this was in one of the better neighborhoods in the city - not where the truly rich lived, but not too far down the social ladder. The manor was fairly small compared to its neighbors, but it was surrounded by an iron fence and thick hedges, providing the owners with a bit of privacy.</p><p></p><p>"How do we want to do this?" asked Castillan.</p><p></p><p>"Let's begin with a bit of reconnaissance," suggested Hagan, taking Wezhley from his shoulder. Talking quietly to his familiar, the half-orc set the weasel down on the ground and he scampered off, making a bee-line for the structure built to the side of the manor proper - likely a wagon shed or carriage house. The weasel made it safely underneath the dual doors, confirming there was little there - not even a wagon or a cart. There was a door at the back of the structure that likely led directly into the manor house, but the weasel, while quite intelligent, wasn't able to open it, nor could he squeeze beneath as he had done with the doors to the carriage house. Exiting the way he'd come in, he made a full circuit around the house, climbing up onto windowsills and peeking inside when he could. He identified a small bedroom filled with three sets of bunks (which likely indicated at least six people inside) and a kitchen and dining room, but saw nobody through the windows. There was an entire upper floor but the weasel had no way to get up there to look, so he returned and passed on his findings to his master.</p><p></p><p>"Good boy, Wezhley," Hagan praised his familiar, pulling out some of his rations and feeding them to the always-hungry weasel.</p><p></p><p>"Let's see if there a downstairs," suggested Gilbert, sending his own familiar to investigate the possibility. Mudpie sank down into the earth, gliding beneath the surface of the ground and popping his head through the foundation walls to peer at the basement level, which was one big room with a set of stairs leading up to the ground floor over in the northeastern corner. Half of the room was covered in mats and had human-shaped targets against the walls, whereas the other half contained tables containing such things as padlocks and lockpicking tools, a forger's station, and so on.</p><p></p><p>"Somebody setting up rival thieves' guild," Gilbert surmised after Mudpie returned and gave his report. "Not sure how devils fit in, though."</p><p></p><p>The group decided on a two-pronged approach. Castillan and Darrien went around to the back of the manor house, where the bounder would pick the lock to the back door and the two would enter from that direction, while the others went in through the front door. Castillan did a quick search for potential traps and found none before putting his lockpicks to good use. Behind him, Darrien had an arrow nocked and ready.</p><p></p><p>At the front of the manor house, the other five heroes and Mudpie stepped up onto the wooden porch. "Should we just knock?" asked Finoula, but then she got her answer, as directly above them, in the room overlooking the porch, half a dozen men shot crossbows through the murder-holes in the floor built just for that purpose. She and Hagan cried out in sudden pain as arrows pierced their shoulders; Binkadink took this as a sign that all attempts at subterfuge were long since past and smashed open the door with his greatclub.</p><p></p><p>The room before him was a rather comfortable-looking living room, with a plush sofa and a couple of padded chairs around an end table or two. To the right were two sets of stairs, the closest leading upstairs and the other leading down to the basement. Binkadink could see the stairs leading up went to a hallway along the back wall, blocked by a wooden banister; furthermore, behind the banister stood a familiar-looking figure wearing leather armor, glaring down at the heroes below him. It took a second glance for the gnome to notice what at first had failed to stand out: this figure was familiar because they'd seen him earlier that day - it was the stump at the end of his right arm that gave him away.</p><p></p><p>Not wanting to switch weapons and realizing a long glaive might be unwieldy in the confines of a manor house's hallways, Binkadink raced up the stairs wielding his magical greatclub, eyes focused on his target: the erstwhile "beggar" they'd met just before K'Klark attacked Dunkleman. Before he could get there, though, the leather-clad human made a weird gesture, holding his left hand in front of the stump of his right arm - and suddenly, an ice devil appeared at the top of the stairs before an astonished Binkadink.</p><p></p><p>"Kill them all, <strong>Winterkiss</strong>!" commanded <strong>Jack Raptor</strong>, and the ice devil slashed out at the gnome fighter to comply with his master's orders.</p><p></p><p>However, Ingebold put a sudden stop to both of their plans, casting a <em>blade barrier</em> along the hallway at an angle, and directly in the path of where both Jack and Winterkiss stood. With only a second to process any thoughts of evasion, each arrived at the same solution and leaped over the banister onto the floor below. Winterkiss crushed a recliner beneath him as he landed, but Jack fell prone in front of the sofa. However, had they not leaped as they did, they'd both be trapped on the other side of the <em>blade barrier</em> (the ice devil would actually be trapped on both sides of it), with no choice but to move through it to escape.</p><p></p><p>And then, to add insult to injury, Gilbert followed up Ingebold's <em>blade barrier</em> spell with an <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell, causing ebony appendages to rise up from the floor and wrap themselves around the would-be thieves' guildmaster and his ice devil servant. Both were instantly entangled in the writhing tentacles.</p><p></p><p>At the back door, Castillan made it through the lock and slammed the door open; stepping back, he allowed Darrien to enter before him and shoot at the only foe he saw: Winterkiss, enwrapped in a multitude of inky tentacles. The ice devil was not liking his current situation: entwined as he was, he could either try to break free and make it to his master (who he'd then have to also break free from the writhing tentacles), or <em>teleport</em> himself to safety. He chose the latter, appearing on the porch beside Hagan, Finoula, and Ingebold. He needed to kill the fat wizard who had cast the odious spell that still imprisoned his master, and to do that he'd have to first kill the half-orc who stood in his way. But no matter - he had orders to kill them all, anyway!</p><p></p><p>Hagan took an involuntary step back at the sudden appearance of the ice devil beside him, then blasted at him with a <em>lightning bolt</em> spell. Once again, though, he failed to overcome the fiend's innate spell resistance. He cursed his bad luck, and then cursed again as the rogues directly above him shot down at him and the two women now that they'd had time to reload their light crossbows.