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Way of the Wicked Playthrough - Updated 2023/03/28
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<blockquote data-quote="rchodges" data-source="post: 8705947" data-attributes="member: 7031385"><p><strong>Part 2:</strong> Call Forth Darkness</p><p><strong>Act 3: </strong>Thirty-one Weeks</p><p><strong>Session 24:</strong> From Above As Below</p><p></p><p>Week 18:</p><p>Donovan stared at his notes over and over again, meticulously working through the details that had been discovered over the course of the previous week. He knew for certain that a group of adventurers would be approaching the Horn over this week, he knew for certain that they would gain access via the lower section of the Horn, and he knew for certain that his group was to be betrayed. All of this was what had been revealed by Tamsen’s mother and Patron. Still, Donovan could not shake the feeling that he had missed something, that there had been some detail that he had overlooked.</p><p></p><p>Not knowing the specific day that the attack would take place, Donovan had Kirin take up a guard position near the maw of the cave at the entrance to the hidden staircase. Bebop continued to guard the first floor. And work proceeded as it generally would, with the different residents attending to their typical tasks. James O’Toole was still attempting to harness this fighting force into something worthwhile, despite the fact that they were effectively worthless. James often suspected that Donovan was simply keeping him around in order to not have to kill him, which wasn’t exactly great for James’ ego. Still, the food and wine had continued to flow without hesitation, and he was never once tasked with doing something that he would have considered callous. It was on this night when James saw what appeared to be some sort of mud or earth creature rising up from the ground. Confused, he looked at the creature, wondering of this was another one of the Summoner’s creations. Then, what appeared to be a small Gnome was released from the side of the earhen creature. The Gnome gestured to Zikomo, and Zikomo hurled himself at James. Tossing Zikomo off momentarily, James looked around and saw that all of the Boggards were sizing him up for attack. James readied himself for the fight, knowing there was little he could do to stop all of them.</p><p></p><p>Kirin heard a small commotion on the other end of the Maw. He was unsure what to make of the sound, but was hesitant to abandon his post. Reaching out with his mind to Tamsen, he notified her that something was possibly going on, and he was going to check on it. Tamsen relayed this information to Donovan, who immediately sprung to defense. Contacting the Daemon brothers, he told them to secure the entrance of the Maw, and to assist in taking out whatever threat was down there. Donovan then began to move down to the lower floors himself, assuming that the attack was soon to take place. When Hexor approached Kirin, the two of them headed over to the section of the Maw where the sounds had been coming from. Arriving there, Hexor and Kirin found that the Boggards had ripped apart James O’Toole, and were feasting on his innards. Hexor relayed this information to Donovan. Donovan pondered the news, “Could this have been the betrayal we were to expect this week? An attack from the Boggards?” Donovan told Hexor to grab Zikomo and bring the elder to where he was. Donovan needed more information.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, even as Donovan was attempting to understand this issue with the betrayal of the Boggards, there were other betrayals taking place within the Horn. Back in the Forge, GrumbleJack also saw the Gnomish man, and then realized that he needed to attack Idrees. While Idrees was able to activate her invisibility power and escape his onslaught, she still had been severely wounded in the fracas. Even within Traya’s group, infighting had begun to take place. Donovan quickly realized that there was Charm magicks being used to sway the minds of the weaker individuals, but still didn’t know how these people were able to move around the complex without triggering any of the alarms.</p><p></p><p>It wasn’t until Hexor brought forth Zikomo and angrily wrung the confession out of him that Donovan understood the scope of what was happening. These individuals were using some sort of earth gliding ability that allowed them to pass through the floors and walls of the Horn unimpeded! While it would bring no comfort for the fallen retainer, it still meant that Zikomo and the Boggards had not as of yet betrayed the group, as they were taken off guard just as easily as everyone else had been. But this brought a greater concern for Donovan and the others: How were they to stop the invasion of an enemy who could pass undetected through the floors and walls? “How are they able to survive indefinitely within the walls themselves?”, Donovan pondered the nature of the attack. For her part, Tamsen spent the large majority of the day up in the Sanctum, scanning through the individual rooms, trying to discover where the interlopers were hiding. The Horn was a large place, however, and her scans did not end up revealing where they were hidden. Meanwhile, Donovan went from area to area, helping to end the commotion that was taking place, and patching up those who had been injured through the day.