The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

[danielxcutter]

Angelena normally uses the higher stuff for buffs, while Sona is actually 2 caster levels behind from her Pact Adept prestige class.

Ah, that explains it then.

[curious-puzzle]

There still are Miracles, Limited Wishes, and the like still getting thrown around, just not as much offensively (stupid Mass Death Ward ruining my level draining fun :P)

[Picanet]

Sona's Magic Gear Loadout:

Head: Circlet of Persuasion
Neck: Blood Choker (*Set Piece)
Torso: Vest of Resistance +3
Shoulders: Cloak of CHA +6
Face: Mask of Mental Armor * (Powered up to include a once per day Mindvault ability)
Chest: Robe of Conjuration
Wrist: Bracers of Armor +5
Hands: Barbs of Retribution (*Set Piece)
Waist: Healing Belt
Feet: Anklets of Translocation

Pact Magic Loadout:

Spoiler: Kultainen Pact

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• (L) Orb of Fire 3/day
• Pyrotechnics 3/day
• Wall of Fire 3/day
• Draconic Polymorph 3/day
• Prismatic Spray 1/day

Spoiler: Tonitrus Pact

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• Charm 3/day
• Mirror Image 3/day
• Soundlance 3/day
• Cacophonic Burst 3/day
• Project Image 1/day

** Fun fact. While I have't had the chance to use the pact magic as often as I would like - they are free spells, and the ability to cast any spell 5th level or under as a sudden still and silent has saved me many times. Don't know who Kultainin and Tonitrus are? SHAME ON YOU! (Actually it's all backstory stuff. Good for you!)

[curious-puzzle]

Spoiler: Ahem

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That is all for now.

[PrismCat21]

Spoiler: :sadface:

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That's just mean... :(
Getting our hopes up like that and leaving is in anticipation. :,(

Wait! Have you stopped going easy on them!

[curious-puzzle]

Session # 54!

So last game ended off with the party hunkering down in what seemed to be an operating room of some sort, empty except for a pair of severed arms on one table. They tossed a Glyph of Warding on the door that seemed to lead upwards, but limited their defensive tech to that. Leaving Puck and Spotter to stand guard, the fleshy members of the party quickly collapsed into an exhausted slumber.

In hostile territory.

Spoiler: GM's face while prepping this encounter

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Here we go!

Spoiler: Bump in the night

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Puck is still more fascinated than he should be by the blood/ichor pump. He spends some time hemming and hawing over it, and than leans under the spout and takes a big swig (to the disgust of Spotter).

He gains a Vitae. Thrilled by this, he tries another gulp shortly after. No luck the second time (just some hit points), but a third glug nets Puck another Vitae.

Spoiler: DM NOTE

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And a WWHHOOOLLLEEE lot of marks in a certain part of my notebook...

He doesn't mention this to anyone, and Spotter is a little too grossed out to ask exactly why Puck is doing that. Then about 3 hours into the rest, Spotter makes his DC 40 Spot to sense the presence of the Arcane Eye that one of the Court of Owls is using to spy on the party. His robo-hackles bristling, he creeps up to the door leading upstairs and takes a peek through the barred window - nothing. That's when the ambush starts.

Spoiler: DM NOTE

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The two Rakshasha sorcerers (fluffed to have owl heads instead of tiger) are a ways back from the other door, behind an illusion that looks like a rock wall. They've got line of effect through the bars of the door to do Project Image and throw a bunch of spells at the impertinent intruders

A man with the head of an owl suddenly appears in the room, exuding menace. Puck rushes forward and attempts to solve whatever mixup gave a human an owl head by separating them forcefully!
Except his blade whistles through with no visible result. The man reaches out to the blood smeared on Puck's face with a hungry expression...and backwards palms on his hands. Then another owl-man appears - Spotter looses an arrow but misses. The rest of the party wakes up just in time to breathe deep as a Cloudkill is dropped around them.

Angelena gets up and anklets herself out of the cloud and dispels it - but that's when the shadows pop out of the floor and give everyone the bad touch. Well, except for Spotter (whom I roll terribly and miss) and Puck (see smug immunities). A wall of iron screeches up out of the floor, partially splitting the party (but leaving an opening between the door and the owl-rakshasha, Sona notes). Sona Dimension steps everyone, and having seen Puck cut through one of the Rakshasha-images (and crushing her spellcraft check to recognize it), runs for the door to try and cover up the window.

Angelena tries to get closer to the door, but has to restore some of her strength as she's dangerously close to a shadow stopping her heart with another touch. Speaking of that, I roll quite poorly with said shadows, and they miss touch ac far more than they should before they get cut into wisps of nothingness (50% miss chance only goes so far when you explode in a single hit :P).

Poor Talvosh is the only one trapped by the iron wall, and while fighting the shadows, is getting a LOT of magic thrown his way. By the time he shreds the remaining shadows, he has been:
a)enervated multiple times
b)hit with a Phantasmal assailants
c)taken more strength damage from the shadows

And then once he finally staggers close enough to the Rakshasha image, he gets slapped with a Backbiter

Puck notices that Sona is rushing for the door (and indeed made it to right in front of said door) and decides that he'll help Sona get through that door!

By dungeon-crashingher through it and trusting that her Wings of cover activate in time to use her as a ever-so-briefly-invincible battering ram.

Sona does notice in time, so with a surprised shriek the pair of them blow the door off its hinges and go crashing into the stone tunnels! But a nat 1 means the poor stunned sorceress is flat on her face on top of the ruined door. Puck's battle-visor and the dust thrown up by the door lets him roll a Will save high enough to notice that something is funny with the wall right in front of him...

One of the Rakshashas drops an Earth Reaver on Puck/Sona/Angelena and knocks Puck flat while hurting everyone. Spotter blows the remaining shadows threatening Angelena away, and Sona stands up and uses an arcane fusion to swap Puck and herself (propping Puck back on his feet while placing herself flat again)+Greater invisibility. This allows Puck to stride forward through the illusory wall, and wind up a swing directly into the side of one of the Rakshasha's heads (who's senses are running through the images still). The image mocking and threatening Angelena and Spotter vanishes with a POP.

The wounded and enraged Rakshasha fails his 'get a clue' roll and tries to punish Puck with a point-blank Eyebite...which washes off him harmlessly. Deciding discretion is the better part of valor, the rakshasha runs for it, the attack of opportunity glancing off. Sona tries to snipe him with a heightened disintegrate, but fails against spell-resistance. That distracts the rakshasha enough for Puck to chase it down and pulverize it against the wall, though.

Spoiler: Bump back

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Things are looking up for the heroes! Which is when the other doors blows up with the "BOOM" of the warding glyph being set off! Supernatural fog rolls out and obscures the door. Angelena quickly dispels the fog cloud, and in full paranoia mode, burns a quickened invisibility purge. However, she sees nothing.

