The Devil Made Me Do It
Oct. 16th, 2012 12:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eveglassHuzzah! The Devil of Pride is... dead? Maybe! Beheaded, certainly. But you never know with devils. They always seem to have a way of coming back.
[As you may recall, we ended last session with the depressing knowledge that we've been inadvertently helping Narrask all along. Now the question is, what to do about it?]
Sabina: I thought we ended last session with a plan."
Eric: "That doesn't sound like us."
[Our Heroes (tm) decide to investigate Narrask's room. Sadly, they still have their town guard 'escort.']
Eric: (deadpan) "Oh, no. We'll have to find a way to distract the guardsmen who are watching Gorka'munda."
[One problem: no one really knows where Narrask's rooms are.]
Eric: "So what's our next step? Break into his house?"
[Illaren the servant knows where Narrask's rooms are, but Jace can't find him, and nobody's seen him in hours. What we need is a clue!]
Eric/Ionas: "So where do yo usually put assassinated bodies in this place?"
[Yes, really, in an attempt to find Narrask's room, Ionas casts divination magic in the hope that his god, Eliath, will guide his footsteps.]
Robert the GM: "You were never really sure what a bored god sounded like until now."
[The guards at Narrask's room want to know why Our Heroes (tm) wish to enter. Ionas tries to tell them, without lying.]
Ionas: "We wanted to see the rooms of some of the important people. Someone gave us these directions."
Guard: "Oh? Who's that?"
Ionas: "..."
[Having completely failed to gain access to Narrask's rooms, the PCs go to the under-construction Temple of Mythcarast. There, in an underground chamber, they find six apparatuses, one of which contains a ring. Jace senses the ring as an outsider. Ionas senses it as evil.]
Eric: "I dispel magic on the ring."
Adam: "...Please don't do that."
[Instead of dispelling magic, Ionas takes the ring to the Temple of Eliath. At which point, the party tries to figure out what to do next, which mostly involves Baska and Jace butting heads.]
Eric: "It's funny how 'egalitarian' is sometimes a synonym for 'confused.'"
[Next step: go to the temporary temple of Mythcarast. Jace senses a humanoid and six outsiders in an underground chamber. Sadly, as we approach, they disappear, leaving us to discover an empty room with some mundane items like blankets.]
Dan: "Don't we have someone who can dispel illusions with touch?"
Ionas: "I'm not touching the blankets."
[In the corner of the room are some loose floor-boards. Sadly, investigating them unleashes a magical steam-trap. Jace dispels it while Gorka'munda screams.]
Jace: "You scared the floor into submission."
[Below the floor-boards is an altar-chamber with a summoning circle and one more apparatus. Robert the GM realizes he never precisely described what the apparatuses looked like.]
Andrew: "It's like a coat rack!"
Robert the GM: "Yes. It's like a coat-rack to keep your summoned devils."
[We try to explain to Gorka'munda how the devils can still be active. He's not getting it.]
Gorka'munda: "Gorka'munda sure they're dead! Gorka'munda ate one!"
[Meanwhile, Dan is upstairs keeping watch. He notices two men fighting, knocks one out and heals him, and then turns to the other.]
Fighter: "I don't need your help!"
Dan: "If you don't let me heal you, I'm gonna knock you out, then heal you."
Julie: "You have a very weird sense of ethics."
[Dan knocks out the other fighter and ties the two together with their belts. Investigating further, he finds a nearby tavern where people are consuming lots of food and drink, even though it's barely 6:30. One might even say they're... gluttonous.]
Shawn: "Well, it's time for Dan to knock an entire tavern of people unconscious. I hope they have a lot of belts."
[We return to the palace. On the way, it seems like the effect of the devils is getting worse.]
Robert the GM: "The door is locked."
Andrew: "I bash it in."
Shawn: "We use the key."
Adam: "Did we see a secret servant's entrance before?"
Julie: "Hello, I'm a princess! I can make them open it!"
[Things you never want to hear your GM say.]
Robert the GM: "Does anyone happen to know how tall a huge-size creature is?"
Julie: "...I'll avoid asking why you want to know that."
[There's only one real place the devil can be hiding.]
Gorka'munda: "We burst into the throne room!"
Dan: "No one said 'burst,' Gorka'munda."
Gorka'munda: "...Gorka'munda confused."
Dan: "Try doing the opposite of burst."
Andrew: "I contemplate Dan's wise words: if a door doesn't burst, what does it do?"
[The guard in front of the throne room is pretty slothful. Baska takes his keys and opens the door.]
Robert the GM: "He doesn't resist."
Julie: "I know. If he was going to resist, he would have opened the door for me."
[We enter the throne room to find the crown prince and his wife sitting on the royal thrones, very pridefully.]