</p><p></p><p>Even with the Cuestodaemons watching the exit of the Horn, the individuals were never caught. After hours of the residents being on guard, Donovan finally decided that they must have somehow already fled. Taking stock of all that had been assaulted, Donovan realized that they had failed to actually remove anything of value from the premises. Still, he knew that these individuals were searching for treasure, they had even gone to the trouble of searching through Tamsen’s “toy chest” in their search for items of value. That meant that they must believe there was something here worth stealing. This would be the chink in the armor that Donovan and his family could exploit, “Lucius, GrumbleJack, begin a flyover of the area. I don’t expect that they are stupid, but I imagine that our guests have set up camp nearby. We’ll take this fight to their doorstep.” Lucius and GrumbleJack nodded, then took the sky via their varying means. Donovan sat down next to one of the spots he suspected that the intruders had entered the Horn from. He was tired from running around the whole of the day, and frustrated from his inability to have stopped the invaders, or to save the people who were depending on him. Donovan’s hand lightly traced against the wall. Just then, Tamsen entered the room where he was sitting. She could innately sense the state of mind Donovan was in. Sitting down next to Donovan on the floor, she pulled Donovan’s head onto her lap, and brushed her fingers through his hair gently. Tamsen could feel the built up tension releasing from Donovan, as his breaths became fuller and slower. “Three-dimensional fighting. They are very clever, my love.”, Donovan finally spoke up. “I’m sure you’ll think of a way of deal with this issue, Donovan. You always do.”, Tamsen’s voice was almost a whisper now.</p><p></p><p>“My love, Lucius is saying he may have found something, and is on his way back.”, Tamsen touched Donovan’s face gently, as he startled awake. He realized he had fallen asleep on her lap, and she had simply sat there and watched over him. “Oh, good, when he gets back here, we’ll send out a group of individuals to deal with these people.”, Donovan kissed Tamsen gently on the lips, enjoying a precious moment of alone time with her. Once Lucius returned, Donovan pulled Kirin, Bebop, and Lucius into the main chamber area, to discuss with Lucius what he had seen. “I want the three of you and Lucinda to find this renegade group of interlopers, and put them down! They cost me in blood this time, and I intend to repay the favor fourscore!”, Donovan looked in each of their eyes to confirm their understanding of the task. Donovan could read the eagerness and anticipation in some of them, and the cold dutiful acceptance in the others, but all of them were more than willing to extract vengeance. “Find them and take care of this matter. No mistakes.”, Donovan stared directly into Lucius’ eyes. Looking back at the rest of the group, the instructions were simple: “Get it done, and return safely.” The group nodded, and began to walk out of the room. “Lucius.”, Donovan called out. Returning to Donovan, Lucius smiled, “Is there something else?”</p><p>“Do you know the Feather Fall spell?”, Donovan queried.</p><p>“Of course, I’ve known that one for a while now.”, Lucius replied confidently.</p><p>A wide grin came across Donovan’s face. “Perfect. Now let me tell you what you’re going to do when you encounter their campsite. They aren’t the only ones who can engage in three-dimensional combat.” Donovan explained the battle tactics, and soon Lucius shared Donovan’s grin.