Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Session XII

They walked down to the myconid village, who respond with fear and hiding. After some rapport spores, they talk and inform the myconids of their mission, demanding to know why they aid the Blackened Grove. Claiming ignorance due to isolation, another 'hard-edge' who knows the best route to the capital of the Mushroom Kingdom is pointed out to be nearby the village, living as a hermit. Once over to the Yoda-like house in the fungus filled swamp, they knock and meed the resident. She is a fit, just shy of middle-age human woman wearing a leather jacket, a single leg set of dress pants, and armed with two pairs of scimitars and daggers. She greets them as Leia of House Achilles. After some conversation, she tells them of the capital location, and asks for a friendly duel with someone. Marshal accepts, receives a very painful slap of subdual damage, then knocks her down in a full-attack on his own. 

When standing, she cleans her blades of mud by wiping them on her leg, and does a quick blade sharpen by running it on the inside of her knee. The party realizes that her leg is invincible, and Tow remembers hearing rumours of a fallen house from the Blackened Grove known for their invincibility. She acknowledges that she is of said house, living in exile in the Mushroom Kingdom, and that other members of the family have different traits from her. She also offers a chance to try out an excessively rare mushroom to the party that will expire soon, figuring they could take advantage of it better. The mushroom has a small sign that says "Don't Eat Me" next to it, and when fed to Tow, he begins to speak in tongues and somehow manages to summon a fiend. This is how we introduce a one-shot player, who is playing a 7th level Fiendish Brute (aiming for a mini-glabrezu type), who must serve and protect the party for 3 days and 3 nights. 

Travelling for a day with a shortcut, they reach the capital, and seek an audience with an elder. Eventually, they're allowed in, but they cannot speak to the Eldest Circle of Sovereigns unless they earn their trust. For rapidity, they offer to join in a hallucinagenic mind meld (works similar to a vision quest) to prove their non-violent intentions. And so, the crazy dreamscape begins... 

Appearing in the middle of the smoking ruins of the Empire of the Sun's capital, they wander for a short time, eventually noticing that Cast has parts of his skin turning into mirrored metal. This is followed by a nearby, broken mirror and its reflection of Cast pouring out, shifting into something similar to T-1000 and altering to appear as a large, mirrored myconid declaring itself as Azasaraj the Red Saint and has declared that Cast must fall. It's a short battle before they smack it down, which causes a blank d6 to roll out of its body. Tow attempts to scan it with detect magic, which reveals ancient Celestial runes that flare like a flash bulb (that only Tow can see), which incinerates Tow into nothing, causing him to awaken. 

Confused, the party looks around, only to find themselves inside that old building for the exterminator in the southern continent. The human stands from behind the counter, and asks the party if they're interested in getting rid of rats. While he asked, the glabrezu-lite player attempts to teleport back to where he was, which causes an internal spike of pain and him to vanish into nothing (and to awaken), confusing/worrying Marshal and Cast. Marshal asks the clerk if there's anything else, learning that all he has besides traps/poison for rats and racoons is an old toy; a wind-up clapping monkey with a ninja mask. Looking at it, Marshal asks the price, which is apparently a kingdom; only for suddenly the toy monkey to spit out a wad of spikes that cause his head to explode like an overripe melon (awakening him). Alone, Cast tells the clerk to run while he can, at which point he hears the scampering of feet outside the store. Looking out, there is a veritable sea of rats moving towards him, which burst through the door to both overwhelm and kill Cast, bite by bite, into the waking world. 

This seems to convince the locals that they're 'worthy' to speak with the second oldest member of the myconid colony, Red Cap. They are brought before him, a giant of a myconid (12HD), wearing a helmet as an amulet, several rings large enough to fit his stub like fingers, and a bag with a chemical-filled flasks. Attempting to diplomacize, Red Cap speaks of 'state secrets' and their alliance with the Blackened Grove suits the Mushroom Kingdom in their future of conquest and expansion. The party is fazed with this decidedly un-myconid like behavior, & Tow had been maintaining a detect magic to see what kind of items he had. When he saw the helmet on the neck chain, he was amazed to find it covered with a strong aura of enchantment magic on it, which is technically artifact level in the game; this amazement is detected by Red Cap, who demands a better explanation of who they are before judgement is passed. Cast is the only who answers, using a long-winded form of his name and title, in which Red Cap declares himself as Azasaraj the Red Saint. 