</p><p></p><p>Half of the rogues had abandoned their room over the porch and headed down the hallway. One approached Binkadink at the top of the stairs, pulling out his short sword as he closed into combat distance, but the gnome killed him with a single slam of his greatclub.</p><p></p><p>Down below, Jack Raptor cursed at his fate. He'd chafed under the rules of Rale's thieves' guild, deciding he'd do whatever it took to tear that guild down and replace it with one he founded himself - and "The Raptor's Talons" had quite a nice ring to it! To that end, he'd cut off his own right hand to prove his worthiness and been rewarded for his faith with the <em>devils claw gauntlet</em>: a metal, clawed hand that fit over his stump and gave him the full mobility of his missing hand - while remaining fully invisible to all but himself. And best of all, the <em>devils claw gauntlet</em> had five stones embedded on the back, one by each knuckle. A close examination of each gem would show a particular flaw in its interior forming the silhouette of one of five devils: a chain devil, an erinyes, a bone devil, a barbed devil, or an ice devil. Touching the gem - as Jack had done when Binkadink first ran up the stairs toward him - summoned the devil, and best of all, when slain the devil returned to the gem to be released again the following day. It was quite a powerful weapon, his gauntlet, one practically guaranteed to aid his rise in power and take down Rale Bodkin and his guilds.</p><p></p><p>And yet here he lay, wrapped in tentacles and unable to move, unable to even reach across with his left hand and summon forth another devil from the two that yet remained: <strong>Militrusia</strong> the erinyes and <strong>Skalarac</strong> the bone devil. It was humiliating!</p><p></p><p>Unwittingly, Gilbert Fung released Jack Raptor from his humiliation when he cast his <em>scorching ray</em> spell at the prone rogue. The blasts of energy struck Jack and fried him to a crisp where he lay, completely helpless and unable to move a muscle. Watching this from above, the rogue behind the one just slain by Binkadink hurriedly dropped his weapons to the floor. "I surrender!" he cried, and behind him another followed suit. It took longer for word to reach those engaged in shooting their crossbows at the heroes below them on the porch that Jack Raptor, who had seemed so powerful and unstoppable, had been slain, but once it did they too dropped their weapons and surrendered immediately.</p><p></p><p>But that was the least important thing going on. Winterkiss was frustrated by the <em>magic circle against evil</em> spell still in effect a full ten feet around Ingebold, which was preventing him from re-entering the mansion and taking his vengeance out upon the heroes. But more importantly, a shadowy figure suddenly manifested in the midst of the <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell. He wore an elaborate costume of embroidered finery and lace and would not have looked at all out of place in the court of a king, were it not for the oversized fly's head perched upon the top of his neck. Immediately, ebon tentacles flopped over his way to engulf his limbs; with a look of mild annoyance he shooed them away and they passed harmlessly through his now incorporeal body.</p><p></p><p>"Jack, Jack, Jack," the fly-man said, shaking his head sadly. "It would zzzeem that even with the infernal azzzizzztanzzze we provided, you were not up to the tazzzk you zzzet for yourzzzelf. But no matter: you zzzigned the contract, and your zzzoul izzz now mine."</p><p></p><p>Holding his hand over Jack's body, he extracted a ghostly shape – a long, multi-segmented worm with Jack's head in miniature – from his corpse. He also retrieved the <em>devils claw gauntlet</em> from the slain rogue's stump, which became fully visible once removed from Jack's arm. "In you go!" he commanded, and Winterkiss disappeared, returning to his designated gemstone on the back of the metal gauntlet.</p><p></p><p>The coloxus devil then turned to the heroes there on the ground floor with him. "I don’t zzzuppozzze any of you wishezzz to zzzell their zzzoul to me?" he asked.</p><p></p><p>"No, I good," replied Gilbert.</p><p></p><p>"Same here," said Finoula.</p><p></p><p>"Nay," responded Ingebold. Hagan had missed the question, having been concentrating on the ice devil's sudden disappearance.</p><p></p><p>"Juzzzt thought I'd azzzk," said the fly-man before vanishing into nothingness, taking the <em>devils claw gauntlet</em> and the screaming soul-larva of Jack Raptor with him.</p><p></p><p>Gilbert silently dismissed his <em>Evard's black tentacles</em> spell with a wave of his hand. "It safe now," he called to Darrien and Castillan, whose way had been blocked by the placement of the tentacles - which couldn't have been helped, if Gilbert wanted to get both Jack and the ice devil within its radius. Binkadink led the surrendered rogues down the stairs in a single file with their hands on their heads. The heroes locked their captives into a small closet while they explored the rest of the manor house. They found Dunkleman tied up on a bed; he'd merely come to the manor to warn Jack Raptor, who was renting the warehouse in which the heroes had fought the barbed devil, that he'd been attacked by a kenku out of the blue and it seemed to have something to do with his businesses. Feeling it his duty to warn Jack that he might also come under attack by these weird bird-men, the warehouse owner had unwittingly walked right into the lair of the one behind the devil attacks in the first place. Dunkleman was freed from his bonds by Castillan and told he could go.</p><p></p><p>There was a vault just off the master bedroom (which Jack had taken as his own); its lock easily opened using the key they found around the slain rogue's neck. There was a considerable sum of coins and gems stored there as well as a few magic items, some of which were useless to those of an other-than-good nature. (Finoula ended up claiming a winged helmet that passed on certain attributes of a celestial being to its wearer.) Darrien took one of the rogues' short swords as a backup melee weapon, in case anything ever happened to his scimitar. And then using the rope that had been used to bind Dunkleman, the heroes led the line of five captured rogues to Chunk's pawnshop, where they'd let Guildmaster Bodkin do with them as he pleased.</p><p></p><p>"Are ye sure we shouldnae have turned them over to th' magistrate?" asked Ingebold.</p><p></p><p>"You saw how things work in this city," observed Finoula. "This Rale guy apparently outranks a magistrate."</p><p></p><p>Binkadink shrugged. "When in Greyhawk City..." he said, then looked up at the sky. "Hey! It's starting to get dark. We need to go back to that field and meet up with Jink."</p><p></p><p>"We didn't get a chance to visit your uncle," pointed out Darrien.</p><p></p><p>"We can always do that tomorrow," replied the gnome. "Besides, he's Jink's uncle, too - he'll want to be there." The heroes made their way to the northeast, looking for signs of the dragonfly ship as they neared the wheat fields where they'd been dropped off that morning. Tomorrow would be soon enough for more of the many sights and attractions of Greyhawk City!