Spoiler: DM NOTE

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Hide in plain sight+Darkstalker, how I love you

Sona takes aim at the remaining Rakshasha with another heightened Disintegrate...and hits, blowing through the spell resistance. I fail the save spectacularly, and said Rakshasha is instantly dropped to 3 hit points. It's quite displeased by this turn of events, and disappears with an offended screech.

Before anyone can relax, though, the Talons (the creepy masked dudes that shanked Sona previously) strike. One charges Angelena from seemingly out of thin air, blade screaming towards her back! And I roll a nat 1.

No matter, the second one will succeed! Another nat 1. Angelena turns at just the right second to dodge the first strike, and flails with her shield to block the second via divine providence. Puck tries to make it back into the room, and Spotter unloads a storm of arrows, but it's not enough to stop the two Talons before a series of horrifically damaging sneak attacks drops Angelena to -18 or so.

By now, poor Talvosh has managed to drag himself over the iron wall and crash to the ground. He's currently suffering 10 negative levels, 10-12 points of strength damage, 3 or 4 points of con, 4 points of wisdom, and is unaware of his axe harboring a backbiter spell. He tries to quietly limp to the blood fountain (screw consequences, needs healing), but fails so spectacularly that everyone stops and stares for a moment.

Spotter riddles a Talon with arrows before Puck wallops him into the dirt. They drop one and hurt the second, but a third appears and converge on the weakened Talvosh. Even the orc's massive health pool plus his Bear Helm halving a crit aren't enough to keep him alive, as the Talons flank and drop him (the Backbiter going off doesn't help either). But now the remaining trio manage to finish off the Talons while they're in the open. As Puck is staring down at the final Talon felled though, he notices that it's not actually dead-the wounds are healing rapidly. Raising his axe to finish the job, the first Talon "killed" springs up and vanishes in a puff of ninja smoke!

The other two Talons aren't so lucky, and Puck/Spotter gruesomely dismember their bodies (which I rule is enough to overcome their regeneration. It's not that good). Once that's done, Sona burns whatever she needs to and teleports the three of them back to the Fire in the woods.

Angelena is perturbed to awaken back at the Fire and be quickly joined by Talvosh. She's relieved to have the other three teleport back rather than reappearing via death though. NOW the party takes their full rest. Which is mercifully uninterrupted except for one thing (which as soon as I call for a spot check from Puck, I get a lot of crude language hurled my way). Puck notices an owl perched in the woods, juuuust at the edge of darkvision. And it's STARING at him.

Puck's player: "Damn owl! Can I find any rocks to throw at it?"

Me: "You're sure you can find some rocks if you leave the Fire and go into the woods."

Puck's player: *Horrified and incredulous stare*

Puck does not wander off into the woods alone, so the rest of the night passes uneventfully. Once everyone has a full rest, time for round 2!

After a bit of debate, they try to teleport back to the main Cathedral...but nothing happens. Figuring that the Forbiddance must have been restored, they instead teleport back to the operating room where they had tried to rest.

And land right in the middle of the room, setting off the symbols of Death, Pain, Insanity, and Weakness simultaneously. :P

Angelena and Sona fail against the symbol of Pain, but pass against the others. Puck is immune to them all, Talvosh can't fail against them (steadfast determination), but poor Spotter fails against the symbol of death. His eyes ignite in a burst of flame, and he collapses to the ground dead, smoke streaming from his eye sockets and mouth. Sona and Angelena blip out into the hallway while Puck and Talvosh smash the symbols to pieces (well, the wall sections they're painted on). Once Spotter reappears by Angelena, they decide to go up and look for the church's Bonfire (via the stairs leading up).

The stairway is quite narrow, steep, and winding, and Puck barely fits. It's also completely pitch black, with zero sconces on the walls, candles, or anything at all for light. The party isn't hindered, but the lack of what should be a human necessity is a little creepy. After a while, they run into another heavy iron door. Again, there is no latch, just a keyhole. Thankfully Puck has his rod of escape, and the party looted a wand of knock off one of the Talons. Stepping through, the party finds themselves in a cramped storage room of sorts, packed full of jars...containing various body parts and murky fluid. Angelena murmurs that one of the Rakshashas did promise to examine her - this room seems wholly appropriate. Puck scans the room and manages to spot a jar in a bottom corner containing a hand still wearing a ring. Plucking it out of the embalming fluid, he removes the ring and lobs the hand at Spotter. I have them roll on the random treasure chart, and the lucky dogs manage to snag a ring of Spell Turning!

Continuing onwards, the party ascends a LOT more stairs before encountering another locked door without handles (Puck's player notes that it's just like a prison). Fittingly enough, this next room is full of large cages stacked on top of one another. The room reeks of blood and wet fur-and I end it there for the night.

Spoiler: DEATH COUNT

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49

[curious-puzzle]

Session the 55th! We had left off with our “heroes” at the entrance to a larger room that reeked of wet fur and old blood.

Spoiler: Cages

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There are a Lot of cages in this room, ranging from man-sized to elephant sized, all stacked precariously to almost out of darkvision-range. There’s also enough of them to form a rough maze of sorts, maneuvering amongst the bars. As the party cautiously creeps in, all the cages in sight are empty except for suspicious stains. Spotter can hear a faint sort of popping noise coming from up in the darkness though, almost like suction cups being pulled in quick succession. Puck is in the lead, and as he thinks he spots a cage that has an occupant, a voice hisses from up above.

“Are you Keepers?”

Puck immediately agrees that yes, he is a Keeper, and even with his -7 or so, manages to somehow Bluff two of the creatures. There’s a brief mumbling squabble that’s cut off with a thwack as they are corrected by their compatriots.

“Not Keepers-that means you’re experiments. And if experiments are out of their cages, we get to squeeze and twist and rip and bite and chew and eat them.”

“Going to get back in your cages?” The voice seems hopeful that the party aren’t going to cage themselves. I believe the immediate response from the party is “Bring it on!” so we’re into initiative faster than I expected!

Spoiler: DM NOTE

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These beasties are more of an experiment than a serious threat. I took chokers and tossed the Pseudonatural template on - not the boring psuedonatural, no no, the template from the Epic handbook. I took away some of the natural armor so they were around AC 40 instead of 50, but that humble template still jumped the CR 2 chokers to CR 18.

So they’re extremely fragile (3 HD and less than 50 HP), quite difficult to hit, highly mobile, and if they get a hold of you, can deal some serious constitution damage. Or for certain immune to ability drain sorts, flat out rust and consume plating away and permanently reduce total HP levels. I dub them...Super chokers!

