ZEITGEIST Tormyr's Zeitgeist [Spoilers]

[Tormyr]

6/27/17
Tomas, Lorcan, Melissa, Roland, and Harkover watched as Amielle and Pernicity fell into the fog layer, the ground waiting for them after a 1,000 foot fall. They heard the distant sound of a gunshot, and then a muffled explosion a few seconds later. What they could not see was that Pernicity had turned into a raven, and Amielle had been unable to hold onto the shape-changing witch. She fired a wild shot into the fog layer, missed and impacted into the ground, detonating her remaining grenade. Amielle's player would be switching to Roland Stanfield if he had been able to make our session.

The group decided to continue upward with Harkover Lee using the Cauldron as a mode of transport. They reached the top of Cauldron Hill and noticed a group of people held captive by a few small fey. They managed to quietly take out the fey and free the people which the Red Contessa noticed. Harkover ditched the flying cauldron. After giving her pitch about Lorcan transferring the Rites of Rulership to her and revealing Rachel Lang's deception, she waited for his response as the time ticked toward the lunar eclipse completing.

Lorcan quietly gave his crown to Melissa and strode forward to the middle of ritual area. He attempted to then quickly draw his sword, but it caught as he tried to draw it. The creatures attacked; the Red Contessa animated the cauldron and henge stones; and one of the witches cast darkness on the rest of the party. Before the darkness fell, Tomas remembered the Skyseer's prophecy about jumping into the cauldron to end the curse and used his superior speed to reach the cauldron and jump in. After feeling the intense pain of being scalded and hearing the Red Contessa's scorning laughter he jumped straight back out.

The PCs started feeling their way out of the darkness with Melissa almost stepping off a cliff. Behind them, they heard Pernicity's childlike laugh as she said, "Thanks for bringing me my cauldron!" The Red Contessa used her cauldron curse on Lorcan and he started massively bleeding out. Outnumbered and with the king surrounded, the situation looked dire.

Then Harkover Lee saved the day. As the creatures attacked and mostly missed the King, Harkover used dispel magic on the Red Contessa. He failed to dispel the animate objects, but he did dispel both the Bond of Forced Faith on the city of Flint as well as the one on all of the party. The Red Contessa's eyes bugged out in shock as Lorcan's sword bit deeply into her. She failed her concentration saving throw, and the animated objects returned to normal. Melissa removed the curse on the king. Victory looks assured, but we will see who survives...

 

[Tormyr]

7/18/17
After two weeks off (4th of July, then 3 players absent), we resumed the encounter atop of cauldron hill.

The Red Contessa used her veil step to get away from King Lorcan and unleashed a lightning bolt down upon him. Lorcan did well to dodge the worst of it. The sheer numbers of enemies kept everyone from doing a good job of helping each other or having a cohesive strategy as each of the heroes was generally restricted to holding their own. Roland Stanfield summoned his Loremaster Incarnation and had it successfully cast hold person on Sister Pernicity. The king was fully surrounded. Thankfully his armor saved him from almost all of the attacks, but the magical regeneration he received from the Rites of Rulership was hampered by a wound from the Red Contessa's dagger that would not stop bleeding.

Once again Harkover Lee saved the day. Making his way around the sphere of darkness, the Red Contessa, Lorcan, and those surrounding him came into view. He let loose with his last fireball into an open space in an attempt to avoid Lorcan. The fireball was powerful, and the Red Contessa was finished off in the heat of the blast. The blast heavily injured or finished off several other enemies, including the witch hiding in the sphere of darkness concentrating on her spell. Dame Melissa was also inadvertently caught in the blast and nearly finished off.

