Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Session V

We are without the player for Tow this session because he is attending his high school reunion. Silly people and their 'social obligations'. While he's gone, X37 serves as trapfinder by carrying a light load's worth of large tree branches to rub against the walls ahead (*thunk* don't step there). 

Upon the walls of the intersection from earlier, written in Giantish, are minor prayers of protection to the various Small Gods as well as a mention of the 'true path' to Riddle Manor: follow that which runs up and down the stairs, yet never moves. 

The party delves deeper into the labyrinth, eventually spotting a kobold that scampers out of sight, and they hear a deep grinding of stone ahead. At a turn, they get suspicious and search the corners and notice stone dust on the wall opposite the hallway. X37 puts down the sticks and whips out a 30 Strength check on the wall, busting down the semi-false wall Koolaid style, revealing a creature with a surprised bovine face down the hall. 

X37 states something, but the minotaur goes into a defensive stance and seems to not understand. Surprisingly, a kobold climbs up from behind the minotaur and yelps out a reply. In exchange for not attacking, they'll show the hallway that leads to Riddle Manor, though neither of the two know which set of stairs is the right one. Accepting, they go, and choose the stairs that has a carpet on it (there were other features for the four others, but no other had railings or carpeting). 

They then see Riddle Manor in all its idyllic glory, as well as sphinxes flying about. As they walk the cobblestone path (each stone carved with a different shape or even a face), they're interrupted by Turan practically leaping from behind the manor and in front of the door. Cautious and worried, the party introduces themselves, and are surprised by her courtesy & fairness as she lays down the ground rules. 

Once inside, they're shown to their rooms by barely tiny-sized gargoyles moving about with groundskeeper tools. The shortest one is squat and smokes a cigar, speaking gruffly and seeming to be the most 'intelligent' of the crew. It's later revealed that they are constructs left behind by the prior owner to serve as cleaners and maintenance staff, originally charged by and tied to the estate. While I originally wrote down just animated objects, I had an inspiration & though it cooler if I gave personalities. For the hell of it, I placed several of the tiny gargoyles dressed as Tibetan monks taking shifts moving the gold discs of a 64-piece Tower of Hanoi (not a large one, poker chip thickness). 

Once in their room, they begin to search for anything that looks like a red field or white picket fence, eventually thinking of going non-literal and declaring the painting with the open mouth with a tongue sticking out as the answer; receiving the code book to translate the tablet. 

They thank Turan for her hospitality, and decide to use their three questions. There is nothing concerning the origins of the Hungering Maw, nor the control of the Hungering Maw, and there is knowledge stored in the Manor that can fuel a kingdom. I planned for this potential, and gave them the rules for how they may become the owner of Riddle Manor. Out-of-game, this must be a riddle solved by the player himself, and he cannot receive any help from the others without them being close enough to be in the blast radius of all those symbols. They have 3 real-time minutes to solve the riddle, or I assume a wrong answer is given by the character. 

The three players accepted the challenge & risk together. 

X37 was the character they decided would receive 'ownership', and the riddle was...out of the five icons provided, which is the most unique?

They guessed correctly after two minutes. Turan bestowed ownership, and revealed that almost all of the rules were just tradition she followed for three hundred years, and is essentially not required to tell anyone anything about the inventory list. Now, part of the reason she had the rule against 'general search' questions for confirmation is that the owner cannot actually do such himself and has to ask himself specific questions to confirm or deny. In Turan's case, she was present for a large number of the secrets stored (obviously not all, as her presence isn't required for storage) and has a good memory; which was not transferred with ownership. She knew that it was potentially dangerous to empty out the estate of its secrets, warning of 'a place of power without a purpose'. 

However, there are several duties with being the owner of Riddle Manor that Turan informed X37 of. While he is free to leave the estate, this will create a formless icon in his stead. If anyone stands before this icon and requests to become attuned, the icon will state the riddle, waiting for a short period of time before resetting and requiring a year and a day before the requester can ask again (if he takes too long or answers wrong). Also, there is a request for a riddle that the owner is compelled to provide if asked and is unable to attack the requester until they respond. Turan does not know what the riddle is nor what happens if answered, but all Riddle Manor owners intuitively understand this duty; and in her experience, it is best to not delve into the nature/origin of this responsibility. Turan does reveal that she is aware that there is a True Owner of Riddle Manor, and she saw faintly but once in the shadows of the estate, killing a portly man. She never found a trace of either, and got a blank response when she queried her 'inventory' concerning it (neither confirmation nor denial, but simply...nothing). 