What comes lurching and leaping down the bars at the party looks like a nightmare cross between a chimpanzee, a starfish, and an octopus. Spotter barely recognizes the creatures as chokers before they are lashing unnervingly stretchy limbs towards our heroes! Puck and Angelena manage to shrug the grapples off before the lamprey mouth-palms start chewing (curses!), Sona I hit with a critical and her skull gets nommed on, and Talvosh willingly fails with the thought of yanking the creature down next turn. The con damage means he regrets such a decision, mwah ha ha.

Now here’s where the dice go a little...wonky. Puck charges straight up the bars at his choker-and rolls a 20, exploding it instantly. Spotter spins and shoots at the choker attacking Sona-and rolls a 20, skewering it through the neck. Sona then shoots the choker attacking Angelena with an [I]enervation[/]-and rolls a 20. Angelena then frees Talvosh with a Freedom of movement, and he winds up and uses his Bloodstorm ability for the first time!

A whole bunch of misses means the bars all around the lone surviving choker are chewed up, but he survives miraculously.

So...super high AC stands no chance against an onslaught of natural 20s. Everyone’s dice have fire moments throughout the whole night, and we end up with 10-12 nat 20s total (2 of which are mine, so I can’t complain too much).

Anyway, the surviving super choker wants nothing to do with these horrifying adventurers and runs like a maniac for the single occupied cage. Reaching into the bars, the super-choker irritates the Broodkeeper (MM3) within to wake it up! The gigantic insect bursts out of the bars and hisses threateningly at the party. At this point though, a critical hit with a ray of entropy and a couple well-placed axes quickly puts the oversized cockroach down. The broodswarm attempts to take vengeance upon the party, but doesn’t do too much before being squashed as well. The best part, though, is that the swarm has evasion - so when Sona tells Puck and Talvosh to grit their teeth and sets off a cacophonic burst in between them, the bugs nonchalantly buzz out of the way while the party gets beat up by themselves.

The lone surviving Super-choker nearly gets away atop the cages...except that Spotter warps himself up there and draws an arrow back with menacing intent. Seeing as the other three died in a matter of heartbeats, the choker raises its wobbly arms in surrender.

“No hurt! I help! No hurt!” Disconcertingly, the voice comes from the lamprey-like mouths on the creature’s palms rather than the face. Spotter manages to finagle some information out of the choker, mainly that the Keepers (presumably the Court of Owls) broughts creatures in that the chokers watched over, and that the Keepers were either up above or down below in the Vault. When asked about the Vault, the choker slaps its palms together to stay silent. Also, the weird creature reveals a secret door! It opens to dimly lit stairs - apparently this is the “keeper” door.

With everyone gathered around the secret door, Spotter asks if anyone else has questions. No-one pipes up...so Puck reaches for his axe. The choker beats him on initiative and hightails it out of there! Mr Murder-bot just rumbles after him, and while the choker runs and climbs faster, Puck just flies up to cut him off and then cuts him up. The rest of the party just hears some crashing, screaming, and then silence before Pucks stomps back over with a spatter of blood across his face.

Spoiler: MORE stairs?

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Strangely enough, Angelena has some issues with just out-and-out murdering an enemy who had surrendered and was helping. She chews Puck out, but unusually Puck doesn’t seem to be listening, just tromping past and into the newly revealed staircase. A little surprised, the party follows and they start going up the stairs, Angelena still quite displeased. I ask for a spot check from Spotter, and he catches a really creepy detail. When Puck had come back to the party, there was a small spray of blood across the Forged’s face. The blood is gone, and there was no opportunity for Puck to wipe it away without Spotter noticing…

Spotter asks Puck about it, and then the whole “Puck drinking from the blood-fountain thing like it was Kool-aid” thing comes up. Puck sees no issue with his actions, and in fact says that it made him stronger.

Spoiler: DM NOTE

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he’s also being much more confrontational and almost angry about the party questioning him, courtesy of some secret texts from me about new and strange sensations welling up

That sets the whole party to arguing/debating, with Angelena just horrified and extremely upset with Puck. Spotter seems to be firmly on Angelena’s side of the argument, Talvosh is more envious of what the ichor did for Puck...and while Sona doesn’t sound enthused with the idea of drinking strange bodily fluids, she isn’t exactly condemning it…

The description of how the ichor made Puck feel, plus the blood spatter mysteriously disappearing, is enough for Sona and Angelena to make another knowledge check though-and this time they pass!

What blood is to mortals, ichor is to the divine.

This sinks in for a moment, and then the party is really concerned with what deific blood could do to someone...as well as who or what the ichor came from. With some more checks to remember what the wyrm Tephras had told them+what they know about Eulethron, they figure out that it has to be from Rhamiel, the Rake. The god of madness and unrestrained passion. By this time things have gotten pretty tense, with Puck’s player “innocently” asking how wide the staircase is (5ft) and where everyone is (all lined up in front of him like bowling pins)...but the moment passes without conflict. Angelena is just very pointedly at the back of the party, Puck in the front, and there is the unspoken promise that there will be another Talk™ about this later.

This hidden staircase (the “Keeper” staircase according to the formerly alive choker) is dimly lit with green continual lights, but is smooth stone other than that. After a few more minutes, there is an alcove with a lever and what seems to be bare wall next to it. Pulling the lever opens a hidden passage into another room, this one a small library or study room of sorts. Peering around, it seems the Keeper staircase has secret entrances into most or all of the rooms leading up. The party continues up, checking each entrance. Nothing is revealed beyond more labs, storage rooms, and what seems to be a Black Pudding garbage disposal (no-one opens the stone lid though). Finally, after an absurd number of stairs up, the tunnel widens and ends in what seems to be the back of bookcases. Pushing slides the bookcases aside silently to reveal what seems to be an opulent private study and retreat. Thick carpets, expensive looking furniture, a small owl-altar off to one side, and the faint sound of...singing?

They’re definitely back up in the cathedral, and the party guesses they’re in a room alongside the central hall. Creeping up to the double doors opposite the bookshelf (I note that everyone is very careful to make sure they don’t leave anyone off by themselves all stray-lamb-like), they’re stalled by said doors being locked. A quick application of knock fixes that though!

It also cuts off the muffled singing-methinks someone knows that the party is here.

The next room has 6 short pillars with various objects displayed on them, all various combinations of old, creepy, and expensive-looking. Scanning the room, Puck notices that one in particular, a sealed vase, emanates overwhelming abjuration and necromantic magic. Picking it up and shaking it gently does nothing, but a closer inspection reveals it might be closer to an urn than a vase-and those seem to be a lot of warding and sealing runes on it…

This is when the Talon hiding behind another pillar leans out, throws a knife to shatter the urn, and disappears with a rude gesture.

Spoiler: DM NOTE

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Certain party members are displeased at the existence of enemies who dedicated as many skill points into sneakiness as they did into detection :D

.

