Dramatis Personae
Beltin (Aasimar Dirge Bard/Cleric 9).
Bradley Weatherby (Human Dervish Dancer 9/Knife Master Rogue 7/Duelist 2).
Tarl (Aasimar Inquisitor/Paladin 9).
Phox (Kitsune Rogue/He-kept-character-sheet-so-hell-if-I-know 9). Back story is currently ill-defined; didn't get a chance to talk to the player too deeply about it, but will care enough to hear it and perhaps incorporate elements from it should he survive two sessions. Phox walks in human guise and pursues a group of Tengu murderers who destroyed his home. He knows they hide in the Desolation and he seeks them. And they know. And he knows they know. And so on, into infinity.
Officially mass murderers, Session 7.1 - 6/14/14
Day 9, noonish. After meeting with the Usurer the party quickly prepares to head into the Desolation to fulfill their secret crusader extermination contract. On the way out of town with the menagerie in tow and the semi-crowds doing their best to get out of their way, they boast loudly about their intentions to go north and take care of the Margoyles that survived their first purge.
As they walk, Phox approaches them, concealing his true nature by walking in human form, and makes them an offer. He wishes to explore the Desolation for his own purposes and there is safety in numbers; going together is mutually beneficial for protection. As he is a replacement PC, this vague, shady-as-fuck story goes unquestioned, but on one condition: BW makes him tell the party, especially Tarl, that he has no intention of betraying, murdering, or stealing from them. He does so, truthfully. Phox has joined the party!
They head north along the road and soon only the incessant howling wind is their company... besides each other, but who counts that? After they are sure they aren't being followed, they step off the road and begin to cut across the Desolation, seeking the peaceful graveyard and the crusaders who are supposed to be camping there. They walk and walk and walk, and hey what's that? A DC 20 Survival check?
Nope, was just a bone storm. They hunker down and prepare a magical hut to wait it out, and Phox decides to lay down for a nap. As the storm begins to rage the party hears a soul-wrenching, but not too soul-wrenching as they all made the Will save, scream of utter despair on the wind. And then they hear it again.
Two screamers dive through the dome and look for company in the form of BW and Beltin; both fail to squeeze inside their new friends, and BW viciously slashes one... who shrugs off half, being incorporeal and all. Still, it had enough of BW and tries its hand at soul-raping Phox, but also with no success. Beltin does his undead thing and dominates the one on him and sends it back out and up. It sounds disappointed.
Tarl finishes the one on Phox and the danger has passed. About 10 minutes later the storm subsides and they continue onward, with the enslaved screamer following behind.
As they continue walking through the scenic Ashen Wastes, they finally decide to fill in Phox on their mission, and he accepts what they are doing without question in the way only a new, freshly introduced PC can. Apparently assassination contracts are just another day in the currently undefined everyday life of Phox.
Beltin pulls out the scroll given to him by the Usurer and realizes it is Extended Seeming and informs the party of that... and that it will have some other benefits to help them. The second part was a lie to get Tarl on board and he takes the bait. The party and undead horde are replaced by what appears to be a small demonic army; given how morally bankrupt the party is, it really doesn't make much of a difference overall.
Nothing else in the wastes harasses them as they continue on and by dusk they see the perimeter fence and some structures beyond. They have arrived at their destination. They approach, casting some buffs like Invisibility on BW and Beltin. They see some sort of movement further in... and as they get near they realize how easy it is to spot a column of demons in the middle of a desert. The crusaders spotted them and set up in advance.
Surprise round! They stand up as one and suddenly a Wall of Stone forms a dome over the archers, seemingly cast by the sneering, disinterested old man that they had seen with the paladin. Beltin barely escapes, and then immediately after they see the teenage looking cleric stand up and shout words of encouragement and arrows rain down on the party!
More specifically they focus fire on the two lesser looking demons that are actually Tarl and Phox... Intelligence/Sense Motive check? Yeah, the magical disguise does not appear to be doing its job. The young paladin stands up eagerly and begins to move forward, calling everyone to charge; they do not seem inclined to listen to him.
