Welcome gamers to the "I'm sorry I ran a boring combat last session" session. The "Andrew read through a bunch of Monster books this week" session. The "Andrew killed a child and nearly convinced Elvira to kill another to save her" session. This one is meaty. This one is chunky. And above all, this one is NASTY.
Buckle up Chuckle Fucks, we're about to mainline more plot development than I typically pull off in a month.
Starting in the vampire inn, the group foreshadowed how this session would go by failing repeatedly to find a hidden loot room in the Vampire Inn. Aquor eventually found it, and the group got a +2 Guardian Rapier, 4,000 GP, and a scroll of Bursting Magic Missile. Also, there were five recently killed peasants around, but given the whole "Vampire Inn" thing, that's hardly surprising.
When they were four days away from Maetrigar, the party found a town called Trotberk, ruled by Baron Rotti. On the way into town, the party recognized that the crops in the surrounding fields looked stunted and weak. The exact cause was unclear, but this region was obviously suffering. This was confirmed by the incredibly high price of bread in town, and the emaciated look of the region's inhabitants at the market.
Aside from the market, Trotberk was home to a resplendent church of Lathander, and an ornately decorated Ossuary. The two buildings stood out for how well made and rich they appeared given the size of the community.
Laura, along with Silas, visited the Church. Silas vouched for Laura after a rough introduction to the local clergy, and inside the church, Laura spoke to a bunch of very poor peasants about their struggles and the causes of those struggles. She found out that they are devoutly religious, that the famine is caused by the weather, not probably by a god's disfavor, and that Rotti's taxes are contributing to the hardship with the poor crops.
Lucifer, Elvira, and Inej went to the Ossuary. They saw workers preparing bodies to be interred, and a stairway down to the Catacombs. In the catacombs, the group explored for a ways, finding that the catacombs were quite long before being ambushed by some kind of undead. After fighting off the assailant, Lucifer was infected with a disease, and the group retreated to the church.
Back at the church, the party reconvened. The priests were concerned about a ghoul being found, and very glad that it had been killed. The community's Bishop was able to use Greater Restoration to cure Lucifer. He warned that if bit by a ghoul, one could contract the infection (Called Ghoul Rot), and the deadly disease would both kill quickly, and likely turn the victim into an undead creature.
The party then, at Laura's direction, decided to go talk to the Baron about relieving his subject's taxes if Laura blessed the crop fields in order to double their output. This led to a protracted argument between Laura and Elvira about how aggressively this should be approached, with Elvira signing off on the plan on the conditions that Laura only bring one well-behaved terrorist, not use her hammer for threats, and not cause a diplomatic incident.
Rotti was shockingly receptive to the offer and Laura was shockingly diplomatic with the noble, and the deal was agreed to. Laura blessed the fields, and Rotti agreed to cut taxes on the new surplus for the duration of the blessing. The group spent the night at Rotti's in very comfortable beds.
Setting out, the party had only four days left of their journey to Maetrigar. They travelled quickly, but after two days the party came to a roadblock. They were travelling through an isolated, forested area, when the road narrowed. It was dense forest on one side, a very thin road, and then a sheer 300-foot cliff on the other.
A downed log stopped the party, as did the incredibly buff, very magical looking knight standing behind it. The Knight asked "who are you?" The party responded "a diplomatic mission from Beggar's Hole, who are you?", and the knight replied "Your worst nightmare!"
The party prepared for conflict with the knight and his ~18 companions. Inej prepared to flirt hard with the knight on her first turn "I saw you in my dreams... but they weren't nightmares". Said flirting went indisputably well, though the knight revealed himself to be pretty firmly a misogynist, and a bit lecherous in his interactions with Inej. Ultimately, his firm stance on killing Inej's friends pretty securely meant he wouldn't be landing a date with her.
The first few turns went majorly in the party's favor. Inej killed several guards, Lucifer melted ten men to death, and Laura dragged the knight off the cliff to kill him. Having suffered fairly little damage, it was looking like another classic Champions of Beggar's Hole whomping of the DM.
As everyone was starting to make comments about how easily the party was triumphing, things took a drastic turn. The party watched over the course of two rounds as their health, especially Lucifer's, was whittled away by archers in the trees. In one climactic round, Lucifer was taken down, and ended up with two failed death saving throws. When her turn came around, she failed the important roll and the first member of the party to actually and legitimately die was a seventeen year old girl, hired as an intern a mere few weeks ago, whose parents were fighting for their own lives just yards away. Her broken body on the ground put fear into the hearts of the party, and they redoubled their efforts against the archers.
Laura continued flying back to the top of the cliff as the enchanted knight ran away, but things continued to turn bad. Several more party members went down until the only two people still standing were Laura and Inej. When Elvira went down, the Annis Hag from the Great Swamp appeared to her, telling her that her "little friend" (Lucifer) was dead, and offering a deal. If Elvira would agree to bring the hag a child, the hag would intervene to save Lucifer's life. A life for a life, a child for a child.
Just as Elvira was about to accept the deal, Laura revived her with a healing word, and Elvira screamed "DEAL" into the air to no effect. Then Lane, in real life, screamed "Fuck You Laura" incredibly loudly in my apartment. No one showed up about a noise complaint, so hopefully we were fine. While she lay dying, Lucifer didn't have any kind of mystic vision. With no professed faith or belief about the afterlife, she instead just saw her parents, screaming and crying, trying to break through the melee to reach their dead daughter.
This continued for a few more rounds, with various people up and down, barely clinging to life as they fought off the tree archers. Finally, when only Inej was still up and fighting, she managed to heroically kill the final archer. The rest of the caravan mopped up the last of the attackers they had been fighting, and the hectic action of combat was replaced by even more hectic efforts to save the fallen.
Silas rushed to Lucifer, revivifying her as her parents wept. She revived, incredibly shellshocked and with much to think about, but thankfully no longer dead.
He then rushed to Laura, who had flatlined (Calvin with a clutch nat 1 on the death saving throw) in the meantime. While dead, Laura had a vision of Saint Ethyl Werthers reaching out a hand to take her to the next life. "Little Boy, I've come to take you, are you ready?". Laura responded, "Ethyl, I've just got one question. Did I die nastier?"
As Ethyl affirmed that Laura, in fact, did die nastier, Silas's revivify jerked her back to life, and the vision of Ethyl's kindly face blurred until Laura opened her eyes to see Silas, weeping and bloody, leaning over her.
With only one spell slot remaining to revivify anyone that died, Silas was happy to see Elvira stabilized without the need for such drastic intervention. Unfortunately, the beloved warrior Meat Boy was not so lucky, and died in a tree. With the last of his magic, Silas rescued our brave, strong, meaty boy before telling everyone to please stop dying.
After time to rest, the party examined the remnants. There was little valuable loot, save for where the Knight fell off the cliff. He had left behind his weapon and a satchel. The weapon is larger than a normal person can wield, but packs a hefty punch if you can manage to wield it, especially due to the lingering magic of its former owner.
Laura also found three potions of speed in the satchel, and a collection of notes.
The first note was a regimen of supplemental potions used to control the arcane energy infusing this knight and make him strong.
The second note was a knight's oath, pledging this knight to defend the crown, the church of Lathander, and the commoners of Ciloria.
The final note was a mostly destroyed set of orders. All that could be made out was "intercept the diplomats from Beggar's Hole", and "Whatever happens, do not allow them to reach Maetrigar."
Comments