A fight breaks out, and they kill the elder myconid sovereign. Which prompts them being brought before the remaining Elder Circle of the capital under heavy guard. With some deliberation, good Diplomacy rolls, and having them examine Red Cap's personal chambers. Inside said chambers are many, very expensive circles of binding, banishing, and summoning. This convinces them of Red Cap's madness, so they allow the party to keep his tainted gear, and inform them that their alliance with the Blackened Grove, while still present for trade purposes, will be ended for the node connection. 

During all of this, they run into Leia's eldest brother, a man known as White Eyes; an old man with milky white eyes, glad to see the heavier presence of Blackened Grove gone. Out of gratitude, he bestows upon the party his family's boon, a salve that will bestow invulnerability to a single body part. There is a little bit of deliberation, and Marshal gets it applied to his arm. 

Afterwards, they return back to the Empire of the Sun, and Tow takes the time case to research the helmet; because the entire party is assuming that the helmet is the cause for Red Cap's insanity and likely possession by Azas. In his research, he discovers that the Red Saint was a figure of ancient history (~700 years) who attempted to steal power from the Minor Gods in an attempt towards forced ascension to go along with world domination. The helmet itself, with a more careful inspection, seems to be a helm of telepathy with tiny indentations on the inside portion.

Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: XI

Fairly short session. Our potential replacement for the X-37 player ended up with a run of RL preventing him from being able to join in. 

They brought Marshal's body to the Emerald Oracle and paid the hag her fee for raising him. I had decided that the level loss would be represented by a permanent negative level penalty (can be removed with the likes of wish), that will go away one at a time with a natural level up (~5450gp was her charge). Meanwhile, Tow brought over his equipment piecemeal via his teleporatation and spent time relaxing at the capital until they rode back there (two weeks long). There was a message left to Marshal by Sarou, but the player didn't seem to pay attention (the other two players did), so he won't discover the contents until later. 

Upon returning to the capital of the Empire, they run into Sarou. He had been keeping an ear on the ground and noticed that there have been more than a few peculiar assassination jobs lately. The victims are of random lots in life, the only unifying factor is that they had a single organ of their body expertly excised. No possession would be taken, only killed such that the organ wouldn't be damaged, and then removed post-mortem. The party couldn't get the interest up, and instead looked for a mission from their superior. 

While there, they get to go through a short ceremony and are given Imperial medals for their actions in routing the orcish horde of the Hungering Maw. Ensured of their status as first tier nobles in the Empire (second tier nobles are one step relatives). 

Their prior superior officier turned out to be dead from one of the attacks from the Blackened Grove. Their new one is named Bunarti, a blonde, beardless dwarf with a Led accent, wearing black & gold cloth. He told them that part of their recent advantage in power was absorbing the Mushroom Kingdom into the fold. Their mission was to find out why or how the Blackened Grove was able to convince the native myconids to accept the alliance, as their culture makes subjugation or even aidful alliance difficult. 

The border between the Blackened Grove, while relatively open for travellers, was guarded to prevent egress of the nobility from the Empire of the Sun (read: adventurers). From what they could figure out, they would be suspect for being nobility if they stood out for weirdness or be noticed for their particular combat prowess (Sense Motive to see how good they are in a fight if they ever do something violent) and would likely be subject to cursory magic item scans (adventurers light up like holiday trees). Main roads would be the obviously guarded route, and the Blackened Grove was known for its druids, so moving through the forest beyond the roads would be equally bad when none in the party are familiar with moving through the woods. 

After half an hour, they decided to take a boat from Star Cove, captained by a 3rd level warrior aquatic elf (former privateer of another kingdom). The Mushroom Kingdom's on the southern coast of the continent, about 320 miles west of Star Cove. The kingdom is a cold marsh that is like a cross between World of Warcraft's Zangarmarsh and the fungal forest in Nausica of the Valley of the Wind. 

While moving along the coast, they can only find a single port, which consists of two seaweed ladened docks near three rundown and seemingly abandoned shanties. For safety, they send Tow out on reconnaisance, so he casts invisibility and begins to teleport around 

At one point, he teleports atop one of the roofs, which collapses beneath him. Falling inside, he lands inside a pool of stagnant saltwater and sees a bit of movement below him in the pool. Before he can react properly (lost initiative), he finds himself grappled and pummelled with subdual damage unto unconsciousness (never able to make the Concentration checks). 

The rest of the party sits for fifteen minutes before getting worried and docking to looking for Tow; unsure of exactly where he went because they couldn't tell if he fell through the bit of roof that collapsed in (as he had been invisible at the time). When they check the inside, they notice an open pit of stagnant water filled with seaweed at the center of the shantie, below the open hole. One other building also has an open pit, and all of them are filled with mold and bits are growing over with moss, the signs of civilzation being shelves of hollowed out mushrooms filled with various herbs. 