X37 indicated that he was fine with letting Riddle Manor continue normally, and was delighted to find out that Turan and her mate would prefer to remain in what has been their home for centuries, and thus serve as guardians and slayers of those who answer the formless icon incorrectly (more stable than just letting it sit open). 

And so, the party heads back to the capital. Once there, they begin their planning for travelling to Cast's homeland to retake the kingdom, which will aid the Empire by returning the flow of conscripts and tax money. 

Everyone levelled, and we went through the introductions of Marshal's and X37's cohorts. Cast will get his cohort and more followers with the acquisition of his homeland, as he's likely to become king; while Marshal's followers won't be revealed until later. 

Pony Day: Bruce Mane

The pony Canterlot deserves, Bruce Mane.

Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Session IV

Overall, a relatively uneventful session due to the player for Cast getting very distracted by phone calls, food, shiny things, etc. They also sidetracked events a little over halfway through into something I hadn't planned for. We were also without X37 due to the player having RL concerns, which they felt the pain for such later. 

Once in town they hawked off the lot of their stolen goods and eventually made a contact with an interested buyer in the ninja-specific items; where Cast did not join at the exchange due to the less-than-legal situation. At an empty theater, they met a robed hobgoblin that purchased the equipment with much more money than it was worth, and then delivered a message as a representative of the Barghest's Maw. So as to cut down on the bloodshed, a neutral location has been chosen where the party and the leader of the ninja clan will meet to come to a 'final decision'. In the bag of money was placed the location, a city called Herrein one month's journey away (with frequent sea voyages). 

The party took this offer and began their travel, which ended up costing them most of the money they made from the hawking of their spoils of war. Herrein in a city of extreme class difference, gothic architecture, advanced technology, and a slight problem with lycanthropes. They were told to seek out a shop named "Jack's Extermination", which they found, the shop sign showing a large mousetrap and flanked by two actual gargoyles. Extremely cautiously, they opened the door from 30' away with the open/close cantrip to see if the gargoyles responded, and tip-toed in with the expectation of them moving and attacking. The stone eyes twitched minorly at them, but otherwise they never moved. 

Inside, the small mousey shopkeeper got confused by their demands to speak to the Barghest's Maw, but eventually remembered a delivery from the Great Tinkerer for a pair of foreign aasimars and a tiefling. He found the box and revealed a life-sized toy monkey with cymbals in its hands, but before he could touch it or face the party, the device shot a knife into his head (promptly fell, unmoving) and began to clap the cymbols together. 

Spells of defense flew on, but it did nothing else but clap for a moment and a magic mouth began, "The ninjas only needed you out of the way, and a two month goose-chase satisfied their employer. Sorry you got fooled." A round or two later, the shopkeeper got up with a splitting headache (the knife only took him to -9 and fast healing got him conscious). Not asking questions, the party grumbled and began their month journey home, the lot of them very tempted to work even harder to hunt down the ninja clan so as to kill them all. 

Once home, many news were revealed. The orcs of the wastelands are beginning to unite under the banner of the Hungering Maw, and assault the borders with the Empire. The Blackened Grove has gotten an influx of soldiers with darkness spewing armor and are making more serious offenses. And the minor kingdom that is Cast's home very unexpectedly & recently swore independence after aid from the Empire of the Sun from a grass-roots rebellion to depose the king on seemingly baseless (but now known to be fully justified) accusations of fiendish pacts. 

Not sure of what to do, they party ultimately decided to surprise me and head for Riddle Manor, a mere four day journey south. They found traces of kobolds and eventually the entrance to the maze. Before attempting the open gate/entrance, they searched for secret doors and found one, where Tow promptly fell down a 50' pit to open said door. Climbing out, they took the secret entrance...which took them into the main corridor in plain sight of the open gate. They never tried the front entrance, which would've revealed that the gate is actually completely blocked off by an invisible wall (requiring the side entrance to get around it). Walking down the maze of corridors (10' wide, 15' high), they didn't even attempt to check for traps and set off a wall scythe. Promptly, they had Tow hold the front to check for traps, where his Take 10 ended up finding every single one as they moved. 

Note, the resident apparently took things easy and only trapped half of a 10' wide hall. Sometimes, after a turn/intersection, it would switch to a different half, but never did it have a trap on a lone side. Of course, thinking this too obvious of a trap, they check the safe side to be certain. 

