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Erkonin (Campaign #2) [Session 45: Rajalmin's Agent]
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<blockquote data-quote="prabe" data-source="post: 8271103" data-attributes="member: 7016699"><p>Session 42: Brush Bend Saved! Barely!</p><p></p><p>Dramatis Personae:</p><p>Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid (Circle of Stars)</p><p>Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest)</p><p>Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul)</p><p>Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster)</p><p>Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin</p><p></p><p>GM - Everyone Else</p><p></p><p></p><p>13 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 164)(immediately after)</p><p></p><p>We began this session in the same pickle that we’d ended the previous session. Vinya and Aldalomiel were both grappled and restrained by Chain Devils and pretty badly hurt. The villagers of Brush Bend were held prisoner -- the last Aldalomiel and Vinya had seen them, they were chained and cowering in a couple of buildings near where they were restrained by the Chain Devils. Elama was in melee with a Barbed Devil and badly hurt. Three other Barbed Devils were throwing globs of fire at Elama, Elderron, and Marxine from the darkness, where they couldn’t be targeted with return fire. The lowest stress part of the combat was Marxine standing between two Bearded Devils, one of which had been slowed by the Rod of Litrices, and Elderron.</p><p></p><p>Aldalomiel took some damage from the spiked chains that were restraining her. She cast cure wounds on herself, getting herself back up to half hit points, then fired a radiant bolt at the chain devil restraining her.</p><p></p><p>At the other side of town, Marxine stood between Elderron and two Bearded Devils.</p><p></p><p>Marxine: If I stop being your cover, you’ll be okay?</p><p>Elderron: Yeah. I want to get you moving into the town.</p><p></p><p>Marxine then took advantage of being hasted and ran to attack the Barbed Devil on Elama three times. She hit twice -- including a crit that didn’t do as much damage as one would hope. Elama cast cure wounds on herself. Then she made an attack with the scimitar of speed and got a hit.</p><p></p><p>The Chain Devils up near the prison buildings, tightened their grips on Aldalomiel and Vinya and swung additional barbed chains at them. Each of them was hit once, Aldalomiel worse than Vinya.</p><p></p><p>Vinya managed to wriggle out of the grappling chains, taking damage on the way. She circled around the devil so she could get closer to where Aldalomiel was dealing with her own devil with the thought that they were stronger together. Then she did patient defense, in hopes of not immediately getting grappled and restrained again.</p><p></p><p>The Barbed Devil in melee attacked Marxine, which was good news for the good guys, and attempted to commit mayhem on her. It totally failed at that, but unfortunately it was not slowed by the Rod of Litrices. The other three Barbed Devils threw fire wads at Elderron -- two of them broke the last two mirror images. Elderron cast shield to protect himself from the attacks of the last one. The shield blocked one shot but one got through and did a small amount of damage.</p><p></p><p>Elderron attacked the Bearded Devils that Marxine had left him with -- casting a radiant damage scorching ray with two of the rays going to the devil that wasn’t slowed, one of which hit, and one on the devil that was slowed, which was a critical hit that did a nice amount of damage.</p><p></p><p>In response, the Bearded Devils attacked Elderron, in the absence of other targets. Both of them missed him entirely.</p><p></p><p>Aldalomiel was injured by the sharp chains wrapped around her as she tried to wriggle her way free. Unfortunately, she was not able to get herself free. She was able to cast healing word on herself and get back some of the strength she’d lost.</p><p></p><p>Marxine down at the other side of town was facing a Barbed Devil that was barely hanging on. Unfortunately it took her two hits to drop it. She then ran toward the cluster of Barbed Devils that had been throwing fire and got an attack, because of the haste spell, on one of those. That was going to stop them shooting out of the darkness.</p><p></p><p>Elama upcast shatter, increasing the power and damage to the absolute max so that it caught the three Barbed Devils, but not Marxine. Then she moved up next to Marxine and took a swing with her scimitar, which missed.</p><p></p><p>The Chain Devil outside the prison building swung chains and Vinya but she was able to dodge out of the way of them. Unfortunately, inside the building, the chains wrapped around Aldalomiel tightened and slashed at her and she was dropped.</p><p></p><p>Vinya, shouting in hopes the rest of the party could hear her: naughty word!! Aldalomiel’s down!</p><p></p><p>Vinya then fired two sunbolts at the Chain Devil on her, hitting once. She then moved closer to it, so she was right up in its face, and punched it in hopes of stunning it. Unfortunately, the attempt to stun didn’t succeed.</p><p></p><p>Two of the Barbed Devils tried to hit Marxine -- both of them missed but were not slowed by the Rod. One took three swings at Lamie -- she kept one of them from being a crit with the bulette shield but the collective total was a lot of damage. She was able to maintain her concentration on the Shield of Faith spell.