</p><p></p><p>- - -</p><p></p><p>T-Shirt Worn: To commemorate the first time the PCs made it to Greyhawk City, I chose to wear a solid grey T-shirt. (My other thought was to wear my Spider-Man T-shirt to commemorate Finoula's (final!) purchase of her <em>boots of spider climbing</em>...but it was in the wash.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Richards, post: 7200532, member: 508"] [B]ADVENTURE 37: DEVILS IN THE DETAILS[/B] Game Session Date: 12 August 2017 - - - Jinkadoodle brought the dragonfly vessel to a shaky hover just above a field of wheat along the eastern outskirts of Greyhawk City. One by one, the others climbed down the rope ladder and disembarked, leaving Aithanar to pull it back up once everyone had departed the ship. "We'll meet you back here at sundown!" he called down to the others, and then Jinkadoodle sent the dragonfly ship soaring up into the sky - he'd be spending the rest of the day practicing maneuvering the spelljamming vessel and getting used to sensing everything around the ship through the vessel's helm. Aithanar would be tending to the group's various animals, kept in the secret lower hold where one of the bedrooms had been converted to a stable of sorts. As for the heroes, they had other things to do: shopping! Aerik had provided them with a list of the prominent magic shops in Greyhawk City and the heroes all had their accumulated riches stashed away with them. King Galrich had specifically instructed them to outfit themselves with the best magical equipment they could, and that's exactly what they intended to do. However, since Ingebold carried their only extradimensional source - the [I]portable hole[/I] - capable of carrying all of their accumulated riches, the group needed to stay together, rather than each go their separate ways. Binkadink and Finoula dropped off their armor at a respectable armorsmith's shop and paid in advance for the magical upgrades they wanted done; the gnome's red dragon plate mail could easily be modified to provide him resistance from fire-based attacks, whereas the elven ranger wanted her armor fortified to better protect her from sneak attacks and the like. Fortunately, Binkadink had a spare set of chain mail armor that he wore while his "good armor" was being upgraded; Finoula had no such set of backup armor and thus walked the streets of Greyhawk City in a comfortable outfit, the sword and whip strapped to her belt the only indicators of her adventurer status. At the same armorsmith, Ingebold purchased a beautifully-crafted suit of chainmail; she walked away more heavily-armored than when she arrived, in direct opposition to both Finoula and Binkadink. She also later picked up a pair of boots that increased her ability to leap and to move at a faster pace. "It'll be good t' no' be always fallin' behind th' rest of ye," she commented as she pulled on her new [I]boots of striding and springing[/I]. Darrien surrendered his [I]Arachnibow[/I] at a famed weaponsmith's shop, to have it enhanced with an [I]icy burst[/I] effect. Fortunately, he had a spare composite longbow to tide him over for the week or so it would take for the enhancement to be made. Castillan had in idea of what he wanted, but had to have it custom-made. He handed over his money, eager for the ring to be crafted that would allow him to effect the equivalent of a [I]dimension door[/I] spell three times a day. He, too, was told to check back in a week's time. Gilbert's purchases were mostly of spell scrolls and potions, and although they were ready for immediate use as-is he intended to study the scrolls carefully in the days to follow, to learn the secrets of the spells they contained. Then they'd be carefully inscribed into the spellbook section of his [I]Omnibook[/I], which would allow him to be able to cast those spells as needed. Of course, as he bought nearly two dozen spell scrolls, he'd be rather busy for several weeks inscribing these into his spellbook, but such were the ways of a wizard. He also traded in his [I]bracers of armor[/I] for a more powerful set. Darrien picked up a few potions to tide him over; he got a few odd looks from the other customers and people who passed him in the streets, since he'd decided to embrace his heritage as a half-aquatic elf and had stopped taking the medicated raisins that had kept his skin and hair away from the greenish end of the color spectrum. His skin still had only a hint of green, seen only under certain lighting conditions, but his hair was now a thick, lustrous pine green. By early afternoon, the heroes had attended to most of what they'd wished to accomplish. They grabbed a quick bite at an outdoor eatery, then strolled the streets of the unfamiliar city to see the sights. They were accosted at the site of a fountain by a one-handed beggar asking them for coins. He held out a small, filthy cloth sack in his left hand, his right arm ending in a stump. Castillan was in the process of handing him over five pieces of gold - a slightly comical process, given that the bounder was holding out the coins as if to pass them over but the beggar's sole hand was holding the cloth sack and he was thus unable to grab them - when a fearful cry rang out through the air. "No! Leave me alone! Help! Help!" called what started out as a masculine voice but which got increasingly high-pitched in terror. Castillan looked over at the sound, leaving the five coins held in his outstretched hand while the frustrated beggar desperately tried to figure out how to get them into his bag with only his left hand. Finoula stepped over and saw a heavy figure running into a nearby alley, pursued by a short man wearing a hooded cloak. The pursuer had a long dagger brandished in his right hand. "Hey!" she called, hoping to scare the attacker into fleeing upon realizing he was under observation. Binkadink took matters a bit closer into hand. Extending his [I]gnomish stilt-boots[/I] to increase the length of his strides, he raced up behind the pursuing attacker. While the heavyset man skidded around a corner and raced against one of the walls separating the city into districts, Binkadink sent his glaive crashing into the side of the pursuer's head. He was careful to twist the blade so the flat part of it struck the gnome's victim; in a strange city for the first time, the fighter had no intentions of slaying somebody his first day there. The hooded figure stumbled, slammed into a side wall, and collapsed into a heap of twisted limbs, his sharp dagger clattering to the cobbles of the alley. Rolling onto his back, his hood flipped back from his face, exposing a sharp, black beak and a face covered with dark feathers. Binkadink wasn't aware of it yet, but he'd just met up with his first kenku. Meanwhile, ignorant of his gnomish savior behind him, the would-be victim raced straight for the wall ahead of him and fear helped him scamper up it and pull his bulk over the top, dropping down into the neighboring district in a move that would have made Castillan nod