At a major intersection with fountains and such, they see a pair of minotaurs at the end of another hall. Their response is to cast a defensive spell and Marshal uses his battle shout, which prompts the minotaurs to take out their greataxes. Cast charges forward and harms one a fair bit, only to get grappled and held against a wall scythe trap (auto-reset, pretty much auto-hit when he's pinned), while the other minotaur squeezes around and gets ready to take on the other two. A short interplay with Marshal, only to find himself grappled and held above the minotaur's head and about to be coup-de-graed on its horns. 

While other spells had been attempted, I've been rolling natural 18s and thus Tow's magic was largely wasted. By this point, Tow's hypnotic pattern finally works and the minotaur just stares blankly while Marshal struggles out of its grip. The other minotaur, confused as to why its buddy got stupid, finished off Cast (-19) and starts to walk over. Tow casts another hypnotic pattern before the other minotaur can un-fascinate his friend. Marshal's healing aura gets Cast conscious within three rounds, where they look unthreatening and nonchalant until they both charge and power attack the more injured minotaur into death (this broke the fascinate effect on both). The other minotaur trips & chops at both of their faces from the provoked AoO, misses the chop part because of their very high ACs, then goes down from Tow's crossbow. 

They begin to read the writing on the walls (all in Giant, which Tow uses magic to translate), which is where we end the session for the night.

Pony Day: Trixie

This is a particular favorite of mine, Trixie the Great & Powerful, self-proclaimed slayer of Ursa Major.

Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Session III + 1/2

Technically the prior session was an impromptu session, but I ran through most of my plans that day, and our regular session suffered. Probably for the better, because the player for Cast was unable to make it for that session, so this is going to be a bit shorter than normal. 

Heading out, they made camp within the wastelands. While resting, Marshal saw an orc enter his darkvision range, looking parched to the point of being a walking corpse. A dry sirrush of sand and salt stirred around it with gusto that could be felt from his spot, it's cold, dead eyes looking at him with hunger. He awoke the slumbering beast X37 and Tow, who were within easy reach, and the sudden movement made the walking corpse react. 

Charging forward, it tore into the group, its aura of salt scouring their flesh while it pinned Tow to the ground and started to literally suck him dry. X37 lifted him into the air, only to find himself overtaken by the swarm of sand and released the creature; which subsequently found itself chopped in half by Marshal's blade. At which point, the whirlwind formed into a child sized humanoid whose face was nothing but a gaping maw, and sucked what liquids it could before being rended by the rest of the party. Technically the dessicator was able to return to swarm form before being killed, and was literally invulnerable to any and everything the current party could do, but we decided to let Cast (the player wasn't present, remember) re-enter the fight for a single round (crawled out of the wagon) and turn on his Sun Plate for a round, which was enough to finish it off. 

Within a minute, they heard hoofbeats heading towards them, and a war wagon approached, manned by half a dozen orcs bearing the insignia of the Bloodtooth clan. The lead orc's eyes glowed red (normal orcs only have reflective yellow, not actual glowing eyes) and wore noticeably better gear than the rest, and he demanded of the party to identify themselves and tell him if they saw a salt demon. 

With animated gesticulation, Tow cast silent charm person on the vampire orc (as they discovered, but Tome vampires retain their old type as a subtype, so I ruled them vulnerable since they have Dark Minded), so they wouldn't get too hostile. From there, they discovered that the orcs were after the salt demon they just fought, a spawn from the Hungering Maw that already killed some of their clan. With thanks, the orc warned the party to stay away from the forest for the next few miles, because that's where a Blacked Grove outpost was patrolling for the time being; the orcs having a trade agreement with them for aid in food production (both prisoners for the vampire elite and plant growth/create food/water for the rest), in exchange for the occasional hassle with the Empire of the Sun. Not wanting to have an unneccessary fight on their hands, Tow has them leave peacefully by this point. 

After a total of a week and a half, they reach the location of the former headquarters of the Barghest's Maw, the Shadow Beneath the Flame; northern base of the mountain peak of the Caverns of Flame, a forest of blackened trees and soot-covered soil. They encounter some passing salamanders, but X37 kills the medium size one in a single round (leaving the three small size ones left to whiff pointlessly against their massive ACs). 