Dust sprays everywhere from the broken urn, as does a broken fragment of skull. Except the skull floats into the air, and the dust swirls and coalesces into a spectral figure right in front of Puck. The Greater Deathshrieker rears back and unleashes the Scream of the Dying, shattering all the glass in the room! Initiative!

Half of the party have their eardrums blown out, and then Puck and Talvosh have bad luck with incorporeal miss chance. Angelena loses a spell due to being deafened, while Spotter rolls horribly for his initial shot. Sona stumbles on a stroke of luck by casting Silence on Puck, which harms and enrages the Deathshrieker. Mirror images and good saves keeps the deathshrieker from stealing anyone’s charisma though, and even with some people being stunned by the Scream of the Dying, no-one is driven permanently insane by it.

Party: Yay!
Me: Boo!

It’s shortly after that enough axe swings get through the incorporeal miss chance, and Spotter regains his bearings to unleash a barrage of ghost-shredding arrows (undead slaying weapon crystal) and the deathshrieker is reduced again to dust. Its Death Rattle, however, shakes the walls, and nearly cracks Spotter’s skull plating with 3 negative levels. Poor guy is not having a good night...we end it there for the night.

Spoiler: DEATH COUNT

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Still 49

[PrismCat21]

I really am surprised that Talvosh allowed the Super Choker to grab him like that. You'd think he'd know better

I approve of the new Puck and laugh at Spotter's misfortune.
Since Puck drank the ichor and the super chokers blood was 'absorbed' into him, does Puck thin he might get some fancu new abilities if he 'gave in fully' to these sensations... :D

Edit: I forgot before. - Thank you Picanet for your loadout. it's fun to see what y'all have to work with.

[curious-puzzle]

I really am surprised that Talvosh allowed the Super Choker to grab him like that. You'd think he'd know better

The rest of the party was kind of surprised, and then face-palmed when I grinned smugly and grabbed more dice

I approve of the new Puck and laugh at Spotter's misfortune.
Since Puck drank the ichor and the super chokers blood was 'absorbed' into him, does Puck thin he might get some fancu new abilities if he 'gave in fully' to these sensations... :D

Something interesting would certainly happen. It might involve party cohesion going down in flames, though :P

And game-time tomorrow! Anyone have any links to creepy choir music/chanting? Always looking to increase the size of my playlists

[PrismCat21]

I found the Darkest Dungeon music last year. It's nice and creepy for background music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYFU_RiefKk

[danielxcutter]

Just to make sure, both sides of the screen are utilizing higher-than-average optimization, right?

[curious-puzzle]

I would think so - we're not high octane optimization, but I'd say we're on the higher side of average for sure. On the player side we've got two frenzied berserkers, a deepwoods sniper/ranger (updated to 3.5) who is downright scary against favored enemies, a cleric regularly using divine metamagic (persist) for buffs, and a sorcerer (whilst two levels behind on casting) with a good variety of the big spells (and we custom made the spell-like ability lists). On my side, I'm normally throwing pretty customized or advanced enemies at the party regularly...

I'd be curious to see what the playground thought we were playing at in comparison, though :D

[PrismCat21]

My attention was brought to this owl music. I thought it might fit the Talons :D

Spoiler: Fancy Owl music

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6jY...ature=youtu.be

[Picanet]

How I felt about today's game session:

https://goo.gl/images/BnsZpv

[PrismCat21]

How I felt about today's game session:

https://goo.gl/images/BnsZpv

This makes me giddy with glee and anticipation :D
I'll be waiting anxiously to hear about how many of y'all died and the delightfully horrific manner it happened.
Cheers!

[curious-puzzle]

56 sessions of DOOOM! Or if not doom, at least mild anxiety.

Spoiler: Peace?

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The room is blessedly silent after the deathshrieker’s destruction - for Angelena and Spotter, completely silent as their eardrums were blown out. There’s a quick examination of resources, but there’s nothing the party can do for the deaf members until the next day. Sona notes that the other occupants of the church definitely know that there are intruders now, and in fact they all hear someone calling out to them from the central cathedral-well, everyone except for Spotter and Angelena (yes I make bad jokes at them all session).

It’s a very assured and civilized-sounding voice, and it addresses the party as Pilgrims. In no uncertain terms, the voice offers safe passage to the Great Fire of Eulethron, as long as the party goes straight there and then leaves immediately. When met with skepticism and questions about why the change in heart, the voice blames more “zealous” members of the congregation, and admits that frankly the party is far more powerful and dangerous than is worth dealing with.

The first part of that our heroes are suspicious of; the second part (about them being individuals of mass destruction that no-one wants to deal with) I think they’re a little perversely proud of.

There’s even hinting at more of an alliance being possible, the voice boasting that the Court of Owls has discovered secrets of Vitae that none have ever dreamed of...buuut then Puck and Angelena (mainly Puck) start asking about the pit and the Vault below. The voice is certainly chillier and changes the topic back to strict directions on how to reach the Fire (and to go nowhere else).

Spoiler: DM NOTE

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And to quietly start buffing

The party is skeptical as they march upstairs, but maybe not as skeptical as they could be (since the two members with ranks in Sense Motive are completely deaf currently). So while they’re talking about how it’s probably a trap, they totally walk into the trap and get artillery-shelled with magic from the opposite side of the 2nd floor balcony.

Spoiler: DM NOTES ON THE OPPOSITION

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This is a large and nasty fight, the Court is doing a large push to try and wipe out these nosy kids, and brought out the heavy hitters. We have:
-A High priest (Rakshasa Ur-priest/Mystic theurge)
-2 Court members (rakshasa with extra sorcerer levels)
-The Preacher (a Kyton eremite (pathfinder) which seemed super fitting)
-A Beastly Brute (an Ecorche (pathfinder), which I just thought was gruesomely awesome and cadaverrific)
-2 Hounds (advanced Rage drakes - MMIII but described as giant scary mastiffs rather than lizard-beasties)
-a Claw of talons (3 Talons, which are rogues with a dash of swashbuckler and swordsage, and an absolute lack of fair play)

So quite the “welcoming squad” :D

The surprise round involves a Blade barrier splitting the party, a Black tentacles tangling them up, and the rest of the baddies spreading out towards the party. Puck and Sona are the only ones who get to react (see again Angelena and Spotter smacking the sides of their heads and going, “WHAT? I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”), and Puck shuffles while Sona throws a Cloudkill at the baddies before the tentacles pop up. I don’t even bother to roll dice, so it’s a pretty clear sign to the party that poison is not an option in this fight.

The beginning of the actual fight has another Blade barrier shredding and further splitting the party, and then the High Priest saunters out into the open air (the second floor is more of a broad walkway around the edge of the church, with the centre open to the main floor below) with Air Walk and hits the whole party with a Wave of Exhaustion. For non-Forged party members, this is a Bad Thing™ indeed.