in begrudging appreciation. But Castillan wasn't within sight of the fat man's impressive physical feat; he had finally turned his attention back to the beggar and deposited his coins into the filthy bag. With a nod of appreciation, the beggar made his way across the fountain and scampered away in a hurry. Turning, the bounder saw the reason why: two armed guardsman were fast approaching, apparently having heard the cries for help. Looking at the numerous coins sitting at the bottom of the fountain, Castillan could only imagine beggars were constantly being shooed away from such a source of easy money. "What's going on here?" demanded one of the guardsmen, approaching Binkadink warily. The gnome had dropped his stilt-boots down to normal gnomish height, the better to look inoffensive, and although he still held his glaive he gripped it one-handed at his side and held his other hand in the air. The guardsmen were both armed with halberds, and had them pointed at the gnome responsible for this assault on an unconscious victim. Binkadink quickly gave his version of events, while the rest of the Kordovians approached. "You're all going to have to come with us," said one of the guardsmen. "We'll let the magistrate sort things out." Binkadink went willingly with the guards and the others followed. Inside the courtroom, the others filed into the rows of pew-like seats as Binkadink and the two guards stood before the magistrate's bench. The gnome had just begun telling his story when a page entered the room and approached the magistrate, whispering into the older man's ear once he got there. The magistrate pounded on the bench with his gavel. "Clear the courtroom," he commanded, and the two or three others sitting in the viewing area got up to leave. So, too, did the stenographer, the bailey, and, at a nod from the magistrate, the two guards who had brought Binkadink in for questioning. Then, with the admonishment to "Remain here - the Guildmaster will be here shortly to hear your story," the magistrate got up himself and departed the room, leaving the seven bewildered heroes alone in the courtroom. Moments later, the door opened up again and another hooded figure entered the room, his robes as dark as the magistrate's who had just departed. This one wore a mask hiding his face; he walked behind the magistrate's bench, took a seat, and looked down at the assembled heroes. "Are you the individuals involved in the attack on the kenku?" demanded the masked man. Then, before any of them had a chance to answer, he pulled the mask from his face and stared directly at Finoula in complete astonishment. "[I]Feron[/I]?" he asked. Finoula stood up from her seat and addressed the man behind the magistrate's desk. "Uh, no, Your Honor. My name is Finoula Cloudshadow; I'm Feron's older sister." "Well, I'll be damned," replied the once-masked man. "Full elf, I see, now that I look harder. Well." He cleared his throat, then continued with what he was going to say. "I am [B]Guildmaster Rale Bodkin[/B]. I once adventured with Feron - in fact, she and I were [I]very close[/I], if you know what I mean - but now I am one of the secret leaders of this city, running the only legitimate thieves' guild and a guild of stage actors. I'm also the head of the Collectors, a band of kenku information brokers. The kenku you attacked, [B]K'Klark[/B], he works for me. Would you care to explain yourselves?" Binkadink explained what had happened, taking special care to point out how he'd attacked with the flat of his blade when he could have easily slain the kenku. Rale listened quietly, nodding to himself on occasion. At the end of the gnome's account, Rale explained what was going on. "There's been a rash of devil sightings throughout the city recently. And, perhaps not coincidentally, there have also been attacks against certain of my establishments. It's my belief that the two are related, that there's a rival in town using devils to try to bring down my Guild. K'Klark was looking into a recent lead when you encountered him. I want you to pick up where he left off. The man he was after, [B]Dunkleman[/B], owns a handful of warehouses. He's gone to ground after K'Klark went after him, but I’ve got my Collectors looking for him. In the meantime, I want you to check into his warehouses, see if you can find anything implicating him in the devil attacks. Do that for me, and we'll forget the cost of K'Klark’s healing. Agreed?" "Agreed," replied Binkadink. Rale gave them the address to the warehouse he wanted them to check out and gave them instructions to report back to one of his associates, [B]Chunk[/B], the owner of a nearby pawnshop. "Chunk'll be able to get word back to me," Rale replied. The group filed out of the courtroom and headed to the location of Dunkleman's warehouse. It was in the shoddier end of town, a section referred to as "the Styes." The warehouse, once they got to it, was fairly unimpressive-looking; a single-story structure, with only one set of doors leading to a muddy street. A cheap-looking padlock attached to a metal chain wound through the two door handles provided the only visible protection. "This will be a piece of cake," scoffed Castillan, whipping out his lockpicking set. "Not so fast, elf boy," advised Gilbert Fung. "We do some prep spells first." He cast a [I]mage armor[/I] spell on himself and Mudpie, while Finoula and Darrien each cast [I]barkskin[/I] spells on themselves. Gilbert and Hagan each chose to protect themselves with [I]stoneskin[/I] spells, while Ingebold cast a [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell centered on herself. "If it's devils we be up against, 'specially summoned ones, ye'll be wantin' t' stay close t' me," she advised. "Hey, Gilbert, how about a [I]mage armor [/I]spell for me as well?" asked Finoula. She felt particularly vulnerable without any type of armor, since hers was back at the armorsmith's being upgraded. "I got no more [I]mage armor[/I] spells ready," responded Gilbert. "But here," he said, digging through his pack, "You can have this." He handed her over a potion vial. She drank it down in a gulp, wincing at the unpleasant aftertaste, and then her skin erupted in goose bumps all over as she started feeling itchy all over. "It a 'Winkidew Special'," the mage advised, as Finoula's visible skin turned a bright bluish shade. The ranger frowned at Gilbert. "I look ridiculous!" she complained. "I can turn your hair blue, to match," offered Binkadink, smirking at the thought of changing somebody's hair color [I]on request[/I] for once. "No thanks," grumbled Finoula. "We just explain you a rare strain of friendly drow," offered Gilbert, smiling. "Just open the lock already, Castillan," commanded Finoula. "I think we're all done with our prepping out here." Castillan dutifully gave a quick twist of his wrist and the lock popped open in his hand. He pulled out the chain and opened the doors, revealing the warehouse's interior. All but the back right corner - which was walled off, likely as an office room - was one large, open room with crates and barrels stacked