As the blackened Red Contessa stumbled forward, she pointed at Lorcan, laughed, and said, "At least I will take you with me!" A new wound appeared in Lorcan's chest and threatened to have blood gush out from it. A vortex then formed around the Red Contessa, the wind shear starting to disintegrate her blackened form as gale force winds blasted in all directions from where she died. Most of the survivors whether friend or foe were able to hold their position. Dame Melissa, at deaths door and knowing that Lorcan had passed the crown to her and that one of them had to survive, pumped all of of her Lay on Hands healing into herself. She then finished off the serpent-maned lion and Rachel Lang, the traitorous skyseer. The force of the wind blew the cauldron toward the cliff edge. The Red Contessa's forces lashed out at all around them in a blind panic. A small fey futilely slashed its flaming claws at Harkover Lee as it blew past. Harkover Lee lost his footing as was blown back toward the cliff edge as well as a nameless witch who successfully stabbed Harkover Lee, who fell unconscious. Harkover Lee's limp form was blown over the edge along with the cauldron. Lorcan trying to hold himself together and keep the cursed wound from gushing blood finished the last witch off as she watched Harkover Lee blow away. Tomas and Dame Melissa pushed Lorcan to the ground, dug in, and tended to the king's wounds as best they could. Meanwhile, Sister Pernicity, paralyzed in her cauldron was blown away by the windt. Lorcan managed to hold himself together (rolling nothing lower than a 19 for the ten rounds of the Red Contessa's dying curse), and when the winds had torn away the last of the Red Contessa's form, the howling died down to just the ringing in the ears.

Four of the heroes, Lorcan, Melissa, Tomas, and Roland, had survived their mission to eradicate the coven from Cauldron Hill. Dame Melissa handed back the crown to the fully healed king, but Lorcan told her that it was time for a new queen of Risur. He had lost his focus, letting his people suffer at the hands of the witches for much too long while he lost the war against Danor. In the final battle, his decision to walk forward in the midst of the enemies on his own had cost them the life of Harkover Lee and nearly meant doom for them all. As they looked up, the lunar eclipse just reached totality and glowed the deep red of the blood moon. Confident that they had ended the threat in time, the slowly trudged down the hill, helping some of the more injured captives of Sister Pernicity along the way. At the bottom of the hill, they found Amielle's remains. Her impact with the ground had detonated the last of her grenades. Moving on, they found the cracked cauldron on the ground, and some blood and viscera that may have belonged to Harkover Lee, but his body was missing.

Over the next week, Lorcan and Melissa travelled with their bodyguards back to Slate where a surprisingly healthy Harkover Lee was waiting for them. The transfer of the Rites of Rulership to Melissa went smoothly, and many people threw their support behind her after hearing of her actions to defeat the witches. She ruled as well as she could, but some of the finer points of politics always escaped her, and she sometimes let her pride get in her way. There was a collective sigh across the nation of Risur when she finally transferred the Rites of Rulership to another many years later.

Lorcan Finn decided to hunt down Sister Pernicity. Neither of them were ever heard from again.

Harkover Lee, his loyalty to Risur tantamount in his decisions, publicly supported Queen Melissa, but he often made changes behind her back as he saw fit.

Tomas, his mission to see the Red Contessa burned in fire complete, returned to the Clergy in Cryssiliur.

Roland Stanfield was always looked up to by the people of Flint. With the eradication of the coven, his political career was assured for many more years of his immortal life.

Amielle's remains and possessions were collected. Her steamship was salvaged from the bay, and almost everything was returned to Danor. Several pistols were kept, and all the salvage was well documented before being returned to Danor. On the surface, relations between the nations improved because of the aid they sent, but there was a simmering tension that stayed under the surface.


And that's where we finished. We are going to play another short adventure before we get started with chapter 1 next month!

 

[RangerWickett]

Gotta love the selfish Green Knight.

 

[Tormyr]

Gotta love the selfish Green Knight.

That probably was part of it, but part of her motivation was that she was not sure she was going to make it to the king before he went unconscious and was swept off the hill. Both of them were borderline about to fall, and she wouldn't be able to make it to him that turn. So she healed herself to make sure at least one of them survived. By the time she made it to him, he was already regenerating enough to be out of the woods. When it was all over she did offer the crown back to the king.

The ending was more interesting for everyone than I though it would be. I thought it was going to be a mop-up operation, but there was still enough going on that they struggled with survival. Honestly, if the dispel magic had not dispelled both the normal and greater Bonds of Forced Faith, I don't know how they would have survived.