Julie: "Now the question is, do I address him as Your Majesty or Your Highness?"
[Using their various detection magics, the party discovers Narrask hovering, invisible, in the upper corner of the room, and Baerlyn the Elf, his compatriot, near the thrones. Jace takes Baerlyn's devil-containing ring, then casts 'hold person' on him. The rest of the party shifts their focus to Narrask, but something has to be done about his companion.]
Julie: "Baska has no interest in killing the elf. Making sure his hands don't work, on the other hand..."
Eric: "'The Bible is fuzzier on the topic of kneecaps'?"
Julie: "Precisely."
[Baska plans to stab the elf's hands rather than killing him.]
Shawn: "Don't slice his wrists -- just break his fingers. He can't scream yet."
Andrew: "That's... chillingly logical."
[Things you don't hear from your fellow players nearly enough.]
Andrew: "Can I leaping-assault the floor?"
[Narrask activates a magic item to turn incorporeal and ethereal. Sadly, this means that the initiative order goes by fairly quickly.]
Julie: "Dan's turn."
Shawn: "...I have nothing to punch."
[Jace manages to cast a dispel magic on Narrask, just as he's next to the thrones. Gorka'munda, who had leapt down to a lower level, decides to rejoin the fight in the most efficient way possible.]
Adam: "Why do all our fights end with Gorka'munda jumping through ceilings?"
[Gorka'munda leaps up through the floor and grapples Narrask.]
Gorka'munda: "I got him! Hit him!"
Sabina: "I swing my ax."
Adam: "Is anyone else picturing a horrible accident?"
[Ionas and Jace reduce Narrask to 0 dexterity. Andrew takes advantage of the opportunity to do something he's always wanted to do.]
Andrew: "Is it really my turn? I have a helpless, grappled boss guy in my arms? I eat his head!"
Eric: "It's just a shame he doesn't have 'swallow whole.'"
[Robert the GM is mildly dumbfounded.]
Gorka'munda: "What? He's dead!"
Robert the GM: "I can't believe that's how that fight ended."
[Meanwhile, the guards protecting the crown prince and his wife have just witnessed Gorka'munda chomping the head off of a member of the royal court.]
Eric: "We need the rules for horror checks."
[Denouement.]
Andrew: "I spit up a cheek bone."
Eric: "There's a proud history of using those as weapons."
But wait! The game isn't over yet! Next step: take the devil-imbued artifacts to the Temple of Eliath and find out if we need to fight them all over again! Yay!
[As you may recall, we ended last session with the depressing knowledge that we've been inadvertently helping Narrask all along. Now the question is, what to do about it?]
Sabina: I thought we ended last session with a plan."
Eric: "That doesn't sound like us."
[Our Heroes (tm) decide to investigate Narrask's room. Sadly, they still have their town guard 'escort.']
Eric: (deadpan) "Oh, no. We'll have to find a way to distract the guardsmen who are watching Gorka'munda."
[One problem: no one really knows where Narrask's rooms are.]
Eric: "So what's our next step? Break into his house?"
[Illaren the servant knows where Narrask's rooms are, but Jace can't find him, and nobody's seen him in hours. What we need is a clue!]
Eric/Ionas: "So where do yo usually put assassinated bodies in this place?"
[Yes, really, in an attempt to find Narrask's room, Ionas casts divination magic in the hope that his god, Eliath, will guide his footsteps.]
Robert the GM: "You were never really sure what a bored god sounded like until now."
[The guards at Narrask's room want to know why Our Heroes (tm) wish to enter. Ionas tries to tell them, without lying.]
Ionas: "We wanted to see the rooms of some of the important people. Someone gave us these directions."
Guard: "Oh? Who's that?"
Ionas: "..."
[Having completely failed to gain access to Narrask's rooms, the PCs go to the under-construction Temple of Mythcarast. There, in an underground chamber, they find six apparatuses, one of which contains a ring. Jace senses the ring as an outsider. Ionas senses it as evil.]
Eric: "I dispel magic on the ring."
Adam: "...Please don't do that."
[Instead of dispelling magic, Ionas takes the ring to the Temple of Eliath. At which point, the party tries to figure out what to do next, which mostly involves Baska and Jace butting heads.]
Eric: "It's funny how 'egalitarian' is sometimes a synonym for 'confused.'"
[Next step: go to the temporary temple of Mythcarast. Jace senses a humanoid and six outsiders in an underground chamber. Sadly, as we approach, they disappear, leaving us to discover an empty room with some mundane items like blankets.]
Dan: "Don't we have someone who can dispel illusions with touch?"
Ionas: "I'm not touching the blankets."
[In the corner of the room are some loose floor-boards. Sadly, investigating them unleashes a magical steam-trap. Jace dispels it while Gorka'munda screams.]