</p><p></p><p>As the group began flying out based upon Lucius’ previous observations, they each began to pay careful attention to the ground several hundred feet beneath them. While it would be unlikely that the group would be on guard from an aerial attack, the presence of flying horses could still easily catch the eyes of anyone. Fortune proved to be on the family’s side, and they were able to get within range of the campsite without being detected. Lucinda spotted them first, four individuals whose descriptions matched some of the aspects of the information that had been received from the people who had encountered them within the Horn. From there, the group began to circle around, getting in position to allow Lucius to place the Feather Fall spell on all of them. As the four of them allowed themselves to fall off their respective flying mounts, Lucius applied the spell to the group. The sensation of the sudden fall turning into a gentle drop was disorienting at first, but the group took advantage of the opportunity, allowing themselves to apply spells and abilities to bolster their effectiveness. Meanwhile, Lucius, getting a closer look at the layout of the campsite, took advantage of their relatively close proximity to one another, and applied Black Tentacles to where they were sitting and standing around.</p><p></p><p>Panic set in on the group of adventurers, as some of them were being crushed by the tentacles, while others managed to extricate themselves before the tentacles began to take hold. As the group of attackers gently set down onto the ground, the two individuals who were not being held by the tentacles rushed up into the fight with Bebop, Kirin, and Lucinda. A Dwarven Barbarian was the first individual to attack into the group. Unfortunately for him, he encountered the full rage of Bebop as the enlarged monster exploded onto him. Between his onslaught of attacks and lack of protection from the casters, the Barbarian found himself falling to the fury of fangs and claws. The Anti-Paladin rushed up onto what appeared to be the Druid of the group, and let his blade tear into her flesh. As her fear began to take hold of her, he pressed the attack further still. The blade tore into her once more, knocking her unconscious to the ground.</p><p>“Pathetic!”, Kirin scoffed at his fallen prey.</p><p>Lucinda assisted the work of the Black Tentacles by causing the Gnome to be knocked to the ground, making their efforts to grab him that much easier. It was clear he wanted to cast a spell, but the Tentacles bound his wrists in a way that made spells impossible for him to cast. Lucinda continued to strike the Gnome from just outside the radius of the tentacles to continue attacking.</p><p>The Elven Ranger appeared to break free of the Tentacles, but remained inside of their influence to allow herself an opportunity to attack. She drew back her bow, and released a powerful attack onto Bebop, who seemed unfazed by her efforts. Pushing up closer to the Tentacles, Bebop finished off the Gnome who was still struggling to cast a spell.</p><p>With bloodlust in his veins, Kirin marched through the Tentacles to attack the Ranger.</p><p>“Donovan is going to want one of them for interrogation.”, Bebop shouted across the campsite, a moment before Kirin struck the Ranger down with a brutal slash of his sword.</p><p>“If Donovan wants survivors, then he’s going to have to give me opponents that are worth my effort.”, Kirin said with a haughty tone in his voice, as he sheathed his sword.</p><p>Irritated, Lucius set out the Portable Hole. “Toss all of them in here. Donovan can make sense of all of this when we get back.” The bodies were soon tossed in with careless disregard, and then the group returned to the Horn. Summoning up a new group of flying creatures, Lucius and the others headed back, their prize in tow.</p><p></p><p>“Excellent work!”, Donovan congratulated the group when they arrived. “Let’s see what we can discover about our ill-fated intruders.” Donovan began to dig through the objects on their possession with Bebop close at hand, pointing out the ones that he wanted to have saved. Coming across what appeared to be a corked bottle, Donovan’s interest grew, “Well, what do we have here? A Bottle of Air!” Donovan inhaled the contents to confirm his suspicions. “Now I understand how they were able to stay hidden within the walls for so long. Very clever, indeed!” Handing over the bottle to Lucius, Donovan’s eyes caught the sight of a journal that was being carried on the Gnome’s corpse. “And what do we have here?” Donovan began flipping through the journal, reading the last section out loud in front of the rest of the family.</p><p></p><p><em>What an interesting development today. We were approached by a so-called holy man full of talk about visions and angels and so forth. He claimed these spirits had driven him to stop the wickedness going on in the Horn and to rally us to our “destiny”. Mentioned us almost by name the angels did! I’m flattered. </em></p><p><em>He delivered us his pitch and then gave to us an immense pile of information including maps, names and so much more. Really, he did everything but give us the keys to the front door.</em></p><p><em>Of course I don’t accept such gifts without a fair degree of skepticism. I had Vethia trail the “Holy Man” and our fears turned out to be justified. She saw this angel-speaker slip into a side alley and transform back into a dark haired and much younger human.