BW and Beltin made the perception check and realized this was about to happen as it happened; BW parkours over the small fence and tries to move up behind the cleric, but realizes some force stops him. Strangely this spot happens to correspond to within 10 feet of the old man. Huh, that's strange. Beltin gives his commands to the undead and Gurg gets ready to try to smash a whole in the Wall of Stone.
Hes does, but barely, and archers move out and are commanded to fire on the cleric and the old man!... the skeletons don't comprehend it as they see nothing there. Ffffff, thinks Beltin as he realizes that the first level spell Hide from Undead is his only weakness, but at least they can see the crusader archers! Tarl moves up to engage the paladin and battle is joined! Caepio smites the "demon" Tarl!... it fizzles. Yay, he's going to be so effectual here. The chimera and hydra begin to rush forward into the fray.
The old man looks right at the invisible BW with his knife nearly at the young cleric's throat, quickly does some Hold Person work, calls out to the girl to Purge Invisibility, and then lazily flicks his holy symbol in the direction of the chimera and hydra. Flame Striked! The girl hastens to obey and realizes how close BW really was to her.
She steps away and speaks further words of comfort to the archers, one of whom is close enough to 5-ft step up to BW, but in an act of almost incomprehensible generosity and mercy from the DM, decides he doesn't want to coup de grace with a arrow to the eye, but with his mace. And he lacks quick draw. So he pulls it and settles for smacking him in the kneecap, thinking he will just finish it next turn.
Meanwhile, archers shred the two massive and just Flame Striked undead and they barely survive. Gurg and the archers get to eat a Flame Strike from the old man too, obliterating two of Beltin's skeletal archers in holy fire.
Tarl and Caepio continue to duel and it is clear it is not going Caepio's way, especially when Gurg comes to help. BW makes his next save against Hold Person and then moves back to make Caepio's situation worse. As his last act he goes for one more smite... and he smites true. Gurg takes it and goes down like a punk, and then soon after Caepio follows. The mace wielding, would be assassin of BW, charges the hydra and smacks him down to broken bones. The chimera follows suit and falls from concentrated arrow fire.
The fight isn't look good. The undead horde is decimated and the crusaders stand strong. Fortunately, the archers have taken damage and as the party advances they begin to drop and the girl cleric is gravely wounded. The old man calls forth ghouls from nothing and they move in to bolster their ranks, much to the girl's obvious horror. BW then runs up on her, and she tries to blind him but fails!
He then cuts her so deep she wishes he didn't even cut her so deep. With their beacon of hope down, the the old man orders the few remaining crusaders forward, except for one who tries to drag the girl back further in. BW is having none of that and uses his attack of opportunity to stab her in the face to make sure she stays down.
The old man, who had been injured by arrows but appears to be steadily regaining life at a steady pace (Contingency + Greater Infernal Healing), casts a Wind Wall as the man drags back the body of the cleric. And now that he is free from the harassing influence of arrows from Phox and the two remaining skeletal archers, he looks like he is going to make shit real.
Sensing this, Beltin casts a dome of unholy ice over him and the crusader who had pulled the girl's corpse behind their new perimeter. Reflex saves? Yep, both fail. He then orders his screamer to dive through and attack... as it can only see the crusader, he tries to possess him and succeeds. The slow suicide commences inside, but out of party sight, the old man is supremely indifferent to the suffering of his soldier.
So I'm trapped in a sphere of ice, thinks the old man. If only I had some sort of fire... suddenly a column of fire destroys the side of sphere facing away from the party. Yep, looks like he's free... but he waits. Beltin moves up closer and prepares to try to Hold Person him if he sees him come out.
Meanwhile Tarl leaves the clean up of crusaders and laughably ineffective ghouls to BW and Phox and Air Walks over the Wind Wall and lands at the newly created opening of the dome, but as he tries to push in his way is blocked by an intangible bubble of force, almost like Anti-life Shell somehow. The old man considers this young up start for a second and, almost quizzically, flicks his holy symbol out; Hold Person? Spell fails.