in a haphazard fashion. There were flickering lights in the back left corner; as the group approached, they saw numerous black candles in place around a magic circle carved in the warehouse floor. Lying in the middle of this circle was a human with a sacrificial knife - one of these with a blade that curved back and forth like a wriggling snake - sticking out of his heart. He wore tattered clothes and an expression of pain frozen on his face. Everyone approached cautiously. "Nobody enter circle," warned Gilbert. Darrien peered into an open crate close to the circle and found a pile of dark-colored robes. Ingebold cast a [I]detect magic[/I] spell and peered closely at the circle, then at the entire back of the warehouse, including the office where Hagan, after having peeked into the window and seeing it empty of people, was entering through the sole door. "Th' circle's safe," she advised. "It's not radiatin' any magic at all." Inside the office, Hagan found a piece of paper atop the desk. Picking it up, he read over the contents and then returned to read it to the group. "Listen to this," he said. "'Sacrifice a human by midnight tonight to ensure the completion of the next of our goals.' It's signed 'High Priest Dunkleman'." "So this Dunkleman guy is behind this," concluded Darrien. "Not so fast," advised Gilbert, examining the magic circle, as Binkadink piped up with, "I don't like this. It's almost [I]too[/I] perfect." "I agree, gnome. This no proper magic circle. You couldn't summon a devil using this. Couldn't summon [I]anything[/I]. It all stage dressing." Binkadink poked at the corpse with his glaive, sliding the tip of the blade underneath him and flipping him over. Rigidity had already possessed the corpse - he'd apparently been dead for some time, probably since the previous night. But what Binkadink wanted to see was how much blood had pooled beneath the corpse, and the answer was evident to all who could see it: not nearly enough. "This poor guy, whoever he was, wasn't even killed here," surmised the gnome. "Then it's a setup," concluded Finoula. "Do you think this Rale guy is behind it? That he sent us here to find this, so we'd implicate Dunkleman?" "Not sure what he'd gain by doing that," commented Gilbert. "But [I]somebody[/I] framing Dunkleman as guy behind devil attacks." That was all [B]Niedelmeyer[/B] needed to hear. He'd been left here by his master to wait until the setup in the warehouse had been discovered. If, as his master had hoped, this led to Dunkleman being set up as a patsy, he was to allow the discoverers to live and go about their merry way passing on the fabrications about who was behind the devil attacks in the city. But if they didn't fall for the story, then he had been given express permission to take them all out. Dismissing the [I]major illusion[/I] cloaking him as a stack of crates, Niedelmeyer struck. Darrien was the closest target at hand, so the barbed devil slashed out at him from behind with his wicked claws. "Look out!" cried Finoula, seeing the creature's claws coming down on the half-elf, and Darrien spun in place, seeing too late the fierce claws bearing down on him. He had no time to dodge, so he instinctively raised an arm to try to block the razor-sharp claws from ripping off his face... ...but then, inexplicably, the claws stopped a mere inches from the half-elf ranger's upthrust arm. There was a horrendous noise, like fingernails scraping along a piece of slate, and Niedelmeyer's claws scraped off the invisible barrier around Ingebold afforded by her [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell. The spell provided a handful of benefits, but the important one at hand was preventing evil summoned creatures from approaching within ten feet of the spell's focal point. Darrien was fortunately just inside that invisible barrier. Niedelmeyer shrieked in rage at being denied his victim as Finoula raced forward, stepping outside the protective barrier of Ingebold's [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell. But she had no thoughts of squaring off against this barbed devil just yet; activating her magic amulet, her body became a bolt of lightning that coursed through Niedelmeyer's fiendish body and deposited the ranger back in her normal form a good ten feet away. She glanced at her foe, hoping to see him doubled over in pain at her attack, but no such luck; many devils had an inherent resistance against spells and their effects, and it looks like this time she had failed to overcome his magical protection. Still, it seemed like a fine idea to Hagan, so he copied Finoula's attack as best he could. While he didn't have an [I]amulet of lightning[/I] as she did, he did know how to cast a [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell and he stepped forth and did just that, careful to line up his attack so it wouldn't hit Finoula on the other side of the barbed devil. Unfortunately, the sorcerer was no more effective with his electrical attack than the elven ranger had been at hers. From within the safety of the [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell, Darrien sent a flurry of arrows, one after the other, at the barbed devil. Each struck true, but they snapped in half upon striking the devils' spiny hide or else just got caught up in the numerous barbs and spines poking out of the creature's rough skin. Assessing the situation with a calculating eye, the ranger deemed his arrows to be ineffective against the barbed devil; obviously, a different approach would be needed. Castillan was the next to attack. Using various crates as stepping stones, he dashed behind the barbed devil and stabbed at it with his short sword. He managed to penetrate the beast's hide, and fortunately his blade was just long enough to prevent any of the spines from piercing his hand in return. But quick as a flash, the barbed devil spun around and raked his claws against the bounder's body before grappling him in a bear hug that pierced through his studded leather armor in a variety of places. Fortunately for the bounder, Niedelmeyer was well aware he was fighting seven opponents and couldn't focus his concentration on just one foe, so he dropped Castillan from his embrace and spun, snarling, to face the rest of his enemies. Gilbert cast a [I]haste[/I] spell that encompassed all of his friends. "See how you like that, Pokey!" he taunted. Binkadink rushed up the edge of the confines of Ingebold's protective spell and lashed out with his glaive. Surprisingly, the nimble devil avoided the thrust of his blade. But then Finoula reversed her course as another flash of lightning, this time ending up right where she'd been before her first such attack. She was saddened to see this one had not managed to overcome the barbed devil's innate spell resistance either. And neither did Hagan's follow-up [I]lightning bolt[/I] attack, which passed through Niedelmeyer's body without the devil even seeming to notice. But perhaps that was because the barbed devil's focus was on Ingebold. In the midst of furious combat, it had singled her out as