I’m a little disappointed when Sona uses one of her Dragoncast abilities to Dimension Step the party out of the Black Tentacles&Blade Barrier Duet, I had gruesome descriptions lined up and everything. Puck and Talvosh end up on the left side of the barrier, while Spotter, Sona, and Angelena are on the right. Puck however charges forward through the air and manages to pinball the High priest against the opposite railing for a big chunk of damage. For such audacity however, one of the Court sorcerers dispels his vest of flying and sends him crashing 50-60 feet down to the main floor. Luckily for him, he’s about 15 feet or so to the right of the pit in the cathedral. The pit that took about 5 minutes of flying downward at full speed to reach the bottom, and that I declared anything falling that full distance is just flat-out dead, do not pass go.

Angelena’s player had found a new spell between sessions, and had been waiting eagerly to unleash it: Slime Wave. She conjures it up, managing to catch a sorcerer, the High priest (he’d been bashed back against the railing), and the Ecorche (who’s disguised inside a normal human skin) in the blast zone! Except my dice decide to have none of her shenanigans and roll hot on all the reflex saves, everyone effortlessly dodging out of the way. The puddle of green slime remains in play for a while however, and this is significant later on...

Talvosh does not like being exhausted, and he likes the slavering hounds loping towards him even less. Said hounds are composed almost entirely of teeth, muscle, and hungry, and do their best to tug poor Talvosh apart between the two of them. They’re strong enough (and Talvosh is weakened from the exhaustion) that it’s a fight to break free from their grapple each round before swinging with his axe. One of the Court sorcerers exacerbates this issue by zapping poor Talvosh with a crit Enervation.

On the other side of the fight, Spotter does not like this High Priest. He’s an evil outsider AND an arcane spellcaster, so Spotter really doesn’t like him. He’s also got a really high AC, but a natural 20 solves that! Thanks to Deepwoods sniper, Spotter is up to a x5 critical now I believe, and that combined with favored enemy and Deadly Aim (allowed it to be ported over from Pathfinder) means that critical hit strikes the High Priest dead on the spot. Even if Puck hadn’t chop-smacked him already, I think Spotter’s crit was enough to one-shot him.

That’s a really big thing for the party, as the High Priest would have kept throwing buffs on his allies and debuffs on the party except for that pesky arrow through his skull. The buffs already in place (such as Legion’s shield of faith) cause a lot of problems for our heroes however. Sona had been keeping to a mostly defensive position after getting initially attacked (using the stairs as cover), but uses a Fusion’d-Benign Transposition+Dimension Door to retrieve Puck from the ground floor and get back into cover. The Ecorche had been running towards Spotter and Angelena (and Angelena had thrown out her own Blade Barrier to slow him down), but Puck intercepts and smashes it so hard against the wall that the Ecorche pops right out of its (stolen) skin! Said Ecorche is enraged and rips into Puck, but it’s not as threatening when Puck can’t have his skin ripped off Silent-Hill style.

One of the Court sorcerers is so impressed by Sona’s transposition trick that it does the same with the Ecorche and on of the Hounds, allowing the Ecorche to try and rip Talvosh’s skin off! Even enervated and exhausted, Talvosh rolls hot enough on a couple full attacks to drop the Hound and the Ecorche attacking him. This is after multiple rounds of mauling and rending, though, and he’s only alive because of deathless frenzy. That Court sorcerer leans in again and hits poor Talvosh with a disintegrate, and a round later (mad foam rager), he is no more.

The Preacher has been steadily walking towards Spotter and Angelena this whole time, slapping arrows out of the air with casual disdain (with buffs, his AC is in the 40s). As he’s been approaching, I’ve also been describing how he looks less and less human with each glance-limbs are too long, and you can almost see gaps between the torso and his arms and legs...teeth are too sharp and bright, eyes aren’t at the right angle...hands have claws instead of nails). The Preacher uses his flight to glide over next to Angelena and Spotter, and with a blurring swipe, eviscerates Angelena for a whole bunch of con damage. The initial announcement is that she’s dead immediately, but after quick double-checkings of math that is redacted to simply in large amounts of pain.

The Talon appearing behind corrects this with a flurry of two-weapon fighting sneak attacks, though. Another two Talons appear on either side of Sona, and only manage to land one heavy hit while shredding all of her mirror images.

There’s a cry of shenanigans, but I point out that I had been rolling hide and move silently for the whole fight, and point out the careful path the Talons had been sneaking along. I’m pretty sure they are one of the least favorite beasties the party has faced, just for how dirty they fight. With two party members down, things are looking grim. Spotter and Puck mix it up with the Preacher, but his AC is a seriously formidable issue, plus the hits that do manage to land just don’t seem to have any serious effect. Sona panics and warps over to another stairwell...which is next to the remaining Hound. It bounds into the stairwell snarling and snapping, but Sona has enough time to block its path with a Wall of Force. This frees the two Talons up to flank and shank Puck, though, and they deal a hefty chunk of damage even halving their sneak attack.

Spoiler: DM NOTE

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Again, any other member of the party taking the twin Talon full attacks would be guaranteed to be in the negatives, bleeding profusely, and around 16 pts of strength lower

That accursed Shield of Faith makes the Talons a nightmare to hit, and the Preacher teleports back over to the opposite side of Angelena’s Blade Barrier, intending on lazily lobbing spell-likes at the party while regenerating (when Puck and Spotter’s hits do land on the Preacher, they hurt, even if he doesn’t show it). This also has the advantage of the Preacher noticing Sona playing with the dog on the stairs :P. While Puck and Spotter do their best to end the remaining Talons (Puck finding that tripping and then brutal-surging to be an effective tactic), the Preacher tries to rip Sona’s soul out with Trap the Soul.

Rather than risk rolling poorly and LOSING HER SOUL, Sona decides to block with a Wings of Cover. This leaves her open to attack by the Hound, but being chewed up a bit seems preferable. Plus she goes before the Hound, and teleports back to her (now empty) original stairway.

There might be some good-naturing clucking noises and wing-flapping. Maybe.

The fight continues, with the Court sorcerers going down to arrow fire and failing against a Disintegrate...and then Puck lands a crit on the Preacher! He cuts a massive furrow into the Preacher’s neck and sends him skidding into the pool of green slime!

But they only roll a 1 for con damage and then the Preacher uses his graft flesh ability, devouring the viscera formerly belonging to Angelena and healing himself.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” the entirely inhuman Preacher gurgles as he pulls his neck and shoulder back together.

So Puck crits again.

And then Spotter lands a couple shots.