Within the barely standing dojo, they find little except a palpable chill, until Tow casts detect secret doors and finds the remains of an underground passageway underneath a broken statue. While there were numerous traps down the hall (ninjas, their shoes are probably trapped), a fair number had rusted shut or broken with age; and a symbol of weakness was accidentally wiped clean, which knocked Tow into a waking coma. He would've likely found it, but they had X37 (about the size of the barghest founder, which the hall's built for) do trapfinding by grabbing a tree trunk and knocking it around the place; no idea why. 

There were inscriptions around the place, indicating it to be an ancient goblinoid cavern that mentioned their gods avatar coming down and consuming their enemies; along with a technique of consuming only part of a creature to bestow strength and power. 

In the deepest part is a still smoldering censer, the room ice cold. They knocked it over, releasing a cinderspawn which did some Charisma drain to Tow and Marshal (gave it whirlwind attack, and they just had Tow strapped to X37's back) before getting smacked down. Scavenging a bit more, they found a necklace of goblin skulls with inscribed names of historically significant people that died, as well as recently activated alarm wards (Tow wasn't able to identify or tell the party what he saw until tomorrow). Inside one of the skulls is a necromantically enchanted onyx gemstone, but identification won't occur until they return to the Empire of the Sun.

Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Session III

After returning home, they receive their monetary compensation for the service and have Chantico perform the scrying while under disguise and guard. As it turns out, the wizard is protected by dint of 40' continuous material, but they got some information, that the wizard has access to a dungeon. 

As they leave for the two week journey towards Oxom's Caravan, they eventually pass by a cloaked figure that walks stiffly, and are suddenly ambushed by four ninjas hurling acid flasks, stabbing with wraithstrike dan bongs, and letting the animated full plate hack away at the enemy. Cast and Marshal were severely injured, and it took Marshal's Aura of Healing to keep the two alive by the second round. Fortunately, they injured the ninjas sufficiently for three of them to sprint away into the brush (one was slaughtered by X-37's long spear), and they disarmed the construct of its animating necklace. Originally I had intended the amulet to just be a light source, but it was a clever tactic so I changed its stats to make the amulet the source of its power (not like it was going to survive anyway). 

Taking a stop at a town later that day, they sat down and had a good chat with Rayne, the local law enforcement and weather mage (high level adept, cold and electricity). Their drink was interrupted by half a dozen disguised ninjas; one was the piano player, one was the barkeep, another a patron, a waitress, one was hiding in the rafters, and one was disguised as a table. They didn't do as well because X-37 was able to spot them in time during their attack, and cut almost all of them down, except for an AoO that was responded with a wielded smokestick to the face that gave the ninja enough of a distraction to get out of sight. 

Rayne, recognizing them for the adventuring type, encouraged them to be on their way quickly after interrogating the ninja survivors. A few charms and threats with ghouls later, and they got a fair bit of information: the Barghest's Maw has reformed, currently led by a goblinoid with a blue tint and access to alot of magic. 

The ninjas weren't informed as to whom their target was, but were warned that Cast was particularly dangerous, and thus their first target. The dojo they stayed at wasn't the guild's HQ, and they weren't informed as to where it is. While interrogating, they detected aclairvoyance sensor, dispelled it, and killed the ninjas (removing their tongues afterwards to make sure speak with dead doesn't work). 

Leaving town swiftly, they encountered a group of heavily wounded soldiers, having suffered an attack from orcs. A couple showed signs of red fever, and many suffered wounds from insect swarms, which Marshal greatly assisted in dealing with in his healing skills/powers. 

Oxom's Caravan was set up next to an Imperial outpost, and a red 'X' was painted on the side of the major wagon, along with several hanging daggers at the four points. Tow recognized them as signs of protection from the Scratch guild, a group of particularly vicious ninja bodyguards. Knocking on the door was the high priest himself, an older halfling that knew a fair bit about the party. He mentioned that he wasn't actually under the protection of the Scratch, but he knew that the party was being targetted by ninjas, so he set up the ruse to keep them at bay. 

Giving some information in exchange for his divination, the priest was surprised to know that the Barghest's Maw had reformed after the death of their founder half a century ago (the details given in the setting are post-scene, as word will spread), which makes it relatively valuable information. Performing the spell, it was revealed to him that the key to the tablet's cipher is at Riddle Manor, behind the white fence and in the center of the red carpet. He informed the party of likely dangers, sphinxes, mazes, & minotaurs; as well as the location of the former dojo of the Barghest's Maw before it was originally destroyed (north of the Imperial capital, in the shadow of the peak of the Caverns of Flame).

Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Session II

Cast opened dialogue with the Dredge King, declaring in veiled threats of the danger of ceasing an established trade between the Kashtal clan and the Empire fo the Sun. The King's response was one of indignation, and demanded that they kneel and submit to the judgement of treason. This was a spell of fealty, and only Cast actually suffered from it, stepping aside from the combat while the dwarf guards attempted to subdue the party. 

It was a drawn-out process, and the dwarves were brutally drained dry of life by X37 along with an overall wearing down of the spellcasting king until he begged for mercy. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that the king was a dretch in disguise; a dretch being among the lowest form of demon (or tanar'ri amongst true nerds) in the hierarchy of the fiends. 

In its mewling, it revealed that it was brought to the world by a summoning circle, but it never saw the summoner (the circle was broken, so it could leave). It found a book nearby that it learned from to cast spells as a true practitioner, which revealed that it was much smarter than the average dretch (but was still average by human standards). From there, it found the Kashtal clan and decided to take advantage of its newfound knowledge. 

The book was written in simplified demon script, and was expertly designed for best understanding by a fiend such as the dretch to learn the magic within. 

The party forced the dretch to show it the location it was called to, and from there, they used their excellent tracking skills to find footprints left by a humanoid that either flew off or teleported away after summoning the dretch; further proving that this was the work of a powerful wizard that went out of his/her way to leave little trace and deal maximum damage to either the Empire or the Kashtals. 

Not wanting to deal with a rampant mind-controlling fiend, the party killed the dretch and told the dwarves the truth (slight twisting to say the fiend actually did the killing of those guards below). Once trade was agreed to resume after mourning, the party returned to the Empire of the Sun. 

There, they looked around for general work, also attempting to find out if anyone in the city is powerful enough to perform a scrying. While they were at it, they put their ear to the ground to find other jobs, and heard about the following... 
* The Linguist, a Decipher Script specialist, was seeking aid in getting a tablet translated/decoded (basically help in convincing a powerful priest to perform a divination) 
* Chantico, the head Imperial wizard, had an open call for anyone willing to go on a will-o-wisp hunting expedition (running low on essence for the secret page spell) 
* One of the Empire's farther out towns was holding a major swordsman tournament soon = caravan guards, exhibitionists, & contestants all being viable jobs to go near the event 

The party split up for the Linguist and wizard. 

Tow attempted to use comprehend languages on the tablet, a remnant from the ruins of a wizard-oriented culture, but couldn't make any headway compared to what the Linguist had done so far. To Tow's knowledge, only Netzahual (head cleric & 2nd-in-command of the Empire) had a chance of being able to perform a divination, but he figured the cost would be inconveniently large. So, he went to the Small Gods Ghetto to see if a priest of the owl goddess Oxom (portfolio: curiosity/knowledge, death, wisdom) would be able to perform the rites more cheaply. The priest didn't have the skill, but was willing to pay for a message to be delivered swiftly to his high priest to see if he was willing to do this favor. 

Meanwhile, the rest of the party sought Chantico to see what he offered for their services. Chantico told them that will-o'-wisps can be found at the Fetid Moor, near the border to the Blackened Grove. He was willing to craft a single magic item for the party (or requisition one) in exchange for a wisp corpse. After some extensive haggling, the party convinced him to attempt to scry on the author of the dretch's book as well (with the expectation they would be near him as added guards for the attempt due to the danger). 

The Fetid Moor was close, and by the time a response could be heard from the High Priest of Oxom, they figured they could get a will-o'-wisp and return in time. They heard of the banshee mushrooms (shriekers that make listeners shaken), and how they attract will-o'-wisps and decided to use it as bait. 

The fight was long and drawn out, as the wisp was incredibly dodgy and so was the one character that could actually get enough bonuses to hit back (X37, who did alot of damage). Eventually, they were victorious and when they saw the glimmer of what seemed like more on the way, they high-tailed it home. 

They got their payment, a magic item would begin to be crafted, and they decided to have the Marshall receive it. As for the scrying attempt, it turned out that the target has access to a dungeon due to the 404 error received; much to Chantico's relief, as he worried about Detect Scrying on someone powerful enough to bind a dretch out of hell (assuming the author and summoner are the one and the same). 

We closed this session with a level-up for everybody. The next level-up should likely occur as soon as a major plot hook begins and is completed.