With that he seems to resign himself to the tried and true and Flame Strikes the shit out of Tarl. It hurts. A lot. Tarl responds with a Dispel Magic and finally moves on up on the old man; Beltin is able to get close and poke! Finger of Death and he fails! Beltin excitedly rolls for a whopping... mediocre damage. Wah, wah, wahhhhh.
The old man is still up, but as Beltin touched him a black energy ripples from the old man's armor into him. Will save. Failed? Beltin used to have 10 constitution. Key word is used to. That Bestow Curse decided he could do with 6 less. It's pain almost behind reckoning for Beltin; he has never been so fundamentally hurt before.
And it is about to get worse; seeing how he is trapped, the old man decided all or nothing. And Flame Strike! Tarl barely survives, but Beltin is burned to death in holy flames. Finally! Too bad Tarl didn't go down though, especially for the old man. One full attack later and the old man joins Beltin on the ground. The archers and ghouls get finished up without fanfare, and the possessed man finally finishes his protracted suicide.
Assassination mission complete!
Day: 9. Time in Camp: 58 hours. Self-defense kills: 3. Murders: 11. Maimings: 2. "Lawful executions:" 8. Sworn enemies of: at least 4.
The party briefly debates it but decides to use the scroll of resurrection they found in the spitting gargoyle horde on Beltin; he's a pretty cool guy. In another almost staggering display of generosity, the DM allowed it without rolling to see if they still had that scroll; its owner being incinerated in holy fire might have reasonably done some damage to paper after all.
So the party strips the bodies of valuables, but make note to have some of the phat loot defaced before being used, like the girl's highly distinctive mithril armor and shield, as they are just too recognizable and they were never there after all (the paladin's great sword gets slung on Tarl's back with no consideration though).
They also find a scroll on the old man with several spells, including a partially cast Word of Recall; looks like someone could use it to be teleported back to his "sanctum." They consider using it (well mostly Phox argues for it) out of greed, but realize they have no idea where it goes, so it is an absolutely terrible idea.
As they gather their loot and BW steals the girl's Scarab of Protection (score!), he notices she is wearing another necklace besides her holy symbol. He recognizes it as the crest of a prominent Bard's Gate family that is tied heavily to his trade consortium.
>_< = BW's face when realizes he murdered one of his employer's daughters. You know, that might explain why she had all this shiny new gear. At this point he confides in the party and they briefly consider bringing her corpse back and claiming they found it (for a reward of course from her family), paying to raise her and being seen as heroes by her and her family, or maybe asking the Dweller at the Crossroads for a favor... they don't really consider the last one.
In the end, they decide the best thing to do is burn the body beyond recognition and leave it in the Desolation, just like they had originally planned. Glad that's settled! While they were discussing this, Phox was busy putting enemy heads on the fence spikes. He is told to stop doing that and they burn those too. Out of sight, out of mind.
They head further into the cemetery and find tents setup around a fountain of a peaceful looking angelic figure, right about in the middle of the whole place. But they notice that they don't feel tranquil. Not at all. It's like something in the area has set its will against them, like some spirit here dislikes demons (or people disguised as them) carrying out massacres and then defiling the bodies. Who would have thought? BW drinks from the fountain and finds it safe, and then they tear through the tents for more valuables.
Besides random gold and bits, Beltin finds a letter from one of the archers to his young daughter, telling her how daddy will be home soon, but that he's fighting to make the world safer for her and he loves her with all his heart. Beltin quietly burns this letter, lest Tarl see it. BW finds a crayon picture in another tent showing a small child being hugged by a man and a woman, with the man in armor and holding a gleaming sword in the air; the caption reads, "Love You Daddy!!!" He decides to keep this as a souvenir of a successful contract. Sick bastard.
TO BE CONTINUED...