They decided that Tow likely fell in and never came out, so Cast takes off his armor, ties himself to a fair bit of rope, and dives in. After a few rounds of looking around, he finds and goes down a tunnel to the side, popping up a hole. Inside are seven more humanoid looking skum that seem to be using a seaweed base, Tow in a corner unconscious. The creatures don't seem to speak his language, so he attempts to mime that he wants the tiefling, and they seem to mime that they don't want to give him up. He pauses for a round, then jerks at the rope as he dives for Tow to grab him. The whole lot of skum begin to bite and claw at him, attempting to subdue him at first as he starts getting dragged back into the water (holding Tows mouth/nose shut to prevent water getting in). About 10' from the surface, the skum did enough damage to knock Cast unconscious and then cut the rope. At which point, they swiftly dragged both bodies back to their lair, leaving Marshal with a surprised look and cut rope. 

There's some time deliberating by Marshal with Tenoc as to what to do, because he's no idea what's going on below to cause all this, and his defensive capability is severely compromised without the armor (and very much not swimming with it on). After awhile, they realize that the captain is a sea elf who's likely fast enough to quick check and get back before getting caught. Reluctantly, Marshal allows this and gets the basic gist of what's where. From the lay of the land, he figures out that he can likely walk down the tunnel and climb up to the hole while wearing his armor. At which point, he does so and ends up killing most of them on the way due to their surprisingly weak battle prowess. After half an hour, Tow and Cast awaken (sleeping spores were used), and they search through the room to find a secret passage. Further down the tunnel, they reach the exit and find themselves in a fungal forest with myconids working the 'fields' within sight.

Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Session X

After entirely too much time wasted, waiting for all of my players to be able to get together again, we seem to be able to begin again. Next week, we have a new player come in to fil the void left by X37's player. 

They flip the hidden switch inside the crypt spoken of by the priest, then travel down the sloping hallway for hundreds of feet past many doors on the left side and alcoves with running fountains. While walking, one three of the fountains begin releasing a large water elemental. The three elementals speak of the node being damaged and must be protected. They attack, and are taken out over a few rounds without doing much to the party (fire mage & beguiler hide behind illusions). 

After a time, the right side finally has an opening, leading up a 100' of stairs behind a large waterfall. At the peak is a warded door, where Tow speaks the password. Inside is a 20' square chapel in honor to the element of water. At this point, a trap is set off; closing the door and casting raise water on the low level of water in the room. Surprised, they try to hold their breath and Marshal dispels the effect. After half a minute, Tow figures out that six rounds after at least 10 tons weigh on the floor a pit trap opens up. Disabling the trap, they enter the pit w/slide. 

At the bottom of the slide they find themselves on the shore of a vast underground lake, near a skiff. Kast hears faint chanting away from the shore. A bonfire is made to better illuminate, showing an ashworm resting on an island. Upon the center of the island is an open ceiling temple made of solid water and a teal beam of light in the center, flickering into the color of salt. 

They ride the skiff towards the center and try to stop the Dark Knight of the Thirsting Dune (level 8 orc ghoul knight) from attuning the node towards the Hungering Maw. He was guarded by a water mephit and an advanced dessicator (large size). It was a fairly long fight, with the mephit taken out quickly through miser's envy (taking the salt crystal focus for the ritual). The dessicator was killed first, the ashworm mount was frightened from Marshal's terrible shout ability. Finally, Marshal was killed by the knight's melee attack due to two consecutive rounds of not getting hit (Marshal being his challenge). 

Before they could figure out what to do, the mephit returned long enough to throw and shatter the salt crystal near the pillar of light. This released all of the energy being focused from the node, which shifted toward the Hungering Maw for a few moments before resorting back to the Empire of the Sun. Because it was so short, it instead went towards the ashworm (a spawn from the maw), which began to mutate it. It grew to the edge of gargantuan before burrowing out of sight, its scales lengthened and darkened into almost quill-like things, its teeth increased in number then transformed into rubbery arms, and deep in the center of its mouth an eye began to form with a most terrible gaze. 

Not sure what to do, they took the corpse of Marshal and made their way to the Emerald Oracle to ask for aid from Auzrha in raising him. We leave off here, as there's a chance that the player for Marshal might decide to let himself stay dead and try a new character. Also, they assumed that I would let the rules for level loss remain with raise dead and similar.

Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Session IX

This was a session showcasing the Mass Combat Mini-game from Races of War. It is also the last session for the player of X37, which means the next session may be postponed, depending on scheduling for Tow's player and my ability to find a replacement player. 

Also, out of apathy for the game caused by the prospect of thinking of a new character, Cast decided to keep his character and we had a slight retcon of him taking a celestial hippogriff and arriving two days later. The hippogriff was already established last session, as the Empress had attacked an invading force on the capital, and in her fury a celestial hippogriff got sorta stuck on the Prime; this being the same fight that got Chantico's arm destroyed. Also, he finally got a magic weapon and switched out his sun plate for an adamantine carapace. 

Reconnaisance from Tow revealed that the orcish horde had been calling in the minor camps and consolidating for a larger attack. His attempt at clairvoyance revealed a giant salt crystal wielded by the war chief named The Knight of the Dunes (orc ghoul that looks desert mummified), and his sensor was spotted. 

The party decided to piss off the war chief of the orcish horde into attacking them, so they could intervene before reinforcements from the Wastelands could make the army any larger. They met on the open battlefield, with intermittent squares of light forest. 

Enemy Forces 

20 Orcs: Move 2, HP 3, Damage 3, Morale 1

5 Orc Elite (Warrior 2, Elite array): Move 2, HP 6, Damage 5, Ranged, Morale 1

1 Dustblight Cavalry (Ashworm mounts): Move 2, HP 14, Damage 8, Burrow (open terrain allows +1 Fortification), Morale 7

Player Forces 

12 Human Conscripts: Move 2, HP 1, Damage 1, Morale 0

2 Human Archers: Move 2, HP 2, Damage 2, Ranged, Morale 1

2 Human Pikemen: Move 2, HP 3, Damage 2, Morale 1

1 Undead Archers (X37's): Move 2, HP 6, Damage 5, Morale 2

Notes 
Marshal's warshout (+3 morale atk & damage): +3 unit damage to all units 
Marshal's other buffs: +1 unit damage to personally lead unit 
Marshal's healing aura: heals 2 unit HP at end of round (if they survive, fully healed) 
Tow's Invisibility Sphere: one-use 'first strike' given to unit, cannot be reapplied unless they are not attacked for a turn and move at half speed 
Tow's Major Image: Deals 3 HP to a unit, ignores terrain, only usable once per unit (concentration, so he just smacked a new unit each turn) 

Through judicious use of Set when in the light forest squares, Cast's whirlwind attack on a hippogriff dealing 1 damage to up to four orc units (DR 9 ~ unit DR 2 = 10 damage per orc unit entered, went into Marshal's unit for the healing aura afterwards), Tow's magic, they managed to route the orcish horde. 

They took out all but six orc units, at the expense of 11 conscripts & 1 pikemen. The warchief, who was the leader/commander of the dustblight cavalry, managed to personally escape; which greatly vexed the party. They began to torture the captured orcs, have Tow ransack his tent (teleporting once the camp noticed), and then have him go to the Green Oracle and fork over what money they had to the diviners. All this to find out where he was so they could gank him. 

At this point, I figured I might as well make him more important to the story and changed a few names and moved the timetable ahead. He fled towards a massive underground lake that is the heart of all the wells in the kingdom bordering the wastelands, and he is planning something that threatens the entire Empire of the Sun. 

They move as fast as they can, which takes half a day; except for Tow, who finds the local Elementalist that is the caretaker for the lake and is told the directions through the underground system to get to the area. He even allows Tow to cast misdirection with him as a source, so he will register as the Elementalist to all of the wards. 

Stopped the session on a 'to be continued', but I had everyone ding to level 7.

Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Session VIII

A decent game today, though we were without Tow once again (car trouble). 

The party made their trek back to the capital of the Empire of the Sun, using the best horses of the kingdom to speed up the trek. Soru informs Marshal that he's been doing well getting a dojo formed, and his presence would be appreciated (think drill sergeant) as well as using his perceptive ability as a test for their stealth. Tezcateotl, excited with his progress, shows the new neophytes he's recruited as well as his undead crafting results. They reacquaint with Chantico, who is sporting a missing arm due to a particularly dangerous attack from the Blackened Grove when a strike team hit the capital. 