</em></p><p><em>My tracker followed the human through the streets of Farholde and saw the young man rendezvous with a strange white-haired woman with a white raven on her shoulder. He called her “Z”.</em></p><p><em>They didn’t say much to each other. All he said was “It is done. The Ninth is finished.” I am unsure exactly what that means, but clearly, we are being used in some sort of double-cross between various factions of the cult that occupies the Horn. Ah, evil doers. They never change.</em></p><p><em>So, they want us to be their assassins, eh? Well, it’s a job we don’t mind doing. We’ll be cautious about this information obviously. But I think it’s likely to pan out. They wouldn’t want their dupes to fail after all, would they? Of course, when we’re done, I think we’ll pay the “holy man” a little visit as well. Vethia is pretty sure the woman in white must be staying in the nearby inn -- “The Auld Briarhall” in Auld’Irey.</em></p><p><em>What a piece of work is my elven tracker! She tracked a shapechanger through almost a half mile of city, managed to eavesdrop on a private guarded conversation and reported back without even a ripple of trouble. Hah! Remind me to give that girl an almost even share of the treasure!</em></p><p><em>Tomorrow we attack the Horn. I can feel it my bones. This is the big one! After this, I just know that our wee little band will never be the same.</em></p><p></p><p>As Donovan closed the journal, he looked down upon the corpse of the Gnome, “Well, on that last part, I certainly agree with you.”</p><p>“We were betrayed by the Seventh!”, Tamsen hissed disapprovingly.</p><p>“Of course we were betrayed, my love. That was always going to be the outcome. I knew it the second I showed her the ritual book. She was never going to accept us performing this task.”, Donovan nodded.</p><p>“They need to be punished!”, Bebop spoke up, his anger rising.</p><p>Donovan raised his hands in a calming gesture, “Of course they are going to be punished. But this needs to be an object lesson for Father. I warned him of this some time ago.”</p><p>“What do you want to do?”, Lucius looked curiously at Donovan.</p><p>Donovan smirked, “First, we act like nothing has changed here. We continue on as though we never encountered these individuals. Second, you are going to scout them out to see when they are at the Auld Briarhall.”</p><p>“And then?”, Kirin smiled expectantly.</p><p>“And then, we show them exactly what happens to those who betray the family.”, a cruel smile crossed Donovan’s face, as his next plans began to work themselves out in his mind.</p><p></p><p>Session 24 Ends.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="rchodges, post: 8705947, member: 7031385"] [B]Part 2:[/B] Call Forth Darkness [B]Act 3: [/B]Thirty-one Weeks [B]Session 24:[/B] From Above As Below Week 18: Donovan stared at his notes over and over again, meticulously working through the details that had been discovered over the course of the previous week. He knew for certain that a group of adventurers would be approaching the Horn over this week, he knew for certain that they would gain access via the lower section of the Horn, and he knew for certain that his group was to be betrayed. All of this was what had been revealed by Tamsen’s mother and Patron. Still, Donovan could not shake the feeling that he had missed something, that there had been some detail that he had overlooked. Not knowing the specific day that the attack would take place, Donovan had Kirin take up a guard position near the maw of the cave at the entrance to the hidden staircase. Bebop continued to guard the first floor. And work proceeded as it generally would, with the different residents attending to their typical tasks. James O’Toole was still attempting to harness this fighting force into something worthwhile, despite the fact that they were effectively worthless. James often suspected that Donovan was simply keeping him around in order to not have to kill him, which wasn’t exactly great for James’ ego. Still, the food and wine had continued to flow without hesitation, and he was never once tasked with doing something that he would have considered callous. It was on this night when James saw what appeared to be some sort of mud or earth creature rising up from the ground. Confused, he looked at the creature, wondering of this was another one of the Summoner’s creations. Then, what appeared to be a small Gnome was released from the side of the earhen creature. The Gnome gestured to Zikomo, and Zikomo hurled himself at James. Tossing Zikomo off momentarily, James looked around and saw that all of the Boggards were sizing him up for attack. James readied himself for the fight, knowing there was little he could do to stop all of them. Kirin heard a small commotion on the other end