Death of a friend, Irabeth at last, how to walk into traps

Campaign Log of Autec the Landbound, Day 7

Annevia is dead. Her home was a trap.

Things started out well on the journey across town to her place. Well, in that no one died when we were ambushed by a cat-like howler demon near our destination. While the beast was clever in its maneuvering amongst the rooftops, it posed no real danger once we had a clear line of attack. Kesh continues to prove his worth with an increasing number of well-placed arrows and Katsa seems to be taking pride in showing off her newly enhanced magic missile spell to our foes. My own mastery over Pax's form continues to grow as well, just recently I learned how to augment her physical strength. I'm thinking about adding a horn...

Annevia's home seemed undamaged from outside and she quickly headed in, shouting Irabeth's name. We followed, less loudly. The home was modest, but tastefully furnished. Unsurprisingly, Irabeth wasn't just waiting around for us. She (this note couldn't be fake!) had, however, left Annevia a message to come join her at the Defender's Heart, a rallying point for the survivors across town. I'm guessing reading the message was some sort of trigger, as, with a soft "pop" of displaced air, we were assaulted by two lesser devils, ugly little blobs of flesh known as lemures.

This was startling for two reasons: 1. Similarly to demons, devils are capable of summoning more devils. 2. These two were clearly summoned, which likely means we're under attack by something we can't see.

We shred the two lemures in a flash of cold iron and tentacles just in time to meet the next wave of summoned creatures, three abyssal beetles about the size of my head. Pax isn't necessary to clean these up and I send her flailing through the room, hoping to bump into our mysterious summoner. This maneuver causes our assailant to cease summoning speed bumps and start summoning fireballs, a much more threatening strategy. I catch a glimpse of him as his aggressive spell breaks his invisibility; a medium sized orc in red scaled armor.

The orc's first blast is a tactical disaster and catches all of us except Kesh. Annevia goes down immediately, dead or dying, the rest of us not far off. Ralan manages to knock him down, but our flailing doesn't manage to disrupt his casting. The last I remember is Pax's screech and waves of light bearing me into darkness.

I survived, as did the rest of the party, though it was a very close call. Calling upon his holy healing powers, Ralan managed to weather the blasts while the rest of us were knocked out. Weakened and floorbound, the sorcerer was no match for his righteous fury. Kesh may have done something as well, but this is the story I got from Ralan.

A quick round of healing potions later, we're all back on our appendages and, after a few moments of discussion, decide to take both bodies to Irabeth if she still lives. Eadro smiles on our path and we don't run into anything on our short trip to the Heart.

The large structure was once a tavern, but has been converted into the impromptu headquarters of the remaining crusaders. We flag down a guard who brings Irabeth to us, an armored half-orc female. She catches sight of the bodies we carry and stumbled, but quickly regains control of herself before asking us what has happened and who we are.

Ralan fills her in on where we've been, our information on the cultists, and the death of Annevia. She is clearly saddened by the news, but stoic nonetheless, and excited to hear of our knowledge of the cultists movements. She tells us she will send a contingent to speak to the "First Descendants" under the city, and thanks us for providing a useful ally to the cause.

She also tells us that she had arrested the orc we killed, Vagor, years ago. Apparently he had slipped out of jail during the confusion and was waiting in ambush at her home. Some people can really hold a grudge.

Irabeth wastes no time in accepting us into the cause and enlists our aid to investigate the three cultist safeholds we had identified in Staunton Vale's letter to Hosila. A crusader cleric heals our burns from the fight with Vagor and we decide to head out immediately to the Topaz Solution, the first hideout.

Approaching the building, an apothecaries store, Sitzva casts a spell that allows him to scan the surface thoughts of those around him and sweeps the first floor. The only people inside turn out to be a trio of scavenging mercenaries with a small sack of magical goodies they'd dug out of the ruins. Sensing that our need would be the greater, I trick them into handing the mix of potions, bolts, and scrolls over or risk becoming demonically tainted. My ruse succeeds, but the kitty gets caught with his paw in the cookie jar when he tries to lift some of their coinage as well. Fortunately, it doesn't come to blows and they scoot.

After some searching, we locate a hidden basement filled with magically altered plants and a work area. I summon up a water elemental and instruct him to physically sweep the area for traps before we descend. This works out very well, as the cultists had, in fact, left two nasty surprises for us, somehow knowing that we would be coming. The first is some sort of magical fog that fills the area and causes all sorts of unpleasantness for the few of us that catch a whiff. The second is that one of the plants animates into a blood-thirsty and inhumanly strong mandragora. Ralan and Sitzva don't seem to mind the fog and engage the plant-baby-thing in close range. They suffer considerably from its blood-draining bite, but manage to bring it down.