While the two go through town selling and upgrading their gear, Cast prepares for the coronation ceremony, which includes a solo fight against an elephant. A large part of the capital is there for the ceremony, and Cast ends up defeating the elephant with only 2 hit points left (it was an incredibly close fight, saved by his warhorse's extra attacks). This dismays Cast incredibly at the performance of his character, especially after looking at Marshal's numbers were he to fight the elephant instead. In fact, he decides to retire his character and make a new one, having Cast return to the kingdom to rule rather than adventure. 

In order to keep him involved, we used that one-shot halfling barbarian and had Cast's player use the stats, saying that he had family where the party was going and he'd help a bit before reaching the place. 

Their decision is to go forth and assist with the orcish horde under the banner of the Hungering Maw. Chantico, who is on break doing a couple minor items, have the day off long enough to be able to cast shrink item & two phantom steeds w/an Extend Rod. The halfling was small enough to be a passenger, and the shrink item was for a pair of heavy warhorse skeletons packaged in a chest and set for 'inactive' until reassembled (takes an hour and some negative energy); the latter a compliment of Tezcateotl. 

The travel is cut down from two weeks to two days thanks to this, where they find a village retrofitted into a defensive outpost about 15 miles before the border to the wastelands; the fight having gotten serious. There are three wounded Coronal Guard, about 200 basic soldiers, and five Coronal Guard patrols currently keeping an eye on the borders (one Guard plus seven very well trained soldiers). Marshal gives out a bunch of group healing activities and the party is appraised of the situation. There are four minor camps and a major one, sending small groups to test the border defenses and are likely massing a large attack. 

The party decides to attack one of the minor camps (after a patrol leaves, so their numbers are low), sending the halfing to the front to jump over the gate and open it. Inside, they fight 14 orcs, a dustblight (treated as children of the Maw, acting as leaders), and a dessicator with the swarm template (set for sand). Before the dessicator can do much, the rest of the camp is killed in fairly short order, the orcs in their dying breath tell the dessicator to run for the main camp. This keeps the party from a painful fight, as none of them have area attacks of note, but it does make them have to leave fairly quickly because the main camp will be alerted. 

Resting back at the outpost, the party waits an extra couple days for Tezcateotl to bring everyone's followers (assumed that Tow's running back and forth forth for information); namely by him purchasing transport wagons, converting them to be pulled by bipeds (along with Tow bringing the horse skeletons back for reassembly), and having them pull tirelessly.

Assault Apparatus: My Love, Strike the Glorious Sky!

There was an old Spelljammer supplement, called Wildspace, which told us of one of the more metal 'creatures' I've seen. It's a magic Gundam/Mecha, normally piloted by beholders...IN SPAAACE!! It is a glorious magical item, and I wholeheartedly encourage the entire party to commandeer a few of them, then fight others, possibly while someone plays an electric guitar in the background.

This is an equivalent conversion for semi-playability. For those who wish to compare it to the Apparatus of Kwalish, please be aware that I consider that item a waste of space. While its HP and hardness is crazy good, its AC is only good below level 4, it's swim speed is snail-like compared to anything you'd encounter underwater, and it attacks like an 8th level fighter coming to a 16th level party (which is when you can afford it). Now, reduce the Apparatus of the Crab to 9,000gp, then you'll have a potentially viable magic item with pros and cons. Or, keep the price, and instead use the statistics provided below.

Assault Apparatus 
This item appears to be an inert stone golem, 30' in height, but it has a secret catch (Search DC 20 to locate) that opens a hatch in the torso. Anyone, one Large character is the maximum capacity (or two Medium), who crawls inside finds ten (unlabeled) levers.

The device has the following characteristics: hp 200; hardness 20; Spd 50ft; Space/Reach 15 ft/15 ft; AC 26 (-2 size, -4 Dex, +22 natural); Atk +22 melee (2d12+15, 2 slams), +8 ranged touch (4d6, 2 light rays, 50' max range, no increments); Wave Motion Beam (10' wide, 100' long line, 16d6 magic missile damage, Fortitude DC 18 for half, 1d4 round cooldown) 

Lever (1d10)	Lever Function
1	Charge & attack target
2	Attack adjacent target
3	Total defense
4	Withdraw
5	Wave Motion Beam at target
6	Fire light rays at target
7	Stand or drop prone
8	Open/close 'eyes' with continual flame
9	Lift/drop adjacent target
10	Open/close hatch

Operating a lever is a full-round action, and no lever may be operated more than once per round. A verbal command is required, in Undercommon, to designate a target or direction for movement when a lever is pulled. If none is provided when a lever is pulled, a valid target is chosen randomly or a 1d8 is rolled for a direction moved. The device can function in water up to 900 feet deep or in the Plane of Vacuum. It holds enough air for a crew of two to survive 1d4+1 hours (twice as long for occupant).