of the Maw. He was unsure what to make of the sound, but was hesitant to abandon his post. Reaching out with his mind to Tamsen, he notified her that something was possibly going on, and he was going to check on it. Tamsen relayed this information to Donovan, who immediately sprung to defense. Contacting the Daemon brothers, he told them to secure the entrance of the Maw, and to assist in taking out whatever threat was down there. Donovan then began to move down to the lower floors himself, assuming that the attack was soon to take place. When Hexor approached Kirin, the two of them headed over to the section of the Maw where the sounds had been coming from. Arriving there, Hexor and Kirin found that the Boggards had ripped apart James O’Toole, and were feasting on his innards. Hexor relayed this information to Donovan. Donovan pondered the news, “Could this have been the betrayal we were to expect this week? An attack from the Boggards?” Donovan told Hexor to grab Zikomo and bring the elder to where he was. Donovan needed more information. Meanwhile, even as Donovan was attempting to understand this issue with the betrayal of the Boggards, there were other betrayals taking place within the Horn. Back in the Forge, GrumbleJack also saw the Gnomish man, and then realized that he needed to attack Idrees. While Idrees was able to activate her invisibility power and escape his onslaught, she still had been severely wounded in the fracas. Even within Traya’s group, infighting had begun to take place. Donovan quickly realized that there was Charm magicks being used to sway the minds of the weaker individuals, but still didn’t know how these people were able to move around the complex without triggering any of the alarms. It wasn’t until Hexor brought forth Zikomo and angrily wrung the confession out of him that Donovan understood the scope of what was happening. These individuals were using some sort of earth gliding ability that allowed them to pass through the floors and walls of the Horn unimpeded! While it would bring no comfort for the fallen retainer, it still meant that Zikomo and the Boggards had not as of yet betrayed the group, as they were taken off guard just as easily as everyone else had been. But this brought a greater concern for Donovan and the others: How were they to stop the invasion of an enemy who could pass undetected through the floors and walls? “How are they able to survive indefinitely within the walls themselves?”, Donovan pondered the nature of the attack. For her part, Tamsen spent the large majority of the day up in the Sanctum, scanning through the individual rooms, trying to discover where the interlopers were hiding. The Horn was a large place, however, and her scans did not end up revealing where they were hidden. Meanwhile, Donovan went from area to area, helping to end the commotion that was taking place, and patching up those who had been injured through the day. Even with the Cuestodaemons watching the exit of the Horn, the individuals were never caught. After hours of the residents being on guard, Donovan finally decided that they must have somehow already fled. Taking stock of all that had been assaulted, Donovan realized that they had failed to actually remove anything of value from the premises. Still, he knew that these individuals were searching for treasure, they had even gone to the trouble of searching through Tamsen’s “toy chest” in their search for items of value. That meant that they must believe there was something here worth stealing. This would be the chink in the armor that Donovan and his family could exploit, “Lucius, GrumbleJack, begin a flyover of the area. I don’t expect that they are stupid, but I imagine that our guests have set up camp nearby. We’ll take this fight to their doorstep.” Lucius and GrumbleJack nodded, then took the sky via their varying means. Donovan sat down next to one of the spots he suspected that the intruders had entered the Horn from. He was tired from running around the whole of the day, and frustrated from his inability to have stopped the invaders, or to save the people who were depending on him. Donovan’s hand lightly traced against the wall. Just then, Tamsen entered the room where he was sitting. She could innately sense the state of mind Donovan was in. Sitting down next to Donovan on the floor, she pulled Donovan’s head onto her lap, and brushed her fingers through his hair gently. Tamsen could feel the built up tension releasing from Donovan, as his breaths became fuller and slower. “Three-dimensional fighting. They are very clever, my love.”, Donovan finally spoke up. “I’m sure you’ll think of a way of deal with this issue, Donovan. You always do.”, Tamsen’s voice was almost a whisper now. “My love, Lucius is saying he may have found something, and is on his way back.”, Tamsen