We find a snarkily insulting message from the cultists after clearing the area. Glad they've got a sense of humor about their impending demise. Ralan scoops up the numerous Iomedaean holy symbols they seemingly left for us to find. With darkness falling, we decide to head back to the Heart and rest before investigating the next hideout.




Campaign Log of Autec the Landbound, Day 8

Our next stop is a tower nearby, once used as a guard post by the crusaders. Sensing the structure is inhabited by cultists this time, we manage to bluff our way inside to speak to the leader using Terendelev's scales. Ralan demonstrates surprising self control by continuing our charade and convincing the cultist leader that we were member of another group reporting our patrol of the city. He tells us of the current plans of the demon lord Minago to finish the destruction of Kenabres through the use of a piece of the sundered ward stone. Ralan thanks him by taking firm hold of his robes as the rest of us ram home our weapons. He goes down without a whimper and we secure the large pile of loot the cultists have been collecting. Katsa also makes sure we take a large, magical, brass bull's head mounted on the wall, as it is quite valuable to the right types.

We slay the remaining cultists on our way out and rush to tell Irabeth of the impending threat to Kenabres. As I write this, Irabeth is meeting with her scouts and advisers to determine our course of action. I suspect we will all be involved, but, for now, we can rest.

Out of the depths and why is the sky so red?

Campaign Log of Autec the Landbound, Day 5 

Everyone seems excited to be off early this morning and we make good time to the area Chief Sull has indicated as the traitor’s compound. On the way, we brainstorm a method to either sneak or bluff our way in, but a number of us are... conspicuous at best. We decide a frontal assault should be sufficient to cow the weak-willed mongrelmen and put that to the test moments later.

The corrupted tribe has prepared the narrow entry tunnel with chest high boulders, but Pax doesn’t give a damn and lets rip a ululating warshriek she has been practicing. Their return volley of crossbow bolts doesn’t stop our charge and we force one to die and the other to retreat. Ralan and Pax go in after him as the rest of us bludgeon the last mongrel down.

The next room is slightly larger, with 3 doors leading off in different directions. Also a lizard and some more mongrels being hacked up by Ralan. The lizard gets the upper-limb on Pax during a grapple, but Katsa blasts it off with a magic missile, saving Pax an untimely trip back to the twisting nether.

As we slay the rest of the mongrels before they can escape, a womanly shriek of pain rings out from behind one of the doors. Ralan valiantly rushes in, presumably in an attempt to rescue the damsel, but encounters only a spider-woman with more arms than is attractive and an arrow along the cheek. Bereft of maidens, he goes and gives her a crushing bear hug anyway. She doesn’t seem to like it and attempts to duck down a hole cut into the floor, but Ralan clings to her like a lost child and we take the opportunity to fill her with holes.

With spider-lady down, we take a moment to survey our surroundings: 

Ralan pokes his head down the hole and narrowly avoids the bolt that whizzes upward to clack against the ceiling.

With his sensitive nose, Kesh lets us know that one of the doors holds nothing but garbage and another fresh water.

Undaunted, Simi starts digging through said trash heap attempting to find Eadro-knows-what. While she doesn’t find anything, a small slime digesting the debris does find her hand and gets to go for a wild ride when it burns her hand. Ralan yanks her out as we shake our collective heads.

We hear muffled chanting from the third door and rush into another battle vs. some nasty looking tiefling clerics that prove no great challenge despite their time spent buffing. We retreat to the crossroads room and Kesh investigates the fresh water smelling door.

He finds a rope dangling down a hole that leads to a small underground river. Seeing nothing, he gives me the all clear and I dive down into the waiting jaws of two large and angry garr. As they rip my tender flesh, Pax alerts the others to the emergency and dives down the hole. Katsa manages to get a bead on me under the water and uses one of Terendelev’s scales to levitate me out. Pax rips up the fish in spite.

With the entire party now on the banks of the small stream someone notices the nearby wall looks a little off and we discover a hidden chamber. Ralan also discovers the hidden pit trap in the chamber, but we lift him out and loot the long forgotten chest for some goodies.

After climbing back up, we continue onward into the mongrel’s complex and soon find further resistance in the form of more crossbowmen and a human woman with a nasty glaive. A wounded Sitzva maneuvers into a close position to nullify the Baphomet worshipper’s longer reach, but is dropped by a mongrel club to the head. Kesh retaliates by feathering the throat of the club wielder in a beautiful shot and we struggle to regain control of the fight.

Ralan and Pax restrain the woman while Kesh and I are beaten to within an inch of our lives, but in the end we triumph with no casualties. Though it was close with a bleeding out Sitzva, Simi and Katsa managed to force a healing potion down his throat at the last moment. Upset at being knocked out, Sitzva begins interrogating the cultist, Hossila, rather severely as the party secures the room.

She admits to being a Baphomet worshipper easily and it is clear she believes her fellow cultists have the upper hand. Eventually, she angers Sitzva sufficiently that he staves her head in with his morningstar before the rest of us are able to stop him. She was rather unpleasant, but I feel we could’ve gotten more information out of her, who knows.