And then they roll a 6 for the next round of con damage from the green slime. That is enough for the Preacher to gasp in pain, and topple over the edge of the railing to crash down to the main floor. Sona meanwhile manages to snare the Hound with Telekinesis and drags it through a Blade barrier before dropping it into the absurdly deep pit.

The Talons get dismembered to ensure they don’t get up again (one attempted to play possum and stab Puck when he went for the coup de grace, but got brutalized to -200 for his efforts), and Spotter hustles down to the main floor to do the same to the Preacher. After putting several arrows through vital spots, Spotter senses the presence of Vitae. It appears to be trapped within the Preacher, though, so Spotter embeds his pick into the Preacher’s ribcage.

Which is when the Preacher seizes Spotter by the wrist in a crushing grip and rasps, “A little more to the left!” That’s certainly close enough to read lips, so Spotter starts swinging frantically and shouting “HE ISN”T DEAD GET DOWN HERE!”

Puck and Sona join in the brutality, hacking away. Puck decapitates him, and the Preacher-head responds by taunting Puck and claiming that the ichor tastes even sweeter when you drink more. Sona decides she’s had enough and disintegrates the Preacher’s body. Said Preacher is no longer quite as smug or sinister when Puck threatens to keep his head in the corner of his portable hole forever, and is suddenly willing to be more helpful.

Before he can do much more than let it slip that it is Rhamiel down below, the disembodied Preacher lets out a surprised gasp and shudders. A silver spider that glows like the moon crawls out of his mouth, and the whole heads rots into foul sludge. Puck tries to catch said spider, but it puffs away in a little patch of gleaming frost. With that bit of creepiness over, the remaining heroes loot the bodies, coming away with a bunch of cool gear and two Vitae (which everyone agrees to save for Talvosh).

Speaking of Talvosh, he’s down to 2 Vitae, and looks Rough. Angelena barely recognizes him, and can’t really get anything out of him while they’re sitting back at the fire.

Spoiler: To the Vault

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Sona/Puck/Spotter decide to try and reach the great fire of Eulethron before meeting up with Angelena and Talvosh. Continuing upstairs, they come up against what seems to be an entire wall of interlocking metal blades and tangled cables. An application of Knock causes the whole wall to coil up and retract into the walls, though...revealing a massive laboratory. The walls are lined with what seem to be glass-topped coffins. Inside is faintly luminescent liquid, and floating within are pale bodies in various states of wholeness.

There are mostly empty weapon racks, black bodysuits and armor racks, and in the center of the room, an altar of sorts with white porcelain masks. Look, it’s where Talons are made!

In the back corner of the room, shrouded behind shrouding and muffling wards, is the Fire. Everyone frantically attunes to the bonfire, and then Sona warps to the Outskirts park fire to teleport back with Angelena and Talvosh.

While she’s doing this, Puck methodically goes to each sarcophagi/coffin and rips the hatch off, letting the freezing liquid pour out of each (and chopping the bodies up just to be sure). This is a Good idea, as he catches one that was fully healed and only playing dead - Puck then makes him Really dead.

The party reunites, and Talvosh greedily devours the two Vitae, life and color flooding his skin again. After a brief discussion, it’s agreed that this fire is mostly safe to rest at, and they do just that. There is no terrible ambush this time, and after blessed rest, the party heads back down the stairs.

Down, down, down, down, down. The party makes it back to the operating room and the unnerving “thud-thud” at the edge of hearing. Spotter asks if the werewolf arms are still there, and I reply that they’re gone. Making a Survival roll, Spotter determines that something large and four-legged dragged itself in here, ate the arms messily, and then dragged itself back out. Listening, Spotter can also hear something chewing faintly...then they remember the giant dog that they dropped down the hole last night.

Peeking outside, the party sees something hunched over the remains of the Cadaver Collector, specifically over the corpses that were still impaled. For extra creep factor they can now hear the faint moans and cries of the still moving corpses as Something eats them messily. The twisted and mangled ruin of the hound’s body turns around, and in between the warped jaws is the face of a man. It’s the man that the party had pulled free of the spikes and tried to heal, and who’s body had ripped itself apart rather violently when exposed to healing magic.

“So...hungry...need more…Meat.”

The party wants none of whatever that is, and quickly start an axe attack. But it won’t stop moving, and it won’t stop bleeding. It takes Spotter dousing the thing in oil and setting it ablaze, and a few minutes of screaming, before the pieces stop wriggling.

Spirits raised, the party continues their journey! And by raised I mean more than a little concerned.

Rather than try and negotiate the twisted tunnel of pipes again, Spotter is certain there must be another hidden passageway somewhere. It takes a while, and the entire party searching, but they manage to find a hidden switch in the operating room. This pops a small brick free, which then silently opens a passage to another stairway leading down.

The air is uncomfortably warm, and the wet smell of copper is inescapable. Puck is much more restless than he should be, and there’s several jokes about needing a fix. The stairs curve around and widen into a cavern. Blocking the party’s way are a pair of truly monumental doors of gleaming black stone, 50 feet tall and easily that across. Every inch of the doors is carved with dozens of languages, every one a prayer, or curse, or plea, or command -to look away. To avert one’s eyes from what is beyond the door. It takes 5 separate knocks before the gigantic doors groan their way open.

On the other side of the doors is a lake of blood. There’s a bridge of the same black stone, just mere inches above the thick red liquid, that stretches out to the far end of the cavern. At the far end of the cavern is a titan-sized man, pinned to the wall, with humongous spikes impaling his limbs. His naked flesh is pale and bruised, but blood still oozes from wounds, in time with the now booming THUD-THUD. THUD. THUD-THUD-THUD.. The good members of the party are assaulted by the sheer wrongness of this place (it is in fact strongly evil-aligned).

“Rhamiel.” Spotter calls out, and the pool of blood Ripples. There’s brief discussion as to what the heck they’re going to do, but then Puck reaches down towards the ichor, fascinated. His hand touches the surface-

And we end there.

Spoiler: DEATH COUNT

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[danielxcutter]

Unholy crap, the court has a GOD trapped in here?!

[PrismCat21]

His hand touches the surface-

And we end there. [/SPOILER]

Spoiler: You Monster!!

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Why would you do this to us!!

Spoiler: Query

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If he drinks enough fresh from the source, or decides to bathe in it, could he become a pseudo-Rhamiel?
Who needs the original when a knock-off will do...

[curious-puzzle]

Because I love dramatic cliffhangers!

Unholy crap

Yuuup - and while Hollowing doesn't seem to be a problem here in Eulethron, they do seem to have their own "issues" :P

Prismcat query

Puck's player had this as a suggestion solution to the lake of blood:

[Picanet]

THERE WILL BE BLOOD

*grumblegrumble-take my teleporting shenanigans away will you?-grumblegrumble*

[danielxcutter]

...Are we talking about "Dimensional Anchor-level" or "Overwhelming Sign of Pandorym-level" teleportation blocking?