the likely caster of the [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell. So it blasted at her with a pair of [I]scorching rays[/I] that took the dwarven cleric completely by surprise. She responded in kind, though, casting a [I]holy smite[/I] spell on the barbed devil that caused him quite a bit of consternation. That gave Castillan enough time to stagger back into the radius of her [I]magic circle against evil[/I], safe at least against Niedelmeyer's physical attacks. Darrien had figured out his follow-on attack, given his arrows weren't likely to be of much use. Touching the amber amulet he wore around his neck, he summoned forth the giant praying mantis that lived within it. The mantis manifested directly behind Niedelmeyer and snatched at him with its fearsome claws, but the barbed devil dodged the giant insect's attacks. Binkadink stabbed at the fiend again and again with his magical glaive, this time managing to penetrate deeply with several of his attacks. Niedelmeyer took a step back but refused to divert his attention from his intended target: two more [I]scorching rays[/I] went blasting into Ingebold's form, and she staggered back a step from the onslaught. Begrudgingly, she was forced to cast a healing spell upon herself instead of attacking the barbed devil like she wanted, but she realized she'd be no good to the group if she dropped into unconsciousness, or - even worse - allowed herself to be slain because of her own stubborn pride. Hagan cast another [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell at the wounded barbed devil, and the third time seemed to be the charm. Niedelmeyer staggered under the electrical attack, all but dead on his feet. Finoula stepped up beside him and slashed down at the devil with her longsword [I]Tahlmalaera[/I], and the recent [I]fiend bane[/I] enhancement to her sword was all it took to slay the barbed beast. The fiend's body exploded in a puff of rancid gas, leaving nothing behind but a nasty odor. "Good job, everyone," Ingebold called to the group at large, as they started lining up to be healed. After having his wounds sealed up, Castillan approached Hagan and asked to see the paper the half-orc had unearthed in the warehouse office before battle began. Looking over the written words with a practiced eye, he deduced the letter had been written by a right-handed man using his left hand, possibly in an attempt to disguise his handwriting. Having gathered all the information they could from the warehouse, the group headed over to Chunk's Pawnshop to check in. But as they approached, they heard screams of terror and ran into a herd of frenzied people. "Run!" cried a woman as she fled past. "Another devil attack!" screamed another. The heroes surged forward through the panicked crowd, fighting their way toward Chunk's. They heard bellowing and the crashing of furniture from inside the building. Finoula, perhaps because of her current lack of armor, was the first to reach the doors to the pawnshop. Stepping inside, she saw a large man in well-worn leather armor - Chunk himself, no doubt - rounding from behind a counter with a large cudgel in his hand. But there in the middle of the shop was a human-sized creature wearing an odd assortment of chains. It slammed down at a table of merchandise with its chains, causing the table to rupture in two and all of the goods displayed there to crash to the floor. The ranger raced up to the chain devil and slashed out with [I]Tahlmalaera[/I]; if the fiend was surprised at being attacked by a bright blue elf it gave no indication. Instead, it slammed at her with its chains, causing blood to erupt from Finoula's nose. Ingebold stepped into the store next, invoking the words to a [I]spiritual weapon[/I] spell as she did so. A dwarven warhammer made of pure force materialized before her and crashed into the chain devil, knocking its chain-shrouded head back by the force of the blow. [B]Bonecruncher[/B] just grunted and carried on his attacks. Darrien entered the pawnshop, called out to Chunk to stay back, and fired his composite bow at the chain devil. The arrow was deflected off a swinging chain; whether this was intentional on the part of the fiend or just random luck was open to debate. But Hagan entered just behind Darrien and rather than attack from a distance as the ranger had done the sorcerer ran straight up to the chain devil, ducking his head slightly beneath the hovering [I]spiritual weapon[/I]. Hagan blasted at it with one of his most powerful spells, and although the [I]cone of cold[/I] hit Bonecruncher head-on, all that happened was the sorcerer learned the hard way that chain devils are immune to cold. Wezhley hissed in annoyance on Hagan's shoulder at his master's failure to harm their fiendish foe. Gilbert and Mudpie entered next, and the wizard had his earth elemental familiar strike at the fiend with its rocky fists. The attack held the chain devil's attention long enough for Castillan to lope around behind it - but not so much that it wasn't able to slam at the bounder with a quick-striking chain as he fled past. Still, the bounder took the pain in stride as he continued his move: striking deep into the devil's body with his short sword, twisting the blade once it was in. Bonecruncher cried out in pain, and Finoula once again made the finishing stroke with [I]Tahlmalaera[/I]. The chain devil's body crashed to the ground amidst a cacophony of clattering metal links, but once it landed it was gone in a flash. "Thanks," replied Chunk, wiping the sweat from his forehead and getting a good look at those who had taken care of the devil who had suddenly appeared and started trashing his place. "Hey, are you guys Rale's new crew?" he asked. "I was told you'd be checking in later." "Well, we're working with him for the moment," replied Finoula, brow furrowing at the look Chunk was giving her until she remembered she was bright blue. She gave Chunk a rundown of what they had found at the warehouse, and how it looked like somebody was trying to put the blame of the devil attacks on this Dunkleman character. "I never heard of him," admitted Chunk. "But I'll pass on your report to Rale, once one of my useless assistants shows back up!" Several other rogues worked for Chunk, but they'd all hightailed it once the chain devil appeared. A tinkling of the bell above the front door alerted the group to the presence of another person entering the pawnshop. Looking up to see if it was one of the shop's other workers, the group saw another hooded, cloaked figure - and once he pulled back the hood, that this was another kenku. "I'm [B]Skrawk[/B]," he said by way of introduction. "You the new guys working for Rale?" "For now, at least," offered up Castillan. "What's up?" "I'm here to report in to Chunk, but I can let you guys know as well. We found Dunkleman. One of the Collectors trailed him to a small manor house on Silver Street. He went inside about half an hour or so ago but hasn't come back out since." "You guys want to go check this out?" asked Chunk. Gilbert sighed. "Might as well. Give me