Jace: "You scared the floor into submission."
[Below the floor-boards is an altar-chamber with a summoning circle and one more apparatus. Robert the GM realizes he never precisely described what the apparatuses looked like.]
Andrew: "It's like a coat rack!"
Robert the GM: "Yes. It's like a coat-rack to keep your summoned devils."
[We try to explain to Gorka'munda how the devils can still be active. He's not getting it.]
Gorka'munda: "Gorka'munda sure they're dead! Gorka'munda ate one!"
[Meanwhile, Dan is upstairs keeping watch. He notices two men fighting, knocks one out and heals him, and then turns to the other.]
Fighter: "I don't need your help!"
Dan: "If you don't let me heal you, I'm gonna knock you out, then heal you."
Julie: "You have a very weird sense of ethics."
[Dan knocks out the other fighter and ties the two together with their belts. Investigating further, he finds a nearby tavern where people are consuming lots of food and drink, even though it's barely 6:30. One might even say they're... gluttonous.]
Shawn: "Well, it's time for Dan to knock an entire tavern of people unconscious. I hope they have a lot of belts."
[We return to the palace. On the way, it seems like the effect of the devils is getting worse.]
Robert the GM: "The door is locked."
Andrew: "I bash it in."
Shawn: "We use the key."
Adam: "Did we see a secret servant's entrance before?"
Julie: "Hello, I'm a princess! I can make them open it!"
[Things you never want to hear your GM say.]
Robert the GM: "Does anyone happen to know how tall a huge-size creature is?"
Julie: "...I'll avoid asking why you want to know that."
[There's only one real place the devil can be hiding.]
Gorka'munda: "We burst into the throne room!"
Dan: "No one said 'burst,' Gorka'munda."
Gorka'munda: "...Gorka'munda confused."
Dan: "Try doing the opposite of burst."
Andrew: "I contemplate Dan's wise words: if a door doesn't burst, what does it do?"
[The guard in front of the throne room is pretty slothful. Baska takes his keys and opens the door.]
Robert the GM: "He doesn't resist."
Julie: "I know. If he was going to resist, he would have opened the door for me."
[We enter the throne room to find the crown prince and his wife sitting on the royal thrones, very pridefully.]
Julie: "Now the question is, do I address him as Your Majesty or Your Highness?"
[Using their various detection magics, the party discovers Narrask hovering, invisible, in the upper corner of the room, and Baerlyn the Elf, his compatriot, near the thrones. Jace takes Baerlyn's devil-containing ring, then casts 'hold person' on him. The rest of the party shifts their focus to Narrask, but something has to be done about his companion.]
Julie: "Baska has no interest in killing the elf. Making sure his hands don't work, on the other hand..."
Eric: "'The Bible is fuzzier on the topic of kneecaps'?"
Julie: "Precisely."
[Baska plans to stab the elf's hands rather than killing him.]
Shawn: "Don't slice his wrists -- just break his fingers. He can't scream yet."
Andrew: "That's... chillingly logical."
[Things you don't hear from your fellow players nearly enough.]
Andrew: "Can I leaping-assault the floor?"
[Narrask activates a magic item to turn incorporeal and ethereal. Sadly, this means that the initiative order goes by fairly quickly.]
Julie: "Dan's turn."
Shawn: "...I have nothing to punch."
[Jace manages to cast a dispel magic on Narrask, just as he's next to the thrones. Gorka'munda, who had leapt down to a lower level, decides to rejoin the fight in the most efficient way possible.]
Adam: "Why do all our fights end with Gorka'munda jumping through ceilings?"
[Gorka'munda leaps up through the floor and grapples Narrask.]
Gorka'munda: "I got him! Hit him!"
Sabina: "I swing my ax."
Adam: "Is anyone else picturing a horrible accident?"
[Ionas and Jace reduce Narrask to 0 dexterity. Andrew takes advantage of the opportunity to do something he's always wanted to do.]
Andrew: "Is it really my turn? I have a helpless, grappled boss guy in my arms? I eat his head!"
Eric: "It's just a shame he doesn't have 'swallow whole.'"
[Robert the GM is mildly dumbfounded.]
Gorka'munda: "What? He's dead!"
Robert the GM: "I can't believe that's how that fight ended."
[Meanwhile, the guards protecting the crown prince and his wife have just witnessed Gorka'munda chomping the head off of a member of the royal court.]
Eric: "We need the rules for horror checks."
[Denouement.]
Andrew: "I spit up a cheek bone."
Eric: "There's a proud history of using those as weapons."
But wait! The game isn't over yet! Next step: take the devil-imbued artifacts to the Temple of Eliath and find out if we need to fight them all over again! Yay!
