You bring your homebrew class 2!

[sidhe_blooded]

Samantha

No one forced you to come after me Akresh, and if you don't care about your comrade's morals or religion that means you don't care about your comrades, which does not engender trust. I already said I wasn't trying to fight the thing, and after I pulled out Goris I would've come back to the group so we could have your little chat session about what to do next. You seem to have completely ignored the fact that you didn't have any more information than I did. For all your talk of damage it was accent boy over there that brought the thing down, and not all of those spells were dealing damage in the same sense you were. You act like we all need to bow down and follow your orders but have just by your own words told us you don't give a **** about us. If you want to talk to me like an adult instead of a whiny little baby then maybe this discussion can get somewhere. As for the age thing you don't actually have any idea how old I am, and if you are that much older than me and have spent all this time studying then why aren't you immensely more powerful than all of us combined?

Spoiler

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it's "you're" not "your" I don't possess a fool (a follishness perhaps, but not a fool)

[SurlySeraph]

Ainariel scowls and rolls his eyes. "If you aren't too busy, we have a beholder to catch. I don't care whether next fight we rush in or spend an hour planning out our approach, as long as whatever we're fighting dies before I do. I'm a lot less concerned with how smart either of you are than with how smart what we're doing is. Speaking of which..."

Ainariel turns to Goris. "Prove that you're a druid. Besides nearly being food for that monster, which a cultist would probably see as an honor, you have done absolutely nothing that indicates you're on our side. Prove that you're going to help us."

[Oslecamo]

When Airaniel talks to him, Goris gasps and his face turns white. He rolls himself into a ball and starts to talk in a shaken voice.


Oh gods you're from the gatekeepers...

I'm not a druid...But I'm no cultist either! Yes, I belonged to the brothehood of Yuri, but it is no cult! It is...Much worst, I see now. After the second mourning I barely escaped alive from the city where I had lived with my family for years. But in one day I lost everything I had, my home, my wife, my children...All but my own life. I spent weeks in the wilderness and was at the doors of death, hopeless, dieased and weakened, untill I found the brotherhood. They took me whitout questions, they healed and fed me, they gave me hope, of a new world, one where I could see my family again.

I...I believed them. I helped them for the last years. They told me the gatekeepers had been corrupted, that they cared nothing about the normal people like me. That they were hoarding powerfull artifacts that could be used to fight the marks of mourning, but instead keeping them in hidden shrines, afraid of their power. Yuri spoke to all of us back in that desert, he told us that in order to create a new better world he needed the resources the gatekeepers were selifshly keeping for them. We were inspired by his words and iniated an holy crusade to this god forsaken swamps, in search of the artifacts that would allow us to finally defeat the marks of mourning.

I felt honored when I was sent with one of the Eyes of Yuri to fight the gatekeepers... I fought by his side and spilled blood in the name of Yuri, but in the way back, I was caught by that aberration...The Eye of Yuri told the others to keep going and abandon me, that we couldn't afford delays, that my sacrifice wouldn't be forgoten...

And then I realized I didn't want to die like that, not even for Yuri. But I screamed and screamed but they didn't come back...They abandoned me after I had served them loyally for years...Then my eyes opened. The brotherhood of Yuri was nothing more than a bunch of monsters that took advantage of the second mourning to recruit pawns to their own plans of increasing their own power. Expendable pawns like me, that they sacrifice by the hundreds in all kind of horrors, whitout any hesitation...

I know I did horrible things to you and a lot of others, but I beg you, spare my life...I've repented on the time I was left bleeding near that aberration, I've become a new man... Yuri is evil, very evil, and he must be stoped! He plans to do horrible things, much more terrible that what he plans to do here! Please spare my life, and I'll help you to the best of my abilities to stop him!

[SurlySeraph]

Ainariel walks up to Goris, puts his hand on his shoulder, and looks into his eyes "The druids most likely are corrupt and care nothing about their people, if they're anything like the druids where I'm from. But they're still better than Yuri's people. I accept your repetance, but for your own sake I hope you're being sincere. Come with us, and we'll help you do penance for helping Yuri. But if you think for even a moment of betraying us, that will be the last thought you have. Do we have a deal?" Ainariel smiles a bit at the end, waiting for a reply.

[Kagehime]

Rin, who had been praying, now sighed, having let them all squabble once again, and flipped her hair back over her shoulders, coming over to sit down and listen to the unfortunate's story.

Eventually, she sighed as well. "Well, I for one think he's sincere," she commented, to anyone who might listen. "I mean, you don't get nearly torn apart by some hideous monster as part of a clever ruse, exactly."