Requirements

Strong evocation and transmutation; CL 19th; Craft Wondrous Item, Craft Construct, animate objects, continual flame, web, magic missile, searing light, creator must have 12 ranks in the Knowledge (architecture and engineering) skill; Market Price: 90,000gp

Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Session VII

We've gotten back together and one of my old friends is visiting, so I cooked him up a spot character to join in (basic halfling barbarian). 

As they had 13 hours before midnight, the appointed time that shadow demon arrives to speak with King Brawn, Tow took advantage of this and started to rest in one of the guest rooms. During this time, X37 & Marshal headed down into the dungeon to see if there were any important political prisoners. There's a barbazu guarding the place, and doesn't believe X37's statement that the contract's been changed (no shadow to give the go-ahead), but does state that none of the prisoners are allowed out unless King Brawn's around to approve. When X37 pulls out Brawn's corpse to show him, the barbazu curses at his wording and lets them in, himself leaving since the contract's null with the boss dead. 

As an aside, Kast leaves orders with the guard to deny entrance to any of the barbarzu, stating that their king is busy. Since they don't know he's dead yet, they're not going to storm the place, so it suffices as a decent stalling maneuver. 

There are two specially designed cells, one holds our spot-player and another holds a political prisoner. The temp-player is held inside a magically treated iron cube less than 2' on a side, held up on chains above a 60' pit. Marshal suppresses the magic of the box, which makes it possible for X37 to make the DC 30 break check to open it. They find the halfling's equipment, the still beating boar's heart (magic Strength booster, requires periodic nibbling, regrows that damage), creepy; which amuses everyone. In the other room, the political prisoner seems to be a human heavily bound with ropes that are connected to a series of yet more ropes that hold up a 2 tonne boulder slightly above him (so if they're broken, the boulder falls and crushes him), the human can't see because he has a metal plate tied over his eyes, and there are mild burn marks around the area. The man is named Tenoc, where further detail on his origin will be revealed in the stat write-up with Tow (semi-cohort). Suffice it to say, he doesn't give much help for the moment, because he assumes it's just a torture ruse to make him think he's getting out; so they leave him for Tow to speak with. 

Once Tow finishes resting and recovering his spells, he goes down to the catacombs and uses hypnotism on Tenoc to convince him to assist in fighting the shadow demon. X37 goes into his true form and picks up the boulder, carrying it off, so now Tenoc can safely explode in flame to remove the rope. 

Midnight nears, and two barbarzu arrive to escort one of the nobles on charges of wrongful summoning, pushing him forward in chains. Everyone is in the throne room, hiding in illusions, along with an image of Brawn on the throne and a false cage for Kast. After a bit of cajoling, the barbazu are told to leave the prisoner, so they walk out the room. During the conversation, the noble seems dazed and confused, and said the thing he summoned was an item in his pocket, which turns out to be an darkness enchanted gem (later revealed to be a crappy 1gp onyx). As soon as the room is enveloped in darkness, the shadow demon springs out and pounces upon Kast for a fair bit of damage. The barbazu come charging back in, failing to summon a single lemure, and get slaughtered by X37. The shadow demon itself is beaten down before it can do anything significant (the barbazu had a damning darkness on them, but it was dispelled by Marshal when it came out). 

Tow and Marshal head up to the top of the castle/ziggaraut, create the largest floating head you can do with a silent image, while Marshal shouts as loud as he can to inform all of the barbazu that Brawn is dead and they must leave immediately. There's some clean-up over the next two days, and Gina eventually gets word (they don't know she switched sides) that they have a new contract. There's some sneaking around and ambushing, followed by awakening the barbazu in the dungeon (which makes it waste a round when it tries to teleport away and fails due to the depth of the dungeon) and hypnosis gets it to reveal that the new contract is with some 5' tall dwarf-like wizard that wears white robes, speaks High Infernal, provides virgins, and tells them to call him The White. 

While travelling to the capital to go through the coronation, the Empire proves reluctant to attempt to scry on The White since he's not revealed himself to be an enemy to the country, is obviously powerful enough to watch for scrying, and now has a small army of teleporting fiends that are individually on par with a Coronal Guard. Once I speak with the players again, after having initially given them nothing, I'll go ahead and let them have heard of someone that looks like The White with a good enough Knowledge (nobility) check; which will be a dwarf known for being the spokesman to a white dragon far to the north.