The party suits up and begins their 6 day journey of subtle entry to Crystalis, Cast's homeland, in order to free it of the oppressive reign of Brawn the Giant Slayer. Having heard rumours of a shadow demon and the impressive darkvision of the barbazu, they don't act until early morning, so they can act under the cover of the sun.
Nearing the crafter's home that Sarou (Marshal's cohort) spoke of, they spied a pair of barbazu marching towards it as well. Hiding Cast, in case they recognized him, they walked up and bluffed their way as employees coming to deliver more precise orders. Believing them, the barbazu waited outside while the party interrogated before they collected the tax money.
They obtained information on the secret entrance, a grain storage area that leads almost directly to the throne room, allowing the ice sculptors to go in without drawing attention to themselves. They're ice sculptors because King Brawn had been having a large amount of never-melting ice from the Frozen Islands shipped and stored within the throne room to add to the decore.
Bidding a good day, they contemplate a manner to get past the two barbazu guards at the grain storage. Eventually, they just have Tow teleport between them and bluff that he's there to tell them the Empire of the Sun is invading along the road to the west and they need all the help they can get. They believe him, and the party gets four rounds before the barbazu figure out what's going on and give chase down the 5' wide tunnel. A dozen lemures block the hall, giving Marshal a chance to two round half of them as he chews through them (they had readied actions to charge once they had room) while X37 and Cast struggle against the two barbazu (bad luck for them, good luck for me).
Shortly, they kill them all and get to the back door, which leads to a lush greenhouse with a small lake and a fountain made to look like a waterfall in the middle. There's a straw hat wearing hobo sitting on a rock in the lake, fishing. His face is painted to look dirty with a white frown over his mouth, and several brightly colored patches line his ratty clothes. One shoe is removed and a piece of string tied to a toe. The string led up to a crate (3' tall) near the back door, tied to a stick propping it open and a magic sword underneath along with a pile of gold. Figuring it to just be a joke, Tow walks over and grabs the sword, which makes the fisherman shout 'Aha!'.
It also causes a concert grand piano to fall on Tow's head (6d6 damage).
The party draws their weapons and readies to attack/defend against the man, who doesn't do much else besides introducing himself as Cali. They talk for a bit, and he says that he hangs around for the fishing, also informing the party the king is likely not taking visitors. At some point, Cali informs the party that not many people actually talk to him, as apparently they just snub him; what he'd really want is a catalogue.
Assuming this would get on his good side, Tow teleports himself back to the Empire at a library and gets a catalogue of historical angels (no idea where they got that idea), then starts teleporting back. I figured teleport trap of the Jester is actually anticiapte teleportation, and had cast it on King Brawn earlier that day. This was within range, next room over from the throne room and all, which made the King come charging through in his full suite of demon armor, ice aegis.
This ensues a battle, as King Brawn recognizes Cast and assumes the worst. King Brawn is a human Fighter 5/Barbarian 2, built on 28 point-buy and old age penalties, wearing magic armor/shield/strength/deflection. In the first round, the King 'calls in his last favour' from Cali, who assists for a single round...Low Comedy with a bucket full of chum, three cans of chicken soup (or shrink item alchemist's flasks), and sending three unseen servants (from servant horde) each with bumblebee shaped boxes w/fire trap next to the party; all while whistling 'flight of the bumblebee'. After that round of appreciably harming the entire party, he goes to nap and continue fishing for the rest of the fight.
The fight is several rounds of doing nothing against Brawn due to his AC and lucky saving throws, followed by a couple real hits and Brawn using Lift and CdG on Cast; releasing him into the pond that is deceptive in its 30' depth (the ACP is enough to sink him). However, he's taken down and knocked unconcsious through Tow's whelm.
After some interrogation of Brawn, who is ready to just die rather than suffer any further indignity, they find out that close to three months ago, Cali arrived as a wandering jester/moocher. Several days later, the shadow demon arrived and offered Brawn a chance for greater glory of the kingdom and for him to finally sire a child that could inherit the throne. Desperate to keep the family line going, he agreed and hired the Barghest's Maw to assassinate Cast (later finding out it's just as good if he's not there to question his rightful rulership during his rise to power, as detailed earlier). Later, a neophyte temptress demon along with a contigent of barbazu, and he gained the manpower to declare independence.
Deciding it would be more useful, X37 simply knocks Brawn out and will later keep him imprisoned until he's good enough to be able to eat souls.
X37 threatens to attack Cali if he doesn't comply and spill the beans as to who summoned all of the fiends that wander the kingdom, and is given a highly trapped envelope that he decides to try and read as close to the jester as possible. This barely hurts Cali, and gets ready to attack, but Cast talks the player out of the idea since he thinks the danger/effort is useless and won't get the information. With a grumble, the ghoul listens.
They search the grounds, and all of the mortal guardsmen are relieved to see that it's the rightful heir to the throne and that the evil Brawn is defeated. Finally, they find the Queen along with the temptress who was to soon be the mother of Brawn's child (this was before the ritual was begun). The Queen reveals that she carries the child of Cast's father from shortly before he was killed (barely shows), which fits the rumours Cast heard of the Queen being seen in the town with his father shortly before he died; and did this out of loneliness and secretive rebellion against her power-mad husband. Figuring her to be safe, Cast opts to keep her as a duchess.
As for the temptress, she has high society training; imagine the Companion from Firefly, only with darker background, and elevating Cast's status through pleasing other kingdoms fits within her capability. She never saw her summoner (much like that dretch from earlier), but found a note informing her of freedom if she worked with Brawn. Now, she is left as a freelancer, and living on the Prime is with the advantages provides in the Tomes. Cast decides that she's trustworthy enough to hire on, and she's introduced as his new cohort.
Next week, the party begins the process in cleansing the land of the barbazu and finding out the location of the shadow demon.
No comments:
Post a Comment