touched Donovan’s face gently, as he startled awake. He realized he had fallen asleep on her lap, and she had simply sat there and watched over him. “Oh, good, when he gets back here, we’ll send out a group of individuals to deal with these people.”, Donovan kissed Tamsen gently on the lips, enjoying a precious moment of alone time with her. Once Lucius returned, Donovan pulled Kirin, Bebop, and Lucius into the main chamber area, to discuss with Lucius what he had seen. “I want the three of you and Lucinda to find this renegade group of interlopers, and put them down! They cost me in blood this time, and I intend to repay the favor fourscore!”, Donovan looked in each of their eyes to confirm their understanding of the task. Donovan could read the eagerness and anticipation in some of them, and the cold dutiful acceptance in the others, but all of them were more than willing to extract vengeance. “Find them and take care of this matter. No mistakes.”, Donovan stared directly into Lucius’ eyes. Looking back at the rest of the group, the instructions were simple: “Get it done, and return safely.” The group nodded, and began to walk out of the room. “Lucius.”, Donovan called out. Returning to Donovan, Lucius smiled, “Is there something else?” “Do you know the Feather Fall spell?”, Donovan queried. “Of course, I’ve known that one for a while now.”, Lucius replied confidently. A wide grin came across Donovan’s face. “Perfect. Now let me tell you what you’re going to do when you encounter their campsite. They aren’t the only ones who can engage in three-dimensional combat.” Donovan explained the battle tactics, and soon Lucius shared Donovan’s grin. As the group began flying out based upon Lucius’ previous observations, they each began to pay careful attention to the ground several hundred feet beneath them. While it would be unlikely that the group would be on guard from an aerial attack, the presence of flying horses could still easily catch the eyes of anyone. Fortune proved to be on the family’s side, and they were able to get within range of the campsite without being detected. Lucinda spotted them first, four individuals whose descriptions matched some of the aspects of the information that had been received from the people who had encountered them within the Horn. From there, the group began to circle around, getting in position to allow Lucius to place the Feather Fall spell on all of them. As the four of them allowed themselves to fall off their respective flying mounts, Lucius applied the spell to the group. The sensation of the sudden fall turning into a gentle drop was disorienting at first, but the group took advantage of the opportunity, allowing themselves to apply spells and abilities to bolster their effectiveness. Meanwhile, Lucius, getting a closer look at the layout of the campsite, took advantage of their relatively close proximity to one another, and applied Black Tentacles to where they were sitting and standing around. Panic set in on the group of adventurers, as some of them were being crushed by the tentacles, while others managed to extricate themselves before the tentacles began to take hold. As the group of attackers gently set down onto the ground, the two individuals who were not being held by the tentacles rushed up into the fight with Bebop, Kirin, and Lucinda. A Dwarven Barbarian was the first individual to attack into the group. Unfortunately for him, he encountered the full rage of Bebop as the enlarged monster exploded onto him. Between his onslaught of attacks and lack of protection from the casters, the Barbarian found himself falling to the fury of fangs and claws. The Anti-Paladin rushed up onto what appeared to be the Druid of the group, and let his blade tear into her flesh. As her fear began to take hold of her, he pressed the attack further still. The blade tore into her once more, knocking her unconscious to the ground. “Pathetic!”, Kirin scoffed at his fallen prey. Lucinda assisted the work of the Black Tentacles by causing the Gnome to be knocked to the ground, making their efforts to grab him that much easier. It was clear he wanted to cast a spell, but the Tentacles bound his wrists in a way that made spells impossible for him to cast. Lucinda continued to strike the Gnome from just outside the radius of the tentacles to continue attacking. The Elven Ranger appeared to break free of the Tentacles, but remained inside of their influence to allow herself an opportunity to attack. She drew back her bow, and released a powerful attack onto Bebop, who seemed unfazed by her efforts. Pushing up closer to the Tentacles, Bebop finished off the Gnome who was still struggling to cast a spell. With bloodlust in his veins, Kirin marched through the Tentacles to attack the Ranger. “Donovan is going to want one of them for