[PrismCat21]

Is everyone still using their theme song?
...are the theme songs becoming darker and more creepy the more vitae is lost....

[Picanet]

...Are we talking about "Dimensional Anchor-level" or "Overwhelming Sign of Pandorym-level" teleportation blocking?

I couldn’t summon a celestial spermwhale or try my new Maze spell level lol.
(You read that right. Evil smiting sperm whale)

And yeah.... might be time for new theme songs lol

***especially after what happened to Puck

[MrWink]

I think the song still works for Puck it’s just a bit more terminator 1 then 2, and it wasn’t that bad he’s just slightly less huggable.

[Picanet]

.....and it wasn’t that bad he’s just slightly less huggable.

..... just slightly lol. Because he was soooo huggable before with 4 spider legs, armour spikes, and that pageant-winning personality. ;)

[curious-puzzle]

Session 57, I choose you!

Spoiler: Guardians

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The ripple from Puck's hand breaching the surface quickly spreads across the whole lake (on both sides of the bridge, strangely). Then an eerie noise fills the air...to everyone else, it's this bizarre screech/wail/static/noise. To Puck, it's singing...singing that he can almost understand.
Everyone is forced to make a Will save against the Maddening Cacophony of one of the Shoggoths hiding in the ichor (even Puck, despite normally being immune. Something to do with the ichor inside him). Spotter fails, and so does Angelena, and they start babbling about worms behind their eyes.

Sona had flown up with the intention of going over to the impaled body of Rhamiel and checking out the massive spikes jutting through him. She's about 60 feet up, which is close enough to see the ceiling - and also close enough to see a particularly large stalactite unfold its wings! Instead of a stalactite, it's actually a massive nightmare of a creature, like a werewolf given extra limbs, wings, carved out of stone, and a single gleaming silver eye. The Stone Demon swoops over and bites Sona for having the arrogance to resist its eyebite.

In true horror movie fashion, tentacles burst out of the water and try to simultaneously crush Puck as well as drag him into the ichor. But the beginning of a night of poor dice + Spotter being absurdly strong means he stays out of the bloooodddd. Talvosh rushes over to try and help chop the tentacles down to size, but is foiled by the cover of the ichor. Spotter and Angelena...have their sanity eroded away and babble.

Sona really wants to get away from the Stone Demon, but but finds out the hard way that teleportation is blocked inside this chamber when her anklets fizzle out.

Spoiler: DM NOTE

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It still works for the guardian monsters of this chamber, buuut in exchange they can never leave

She blocks a swiping claw AoO with Wings of cover, flits back to the party, and then tries out her new spell: Avasculate. The Stone Demon loses half his hit points on the spot :( . Everyone is nicely bunched up now though, so the Stone Demon breathes deep and blasts everyone with a cloud of disease-laced acid fog for some serious damage. Sona fails against the disease, so that'll be some fun for later.

The one Shoggoth withdraws deeper into the lake in response to the crazy-strong maniacs waving axes at it, while the second Shoggoth emerges and tries to force the remainder of the party to succumb to madness. No such luck, and it's close enough to the bridge that Talvosh hurls himself headlong at the beast with a Pouncing Charge maneuver, landing atop the Shoggoth and dealing an extremely upsetting amount of damage to kill it. Unfortunately for him, that means he's going in the ichor.

The Stone Demon calls forth assistance, summoning a Warmonger Demon (I was on a pathfinder kick, I know) which carves into Puck. He has no blood to spill, so it's not as it could have been for the party. Sona heightens a Great Thunderclap and forces the Stone Demon to crash to the bridge. Puck shrugs off another hit from the Warmonger as he cuts deep into the Stone Demon. The two multi-limbed warriors, one stone and one metal, trade heavy blows. Well, Puck hits a lot and I miss three times in a row due to his Blur property. Twas not a good night for DM dice.

While Angelena and Spotter continue to shriek and lose Wisdom, Talvosh is playing tag with the Shoggoth in the ichor. It bludgeons and grabs him, he breaks free of the grapple due to his even more absurd strength, and he swims a little closer to the bridge before we start all over again. He carefully does not swallow any of the ichor, so don't get any shenanigans from that. He finally makes it back onto the bridge, only for Puck to chop into the Stone demon and coat everything in a Gush of slippery demon-blood. Talvosh drops his axe and falls on his face, and the Shoggoth lurches up to engulf him :P.

By now Spotter is in a coma and Angelena is lucid, but has lost enough Wisdom that she can't cast any spells. She's also down to less than 20 hit points, so of course she rushes the Shoggoth with a scream! Wait wait, there's a method to her madness! She had a Fortunate Fate on herself, so as the Shoggoth smashes her to the dirt, sunlight blazes around her and she's back to running at full capacity!

The Guardians unfortunately can't muster much more offense than that at this point with my lackluster rolling. The Stone Demon is cut to pieces, crashing over with another gout of blood. The warmonger gets beat upon, and when it tries to tactically teleport for another attack, gets a barrel-sized hole blown through it with a Bolt of Glory. Spotter is Restored up, and the last Shoggoth also retreats after an attempt to drag Puck under the surface of the blood just results in AOE magic being detonated around it.

There is a near-disaster, however. As a blood-drenched Puck drags himself out of the ichor, a still frenzying Talvosh takes a readied-action swing at him (but misses). Puck juuuusstt makes his save to not return the favor, and the two stare awkwardly at each other briefly. Sona mass prestidigitates the blood away, and they walk towards the body of Rhamiel.

Spoiler: Can divinity die?

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The party is a little beat up, but not enough for them to pull back. Spotter strides forward, calling Rhamiel's name again to try and get some sort of reaction. He doesn't see one, but when he walks a little closer, he visibly sways as life and power crash into his soul. Spotter gains a Vitae, but makes his save to step back and call out to the rest of the party what happened. They all walk up within range, and everyone is swept up in the rush. Spotter gains another Vitae, Sona gains a couple, as do Angelena and Talvosh. Puck gains a Vitae, and I announce that he now has a permanent -5 to all Will saves. He stays for another.

I announce that all the Vitae here should be his, he's not going to share with these other people. It's all his, his and his alone. He needs to kill them, right now.

Spoiler: Like this, but with MURDER

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Puck smashes Angelena into Talvosh, bowling them over. Spotter tries to snap him out of it, and gets close, but not close enough. Puck then decapitates Talvosh with a crit (the Puck crit finally worked in my favour, mwhaha), cuts a wounded Spotter down with two more strikes, and narrowly misses cutting Angelena into several pieces. Angelena frantically puts a Wall of Stone between her and Puck, and Sona swoops down to grab Angelena to try and get away from the maddened Puck. Puck is winding up to smash through the wall and his former allies, when he makes several VERY difficult Will saves to wrest back control of his senses. He can't remember what happened, but he's certain he shouldn't have done it.