</p><p></p><p>Elderron cast magic missile on the two Bearded Devils -- one of them was left barely standing at all, hanging on by a thread. The other one was also hurt, but not as badly.</p><p></p><p>Elderron: I’m almost out of spells</p><p></p><p>(Note: He was down to two third level spell slots.)</p><p></p><p>One of the Bearded Devils attacking Elderron missed both times. The other one missed with its glaive, but hit with its beard, which does piercing damage. (That’s a really rough beard.) Fortunately, Elderron managed to resist the effects of the poison the Bearded Devil had injected him with.</p><p></p><p>Aldalomiel bled and choked (and failed a death save).</p><p></p><p>Marxine noted with some dismay that none of the Barbed Devils looked especially hurt, and certainly none looked more hurt than the others. So she attacked the same one she’d attacked with her previous attack. She got two hits then she surged with energy and made three more attacks, all three of which hit. That was five hits on six attacks, two for minimum damage and three for maximum damage. After Marxine’s impressive display, that one was looking much worse for the wear.</p><p></p><p>Elama, standing near Marxine, cast cure wounds on herself, then she attacked with the scimitar of speed, though not at the same one Marxine had attacked. She did a nice lot of damage to it.</p><p></p><p>The Chain Devil that Vinya had been fighting outside the building missed her twice. The one that dropped Aldalomiel stepped outside the door and attacked Vinya. Unfortunately, it hit twice and damaged her badly.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, it was also badly damaged, so Vinya fired four sunbolts at it. That dropped it. She moved a little closer to where Aldalomiel was on the ground, though she didn’t have a lot of options on how to help her.</p><p></p><p>Two of the Barbed Devils attacked Marxine -- they both missed. The other one attacked Elama and got one hit. Fortunately it didn’t hit hard and she was able to keep her shield of faith up.</p><p></p><p>Elderron, running low on spell power and wanting to save his last two spells for attempts to dispel the portal in the lava well, drew his short sword and attacked the very badly hurt beard devil. However, he hadn’t used his sword in quite a while and his strike wasn’t true at all.</p><p></p><p>In response, the Bearded Devils attacked Elderron. One of them hit with its glaive and they both hit with their beards. He resisted the poison again and wasn’t dropped by the attacks.</p><p></p><p>Out of the corner of her eye, Vinya saw someone approaching Aldalomiel, who was bleeding heavily on the ground. One of the halflings had wriggled out of her chains, which were loosening a bit with the chain devil’s attention on Vinya and Aldalomiel. She had a bottle in her hands, which she poured into Aldalomiel’s mouth. Before Vinya could react or say anything, Aldalomiel took a deep breath and coughed and looked around wildly.</p><p></p><p>Aldalomiel: Thank you.</p><p>Halfling: [made shooing motions toward her without saying a word]</p><p></p><p>Aldalomiel looked around and saw the Chain Devil that held Vinya outside the window that Vinya had opened slightly. She took advantage of the fact that it didn’t know she was there and shot two arrows through the window, missing once then hitting She changed to her starry archer form and shot a radiant bolt at it but that missed because it had figured out from the first two shots that there was a threat inside the window.</p><p></p><p>Marxine attacked one of the remaining Barbed Devils, missing twice but getting a critical hit with the attack granted her by the haste spell. Unfortunately, though she did quite a bit of damage, she didn’t quite drop it. Then she ran between them and past them toward where she could hear Vinya fighting. And where she believed Aldalomiel to be bleeding out. All of the Barbed Devils missed with their opportunity attacks and one of them was left slowed by the Rod of Litrices. She ran up the village street to get as close as she possibly could to Vinya and the door of the building.</p><p></p><p>Elama cast a shatter spell on all of the Barbed Devils and channeled divinity again to do maximum damage. That dropped the one that Marxine had pounding on. Then she attacked with her scimitar on another one, getting a hit.</p><p></p><p>The Chain Devil that held Vinya hit her with one of its swinging chains, dropping her.</p><p></p><p>Fortunately, when she hit the ground she was jolted back awake (immediately rolled a Nat20 on a death save). She spent a ki point and did a step of the wind, disengaging from the Chain Devil and running next to Marxine. Then she pulled a healing potion out of her bag of holding and drank it.</p><p></p><p>One of the two remaining Barbed Devils was slowed by the Rod -- it attacked Elama with its tail and missed. The other one missed with all of its attacks.</p><p></p><p>Elderron cast a magic missile with one of his two remaining spell slots to drop the two Bearded Devils that were both in really bad shape. Having dropped them both, he then moved toward where he’d seen Marxine and Elama disappear into the darkness. He got to a point where he could see Lamie fighting two Barbed Devils.