address to manor house." As one might expect by the name of the street on which the manor house was situated, this was in one of the better neighborhoods in the city - not where the truly rich lived, but not too far down the social ladder. The manor was fairly small compared to its neighbors, but it was surrounded by an iron fence and thick hedges, providing the owners with a bit of privacy. "How do we want to do this?" asked Castillan. "Let's begin with a bit of reconnaissance," suggested Hagan, taking Wezhley from his shoulder. Talking quietly to his familiar, the half-orc set the weasel down on the ground and he scampered off, making a bee-line for the structure built to the side of the manor proper - likely a wagon shed or carriage house. The weasel made it safely underneath the dual doors, confirming there was little there - not even a wagon or a cart. There was a door at the back of the structure that likely led directly into the manor house, but the weasel, while quite intelligent, wasn't able to open it, nor could he squeeze beneath as he had done with the doors to the carriage house. Exiting the way he'd come in, he made a full circuit around the house, climbing up onto windowsills and peeking inside when he could. He identified a small bedroom filled with three sets of bunks (which likely indicated at least six people inside) and a kitchen and dining room, but saw nobody through the windows. There was an entire upper floor but the weasel had no way to get up there to look, so he returned and passed on his findings to his master. "Good boy, Wezhley," Hagan praised his familiar, pulling out some of his rations and feeding them to the always-hungry weasel. "Let's see if there a downstairs," suggested Gilbert, sending his own familiar to investigate the possibility. Mudpie sank down into the earth, gliding beneath the surface of the ground and popping his head through the foundation walls to peer at the basement level, which was one big room with a set of stairs leading up to the ground floor over in the northeastern corner. Half of the room was covered in mats and had human-shaped targets against the walls, whereas the other half contained tables containing such things as padlocks and lockpicking tools, a forger's station, and so on. "Somebody setting up rival thieves' guild," Gilbert surmised after Mudpie returned and gave his report. "Not sure how devils fit in, though." The group decided on a two-pronged approach. Castillan and Darrien went around to the back of the manor house, where the bounder would pick the lock to the back door and the two would enter from that direction, while the others went in through the front door. Castillan did a quick search for potential traps and found none before putting his lockpicks to good use. Behind him, Darrien had an arrow nocked and ready. At the front of the manor house, the other five heroes and Mudpie stepped up onto the wooden porch. "Should we just knock?" asked Finoula, but then she got her answer, as directly above them, in the room overlooking the porch, half a dozen men shot crossbows through the murder-holes in the floor built just for that purpose. She and Hagan cried out in sudden pain as arrows pierced their shoulders; Binkadink took this as a sign that all attempts at subterfuge were long since past and smashed open the door with his greatclub. The room before him was a rather comfortable-looking living room, with a plush sofa and a couple of padded chairs around an end table or two. To the right were two sets of stairs, the closest leading upstairs and the other leading down to the basement. Binkadink could see the stairs leading up went to a hallway along the back wall, blocked by a wooden banister; furthermore, behind the banister stood a familiar-looking figure wearing leather armor, glaring down at the heroes below him. It took a second glance for the gnome to notice what at first had failed to stand out: this figure was familiar because they'd seen him earlier that day - it was the stump at the end of his right arm that gave him away. Not wanting to switch weapons and realizing a long glaive might be unwieldy in the confines of a manor house's hallways, Binkadink raced up the stairs wielding his magical greatclub, eyes focused on his target: the erstwhile "beggar" they'd met just before K'Klark attacked Dunkleman. Before he could get there, though, the leather-clad human made a weird gesture, holding his left hand in front of the stump of his right arm - and suddenly, an ice devil appeared at the top of the stairs before an astonished Binkadink. "Kill them all, [B]Winterkiss[/B]!" commanded [B]Jack Raptor[/B], and the ice devil slashed out at the gnome fighter to comply with his master's orders. However, Ingebold put a sudden stop to both of their plans, casting a [I]blade barrier[/I] along the hallway at an angle, and directly in the path of where both Jack and Winterkiss stood. With only a second to process any thoughts of evasion, each arrived at the same solution and leaped over the banister onto the floor below. Winterkiss crushed a recliner beneath him as he landed, but Jack fell prone in front of the sofa. However, had they not leaped as they did, they'd both be trapped on the other side of the [I]blade barrier[/I] (the ice devil would actually be trapped on both sides of it), with no choice but to move through it to escape. And then, to add insult to injury, Gilbert followed up Ingebold's [I]blade barrier[/I] spell with an [I]Evard's black tentacles[/I] spell, causing ebony appendages to rise up from the floor and wrap themselves around the would-be thieves' guildmaster and his ice devil servant. Both were instantly entangled in the writhing tentacles. At the back door, Castillan made it through the lock and slammed the door open; stepping back, he allowed Darrien to enter before him and shoot at the only foe he saw: Winterkiss, enwrapped in a multitude of inky tentacles. The ice devil was not liking his current situation: entwined as he was, he could either try to break free and make it to his master (who he'd then have to also break free from the writhing tentacles), or [I]teleport[/I] himself to safety. He chose the latter, appearing on the porch beside Hagan, Finoula, and Ingebold. He needed to kill the fat wizard who had cast the odious spell that still imprisoned his master, and to do that he'd have to first kill the half-orc who stood in his way. But no matter - he had orders to kill them all, anyway! Hagan took an involuntary step back at the sudden appearance of the ice devil beside him, then blasted at him with a [I]lightning bolt[/I] spell. Once again, though, he failed to overcome the fiend's innate spell resistance. He cursed his bad luck, and then cursed again as the rogues directly above him shot down at him and the two women now that they'd had time to reload their light crossbows. Half of the rogues had abandoned their room over the porch and headed down the hallway. One approached Binkadink at the top of the stairs, pulling out his short sword as he closed into combat distance, but the gnome killed