The surviving party trio scrambles back out of the aura surrounding Rhamiel, and Sona and Angelena can hear a nail-dragging voice scritching at the back of their minds...

Fiiiiggghhhttt......Bblllleeeeeedddd....Gggiiiivvv eee iiin to yoouurr uuurrggeeessss

They plot and scheme while waiting for Talvosh and Spotter to return (who do, but they reappear at the entrance of the room;even the magic of the Torchbearer is forced away by this room's wardings).
A shamed Puck hands his axe over to a betrayed Talvosh, and there's definitely a bit of tension. This was certainly a moment for Puck, though - he forced himself back from the brink, and if he had managed to kill Angelena, he very well may not have come back period.

Examining the room, Sona and Puck find they can't actually look directly at the 6 giant metal spikes impaling Rhamiel (biceps, chest, thighs) - they burn with so much magic it hurts to study. Every inch of the bridge beneath them is also carved with the same curses, pleas, wards, and prayers against detection, and the party manages to suss out that however they did it, the Court is leeching Rhamiel's power away with his blood. They're also using it in a loop to keep him trapped, as there's no sane way that any creature should still be alive in such a condition. After more debate, Angelena busts out a targeted Greater Dispel at one of the spikes. Rolling like a boss, one of the spikes pulls loose with a horrible ripping noise and crashes to the ground (and then bounces into the ichor with deafening clangs). Continuing with this logic, Sona pulls out the scroll of Disjunction that they managed to acquire.

She makes her save to avoid burning her sorcery out permanently (I get quite the look when I mention that), and four of the spikes (almost giant spears or lances) rip themselves free. This gets a reaction, as the titanic body thrashes and SCREAMS. His eyes stay shut, though, and Rhamiel slumps forward, flesh tearing slowly around the remaining spikes. Here is where Angelena makes a leap of faith.

Rhamiel is the brother of Uthra, the goddess of death. And whatever has been done to Rhamiel is horribly unnatural, and most certainly not something anyone should be forced to endure. With a high enough knowledge religion check, and knowing that they've messed with the workings of this place, she casts Miracle and says a single word:

"Uthra."

Everything around Angelena stops. Her companions freeze in place, the lake of ichor halts mid shudder, dust hangs in mid-air. Soft footsteps begin to echo behind Angelena, and she turns around to see the exit to this chamber shrouded completely in darkness. Darkness which steadily flows towards her, the footsteps getting closer. The gigantic stone doors are blown off their hinges to explode against the opposite walls, and the darkness inexorably strides forward. A young woman with black hair, alabaster skin, and kind eyes steps out of the darkness.

Uthra, the Goddess of Death, stands before Angelena.

Spoiler: DM NOTE

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Why yes, I'm a big fan of Neil Gaiman's Sandman, how did you know?

Uthra smiles softly at Angelena, and Angelena just tries to stay very still and not scream in primal terror as the goddess walks past her towards Rhamiel.

"Oh dear brother...I've been looking for you for a very long time." Uthra walks up through the air towards her gigantic brother's face. She reaches out and touches his cheek - and he crumbles to dust. The lake of ichor immediately begins to dessicate and dry, cracking and creaking as it does so. Uthra is suddenly right in front of Angelena, and lays a hand on her shoulder. Angelena instantly knows the exact moment that she will truly die, right to the second, and then her brain frantically wipes the memory away to stay sane.

"You have done a great thing, you and your companions. I am truly grateful." Angelena tries to drop to her knees, but is pulled back up. "And for that, I will give you fair warning. You should take what you need from this place," the goddess nods quickly but clearly towards the massive spears/spikes (it changes a little depending on the angle you look at them), "and then you should all leave." The kind expression melts into something much more frightening and severe. "My judgement is upon this place. At midnight, there will be nothing living in this city."

Angelena just nods meekly. The grim visage of Uthra reverts back to a bright smile, and she notes that midnight is in a few hours, before disappearing and everything restarts around Angelena. The rest of the party notices a couple things all of a sudden:
-Rhamiel is now a pile of dust
-5 of the 6 spikes/spears are embedded into the stone in front of them
-the lake of blood is quickly becoming a giant stone/scab lump
-the marks on their hands are different

The Marks have went from black to red, and every party member's hands look just ever-so-slightly bloodstained.

PARTY GAINS "TOUCHED BY DEATH"

A somewhat shaky Angelena relays her experience, and everyone agrees to leave quickly. But! Not before some looting. Continuing the tradition, Puck and Talvosh traverse the treacherous surface of the drying ichor lake to scoop up a jar of "Dead-god-dust." They're certain that someone *coughGrabislovcough* will pay a fortune for such a thing. There's also some speculative eyeing of the massive spear-spikes. A combination of Shrink item, crazy high carry capacities, and raging to increase said capacities, and the party manages to take all 5 of the eerie spears (they're around 1000 lbs apiece) as they Greater teleport back to Logos.

PARTY HAS ACQUIRED 5 ANATHEMATIC LANCES

The party's teleport smacks right into the church's magical defenses, so it's delayed and they appear surrounded by numerous mages and soldiers. Everyone is extremely relieved (on the side of desperate) to see their heroes again though. The square around the central church has been fully turned into a fortification by this point, and there are less people than before visible, but they're still alive. The party just catches sight of the Firekeeper hobbling towards them with a staff when the world shakes.

Buildings crack, everyone is smashed to the ground, and an explosion rips through the air for moments, pummeling and drowning everything out. Once people are able to stand again, Spotter immediately notices that the entire horizon to the northeast is completely pitch black.

We end it there

Spoiler: DEATH COUNT

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[Jonagel]

And the plot thickens (just like that delicious God's Blood*)!

As always, lovin' it -- and so many questions! Can't wait for more =D

* High in Vitamin V!

[curious-puzzle]

Thanks!

And no game tomorrow, twas distracted working on other stuff last little bit.

[Jonagel]

Random thought, while re-reading some of this =)

The spooky town with the melted keep and the Rakshasa in the Wastelands, what was the deal with that? Just a town that was overrun by demons when the wasteland was becoming the wasteland, and now is just repeating itself/slipping back and forth in time/reality/the Labrynth with a Rakshasa who got trapped inside it all?

With the world ending, it seems like the right time for Puck and Tavlosh to go back and get the optional Boss EXP & Loot.... =D

[Brion]

After a 6 month hiatus, I caught back up with this. Glad to see it still running and maybe even getting more entertaining! I may not get a lot of the references you drop in, but I loved the Court of Owls addition just as much as the PCs must have hated it