Kesh locates her personal effects and we gather to read through a letter we find on her. 

While thoughts are on escaping this underground hell with our lives at the moment, we should probably check those out if we reach the surface.

Ralan also takes charge of some paladin-loving sword Aravashniel recognizes as the weapon of a previous crusader-hero. I don’t pay much attention to the long and boring human historical details, but the sword is called Radiance and it glows, exciting.

Sitzva takes a moment to tend our wounds and, mostly hale, we proceed down the last unchecked hole. We are attacked by three, large, mangry (mangy AND angry) rats after disturbing their pile of crap. Why does that keep happening!? Run away you freakishly aggressive beasts! We stomp on ‘em and are accosted by two more mongrels as the tunnel narrows. I give them the option of unconditional surrender or certain death. One of them agrees to the certain death by trying to fight, Pax and I are happy to oblige. Simi convinces the other to throw down his arms, and, though he won’t lead us through the maze behind him (citing demons infesting it or some such silly excuse), he agrees to accompany us back to Sull’s village. The others seem convinced that this mongrel can be spared and will aid our fight against the demon. He doesn’t strike me as repentant, but Ralan claims he isn’t evil, so I go along with it.

Back at the village, Sull is happy about our victory over the traitorous mongrel clan and cultist accompaniment. He accepts our prisoner/parolee and reminds us to secure diplomatic terms with the crusader leadership, if such a thing still exists. We rest up and finish healing our wounds. The trip back to the maze entrance is uneventful.

Campaign Log of Autec the Landbound, Day 6

Turns out that mongrel wasn’t lying, the maze, is, in fact, occupied by a few demons of the lowest order, dretch. Fighting them in the narrow tunnels filled with their own magical noxious breath proves annoying, but they don't present a very large danger with their unimpressive claws. We take turns alternately puking and stabbing them until they get out of the way. The “maze” turns out to be very tiny and un-mazelike, but leads to the surface quickly, so I guess I can’t be that upset.

Kenabres is another story, and “upset” would be one way to describe it. From our vantage in the hills on the SW side of town, it appears that the demons have control of the city. In the distance, the fortress of Kite is a smoldering ruin. The sky above us glows red with arcane lightning and large swarms of giant insects buzz through the air. Rough.

Aravashniel want us to see if the Blackwing Library still stands and claims that is contains information that will aid us. Annevia counters by requesting we accompany her to see if her wife is okay at their home. We agree to help her, but, as the library is closer, we will go there first.

Skirting from ruined building to ruined building based on Aravashniel’s directions we encounter a man and woman about to be killed by an abracondalu, a minor demon of destruction. We rush to their aid and are able to dispatch the beast without a scratch. In between panicked, wheezing breaths, they tell us of the dire situation in Kenabres. The crusaders have been scattered and no longer present a force in the city as far as they know. The demons control the streets and are hunting down the last, few, remaining holdouts. Possession is a possibility with anyone we meet and we will need to rely on Ralan’s senses to guide our trust. They are unaware if the library still stands. I give them some clubs to defend themselves (though they seem not at all eager to fight…come to think of it, why were they wandering the streets unarmed?) and they agree to accompany us for protection.

We reach the library before nightfall, a rather large metal blocky building surrounded by the ruins of a larger structure. Aravashniel tells us that the ruins are the rest of the library, and only the inner sanctum remains. He is deeply troubled by this and tells us of his job as a Riftwarden here at the library, their semi-secret headquarters. He believes they have been specifically targeted for destruction by the demons due to their abilities and the threat they would pose. He demands we head inside to salvage what we can and check for survivors. We comply.

Inside, a rugged man in crusader’s garb is instructing a woman in a robe to pile books around a group of people bound together with rope. Knowing that this isn’t how libraries work at all, Pax, Ralan, Kesh, and I engage the traitorous crusader while Simi and Katsa free the bound librarians. He presents no threat to us after the dangers of the underground and we quickly subdue him. He begs for his life and claims the demons were forcing him to commit these acts. Though the librarians inform us he was just trying to get on the demon’s good side, my companions choose to spare his life in hopes of redemption. He tries to run off at the first opportunity, but both Pax and Kesh’s arrows are considerably faster. I don’t give third chances.

Back at the library, our less blood-spattered members learn that the library was, in fact, intentionally targeted by a man-shaped demon formed of thousands of worms and wielding enormous magical power. Sounds like a mess. Aravashniel decides he will stay at the library to assist further refugees. We will set out soon for Annevia’s home to the north. I don’t actually expect her wife is foolish enough to have stayed there and doubt we will find anything, but the woman is clearly grasping at whatever seagrass she can reach. We agree to accompany her and settle down to tend our wounds and browse through the rubble for anything useful.