[Oslecamo]

Goris seems soundly relieved for seeing some of the party shows him mercy.

Yes, I'll help you stop te brotherhood of Yuri. But...Whitout legs, I'm afraid I can't be of much help to you. I can't even walk...Well, Samantha could carry me, but I fear I would be more of an hindrance than exactly help...However I could tell you a lot of things about the brotherhood. Yes I could, altough they discarded me so easily, I still gathered a considerable amount of information about them in my years of service to them.

[The Glyphstone]

"Yes, mon, you can tell us a lot, and you will. "Cause if ya don't..."

Turning away for a moment, Ikitani fiddles with his supply bag for a minute before producing a crude, but recognizable effigy of Goris, complete with missing legs. Reaching out, he plucks a single hair from the helpless ex-cultist and tucks it into the effigy, then shows the result to Goris.

"If ya don't...well, let's give a little demonstration, shall we?"

Holding the effigy in view in one hand, he holds his other, open hand out over it as a handful of tiny black sparks jump into the doll, watching Goris's expression as he feels the energy drain from his body, and grins widely to display all his sharpened teeth.

"Ya feel that, don't ya? Wid da bit 'o you in it, dis doll be bound to ya, and I can do whatevah I want tah it. We be huntin' a beholdah, den we be goin' aftah de mind flayah who's leadin' de cult in dese parts. You'se gonna tell us everythin' ya know about both o' them, 'ticularly what sort o' traps or enemies we might be runnin' into on de way to de flayah, an anythin' else dat might be o' use ta us. If we make it out right, I'll be taking de hair out and takin' de doll apart - but if we find later you be lyin' to us now, I be settin' de doll on fire. Ya get me message, hmm?"

Spoiler

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Casting Touch of Fatigue on the impromptu doll, DC 19 thanks to Voodoo. I've got 6 0th-level slots, he should fail at least one save before I run out. Once that's done, Intimidate check.
Intimidate - (1d20+24)[7](31) plus whatever circumstance bonus you want to give me for spending 60GP and being really creepy.

[Oslecamo]

Goris turns even more pale as Ikitani channels the negative energy into the doll. The ex-cultist starts to sweat vigorously and gasps for air.

I-I don't know anything about the mind flayer...No-Nobody knows, we're all forbiden from even aproaching his place... He gives his orders trough his golems and mind powers..Sometimes some people are ordered to go down there, b-but they never came back...I'm telling the truth, I swear...

B-but I can tell you about the b-beholder...He still has two master runehounds with it...They can spot you from almost four hundred feets away, even if you're invisible, and they can spit some strong acid at distance! They're no normal rune hounds, no, they've been specially bred to protect it, much bigger and stronger than normal. They'll warn the beholder of your aproachal before you can see them, and they'll probably try to ambush you!

Then he's got two more aberration warrior bodyguards. I don't know what they are... They look like ogres with scales, but much smarter and tougher. They can drain your mind with a simple touch, and they can leap great distances easily, so don't think you're safe just because you're flying!

There's also Hangerka there, one of Yuri's adept level necromancer. Luckily for you she lost most of his undeads on that battle with the druids and still hasn't got time to create replacements, but he carries his best undeads inside his magic bag. Smart undeads that her master awakened for her, equiped with the gear of the foes she killed, strenghtened by years of dark enchantments. You should really take her down first before he can pull out her servants.

She's helped by her lover, Kiawe. Like Hangerka is a master of undeads, Kiawe is a master of machines. She has an expert craftwosman who relies on wands and scrolls.

There's also still half a company of Dolgrims left, eleven last time I saw them...Very weak, but they carried the new experimental weapons Kiawe had developed... Flamethrowers she called them...Very unstable, they blow up on the user and anybody nearby when hit, or sometimes they just blow up by themselves when used, but they shoot streams of fire forward just like a red dragon's breath.

They were moving as fast as possible, so I don't think they're leaving any traps behind them, but you must hurry if you want to catch them!

[The Glyphstone]

"An' how far ahead of us do ya think dey be by now?"

[Oslecamo]

Goris looks up to the sun for a moment.

N-No more than two miles away...They've left me there roughly half an hour ago...The terrain is hard around here, but the beholder can float over it...

[SurlySeraph]

"It won't be easy, but I think we have a good shot against them now. Shall we resume the chase?"

[sidhe_blooded]

Samantha

I'm all for starting up the chase again, but who's gonna carry our turncoat here?