him with a single slam of his greatclub. Down below, Jack Raptor cursed at his fate. He'd chafed under the rules of Rale's thieves' guild, deciding he'd do whatever it took to tear that guild down and replace it with one he founded himself - and "The Raptor's Talons" had quite a nice ring to it! To that end, he'd cut off his own right hand to prove his worthiness and been rewarded for his faith with the [I]devils claw gauntlet[/I]: a metal, clawed hand that fit over his stump and gave him the full mobility of his missing hand - while remaining fully invisible to all but himself. And best of all, the [I]devils claw gauntlet[/I] had five stones embedded on the back, one by each knuckle. A close examination of each gem would show a particular flaw in its interior forming the silhouette of one of five devils: a chain devil, an erinyes, a bone devil, a barbed devil, or an ice devil. Touching the gem - as Jack had done when Binkadink first ran up the stairs toward him - summoned the devil, and best of all, when slain the devil returned to the gem to be released again the following day. It was quite a powerful weapon, his gauntlet, one practically guaranteed to aid his rise in power and take down Rale Bodkin and his guilds. And yet here he lay, wrapped in tentacles and unable to move, unable to even reach across with his left hand and summon forth another devil from the two that yet remained: [B]Militrusia[/B] the erinyes and [B]Skalarac[/B] the bone devil. It was humiliating! Unwittingly, Gilbert Fung released Jack Raptor from his humiliation when he cast his [I]scorching ray[/I] spell at the prone rogue. The blasts of energy struck Jack and fried him to a crisp where he lay, completely helpless and unable to move a muscle. Watching this from above, the rogue behind the one just slain by Binkadink hurriedly dropped his weapons to the floor. "I surrender!" he cried, and behind him another followed suit. It took longer for word to reach those engaged in shooting their crossbows at the heroes below them on the porch that Jack Raptor, who had seemed so powerful and unstoppable, had been slain, but once it did they too dropped their weapons and surrendered immediately. But that was the least important thing going on. Winterkiss was frustrated by the [I]magic circle against evil[/I] spell still in effect a full ten feet around Ingebold, which was preventing him from re-entering the mansion and taking his vengeance out upon the heroes. But more importantly, a shadowy figure suddenly manifested in the midst of the [I]Evard's black tentacles[/I] spell. He wore an elaborate costume of embroidered finery and lace and would not have looked at all out of place in the court of a king, were it not for the oversized fly's head perched upon the top of his neck. Immediately, ebon tentacles flopped over his way to engulf his limbs; with a look of mild annoyance he shooed them away and they passed harmlessly through his now incorporeal body. "Jack, Jack, Jack," the fly-man said, shaking his head sadly. "It would zzzeem that even with the infernal azzzizzztanzzze we provided, you were not up to the tazzzk you zzzet for yourzzzelf. But no matter: you zzzigned the contract, and your zzzoul izzz now mine." Holding his hand over Jack's body, he extracted a ghostly shape – a long, multi-segmented worm with Jack's head in miniature – from his corpse. He also retrieved the [I]devils claw gauntlet[/I] from the slain rogue's stump, which became fully visible once removed from Jack's arm. "In you go!" he commanded, and Winterkiss disappeared, returning to his designated gemstone on the back of the metal gauntlet. The coloxus devil then turned to the heroes there on the ground floor with him. "I don’t zzzuppozzze any of you wishezzz to zzzell their zzzoul to me?" he asked. "No, I good," replied Gilbert. "Same here," said Finoula. "Nay," responded Ingebold. Hagan had missed the question, having been concentrating on the ice devil's sudden disappearance. "Juzzzt thought I'd azzzk," said the fly-man before vanishing into nothingness, taking the [I]devils claw gauntlet[/I] and the screaming soul-larva of Jack Raptor with him. Gilbert silently dismissed his [I]Evard's black tentacles[/I] spell with a wave of his hand. "It safe now," he called to Darrien and Castillan, whose way had been blocked by the placement of the tentacles - which couldn't have been helped, if Gilbert wanted to get both Jack and the ice devil within its radius. Binkadink led the surrendered rogues down the stairs in a single file with their hands on their heads. The heroes locked their captives into a small closet while they explored the rest of the manor house. They found Dunkleman tied up on a bed; he'd merely come to the manor to warn Jack Raptor, who was renting the warehouse in which the heroes had fought the barbed devil, that he'd been attacked by a kenku out of the blue and it seemed to have something to do with his businesses. Feeling it his duty to warn Jack that he might also come under attack by these weird bird-men, the warehouse owner had unwittingly walked right into the lair of the one behind the devil attacks in the first place. Dunkleman was freed from his bonds by Castillan and told he could go. There was a vault just off the master bedroom (which Jack had taken as his own); its lock easily opened using the key they found around the slain rogue's neck. There was a considerable sum of coins and gems stored there as well as a few magic items, some of which were useless to those of an other-than-good nature. (Finoula ended up claiming a winged helmet that passed on certain attributes of a celestial being to its wearer.) Darrien took one of the rogues' short swords as a backup melee weapon, in case anything ever happened to his scimitar. And then using the rope that had been used to bind Dunkleman, the heroes led the line of five captured rogues to Chunk's pawnshop, where they'd let Guildmaster Bodkin do with them as he pleased. "Are ye sure we shouldnae have turned them over to th' magistrate?" asked Ingebold. "You saw how things work in this city," observed Finoula. "This Rale guy apparently outranks a magistrate." Binkadink shrugged. "When in Greyhawk City..." he said, then looked up at the sky. "Hey! It's starting to get dark. We need to go back to that field and meet up with Jink." "We didn't get a chance to visit your uncle," pointed out Darrien. "We can always do that tomorrow," replied the gnome. "Besides, he's Jink's uncle, too - he'll want to be there." The heroes made their way to the northeast, looking for signs of the dragonfly ship as they neared the wheat fields where they'd been dropped off that morning. Tomorrow would be soon enough for more of the many sights and attractions of Greyhawk City! - - - T-Shirt Worn: To commemorate the first time the PCs made it to Greyhawk City, I chose to wear a solid grey T-shirt. (My other thought was to wear my Spider-Man T-shirt to commemorate Finoula's (final!) purchase of her [I]boots of spider climbing[/I]...but it was in the wash.) [/QUOTE]
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