interrogation.”, Bebop shouted across the campsite, a moment before Kirin struck the Ranger down with a brutal slash of his sword. “If Donovan wants survivors, then he’s going to have to give me opponents that are worth my effort.”, Kirin said with a haughty tone in his voice, as he sheathed his sword. Irritated, Lucius set out the Portable Hole. “Toss all of them in here. Donovan can make sense of all of this when we get back.” The bodies were soon tossed in with careless disregard, and then the group returned to the Horn. Summoning up a new group of flying creatures, Lucius and the others headed back, their prize in tow. “Excellent work!”, Donovan congratulated the group when they arrived. “Let’s see what we can discover about our ill-fated intruders.” Donovan began to dig through the objects on their possession with Bebop close at hand, pointing out the ones that he wanted to have saved. Coming across what appeared to be a corked bottle, Donovan’s interest grew, “Well, what do we have here? A Bottle of Air!” Donovan inhaled the contents to confirm his suspicions. “Now I understand how they were able to stay hidden within the walls for so long. Very clever, indeed!” Handing over the bottle to Lucius, Donovan’s eyes caught the sight of a journal that was being carried on the Gnome’s corpse. “And what do we have here?” Donovan began flipping through the journal, reading the last section out loud in front of the rest of the family. [I]What an interesting development today. We were approached by a so-called holy man full of talk about visions and angels and so forth. He claimed these spirits had driven him to stop the wickedness going on in the Horn and to rally us to our “destiny”. Mentioned us almost by name the angels did! I’m flattered. He delivered us his pitch and then gave to us an immense pile of information including maps, names and so much more. Really, he did everything but give us the keys to the front door. Of course I don’t accept such gifts without a fair degree of skepticism. I had Vethia trail the “Holy Man” and our fears turned out to be justified. She saw this angel-speaker slip into a side alley and transform back into a dark haired and much younger human. My tracker followed the human through the streets of Farholde and saw the young man rendezvous with a strange white-haired woman with a white raven on her shoulder. He called her “Z”. They didn’t say much to each other. All he said was “It is done. The Ninth is finished.” I am unsure exactly what that means, but clearly, we are being used in some sort of double-cross between various factions of the cult that occupies the Horn. Ah, evil doers. They never change. So, they want us to be their assassins, eh? Well, it’s a job we don’t mind doing. We’ll be cautious about this information obviously. But I think it’s likely to pan out. They wouldn’t want their dupes to fail after all, would they? Of course, when we’re done, I think we’ll pay the “holy man” a little visit as well. Vethia is pretty sure the woman in white must be staying in the nearby inn -- “The Auld Briarhall” in Auld’Irey. What a piece of work is my elven tracker! She tracked a shapechanger through almost a half mile of city, managed to eavesdrop on a private guarded conversation and reported back without even a ripple of trouble. Hah! Remind me to give that girl an almost even share of the treasure! Tomorrow we attack the Horn. I can feel it my bones. This is the big one! After this, I just know that our wee little band will never be the same.[/I] As Donovan closed the journal, he looked down upon the corpse of the Gnome, “Well, on that last part, I certainly agree with you.” “We were betrayed by the Seventh!”, Tamsen hissed disapprovingly. “Of course we were betrayed, my love. That was always going to be the outcome. I knew it the second I showed her the ritual book. She was never going to accept us performing this task.”, Donovan nodded. “They need to be punished!”, Bebop spoke up, his anger rising. Donovan raised his hands in a calming gesture, “Of course they are going to be punished. But this needs to be an object lesson for Father. I warned him of this some time ago.” “What do you want to do?”, Lucius looked curiously at Donovan. Donovan smirked, “First, we act like nothing has changed here. We continue on as though we never encountered these individuals. Second, you are going to scout them out to see when they are at the Auld Briarhall.” “And then?”, Kirin smiled expectantly. “And then, we show them exactly what happens to those who betray the family.”, a cruel smile crossed Donovan’s face, as his next plans began to work themselves out in his mind. Session 24 Ends. [/QUOTE]
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Way of the Wicked Playthrough - Updated 2023/03/28
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