</p><p></p><p>Aldalomiel moved away from the window and out of the building to a position of some cover from a building across the way (and at a good distance). She took two shots with her bow. One missed wildly but the other one got it in the eye and dropped it.</p><p></p><p>The haste spell on Marxine ended and she leaned forward with her hands on her knees and breathed deeply for several seconds.</p><p></p><p>Marxine, to Vinya: Go help Elama.</p><p>Vinya (with 8 hp): Yeah. On it.</p><p></p><p>Elama attacked the one that hadn’t been slowed by the rod with her scimitar. Then she struck the ground with her scimitar and cast Thunderwave. There was a loud crack of thunder and a shockwave that hit both of the Barbed Devils. Neither of them were pushed away from her, but they did appear to have taken damage.</p><p></p><p>Vinya ran down in that direction then shooting four sunbolts at the more damaged of the two remaining Barbed Devils. Three of them hit and did a fair amount of damage. Then she took some cover around the corner of one of the buildings.</p><p></p><p>The Barbed Devils focused their attacks on Elama, but they missed entirely.</p><p></p><p>Elderron moved up and cast Toll the Dead on the more badly hurt of the Barbed Devils, but it saved.</p><p></p><p>Aldalomiel moved down the street to a position where she could see Elama and the two Barbed Devils, then she fired a radiant bolt at one of them. It missed. Her two arrows hit more true -- one of them dropped the one that Vinya had fired radiant bolts at. The other one was a critical hit on the remaining one.</p><p></p><p>Once Marxine got her breath back, she looked around and saw that one barbed devil was all that remained of the danger.</p><p></p><p>Marxine went into the building that Aldalomiel had been in. There were ten or twelve halflings in there. Some of them had worked their way free of the chains, once the Chain Devils were no longer paying attention. They noticed that Marxine is a dwarf (not that that’s hard to spot) and the holy symbol painted on her shield.</p><p></p><p>Marxine: Are there more of you?</p><p>Halfling: I think there are more. Most of us ran when this happened. They rounded up some of us, but there weren’t enough of them to get all of us. So some are out in the desert, probably somewhere safe.</p><p>Marxine: Were there any other devils?</p><p>Halfling: There were only two with chains.</p><p>Marxine: I’m going to go back outside and wait for a signal from my friends that it’s all clear. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out.</p><p></p><p>She then went back out to the street.</p><p></p><p>Elama attacked the last one with her sword, hitting once, but didn’t drop it. Vinya stepped out from around the corner of the building, and used her last ki energy to fire four sunbolts at it, dropping it with the last one. She ran back up the road to Marxine.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: The last one is down.</p><p>Marxine: I think there were only the two Chain Devils.</p><p>Vinya: Oh good.</p><p></p><p>Vinya immediately sat down on the ground in the middle of the road.</p><p></p><p>Elama and Elderron walked together toward the lava well portal to make sure nothing else would be coming through. When they walked past Vinya, she stood up and began to follow them. When Vinya stood up, Marxine patted her on the back, laying hands on her and healing some of her damage.</p><p></p><p>Marxine: Good job.</p><p></p><p>Marxine went with the halflings to open doors and explore the intact buildings remaining in the town, making sure there weren’t more devils around. Elama, Elderron and Vinya checked out the lava portal, with Aldalomiel watching our backs with her bow at the ready. On the way there, Vinya used the geode of living energy to give herself some ki back.</p><p></p><p>At the portal, we saw writing, scribed in glowing red lava, in Infernal. Vinya pulled the helmet of comprehend languages out of the bag of holding and offered it to the others, but no one took it, so she put it on herself. The writing was a series of threats and grandiose claims, including some mentions of Rajalmin and his works. There was a passage that said that with the gate he claimed ownership of the town of Brush Bend. There was also language that placed him in a Hellish hierarchy. It was even a pretty plausible one -- not entirely grandiose. It said that he was in the service of Kaztrioch, a paeliryon (a type of greater devil that specializes in the gathering of information) in the service of Lovitosud, a pit fiend, in the service of Dispater, Lord of the Second.</p><p></p><p>Elama: Do we have to dispel this with magic or can we smash it?</p><p></p><p>Elderron was still intent on attempting to understand both the writing and the magic on the lava portal. He knew that Dispater is the lord of the second layer of Hell, known as Dis. It looked to him as though a targeted dispel magic would disable the portal. It also seemed plausible to him that it could just be smashed physically.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: Will breaking the portal break Rajalmin’s claim on the town? Or was the portal placing the initial flag in the ground, but his claim persists after the flag was planted.</p><p></p><p>Elderron believed that Rajalmin’s claim was to some extent grandiosity. He also felt that creating the gate had probably taken a lot of energy and resources on his part. He was pretty comfortable with the idea that the claim on the town would not survive disabling the portal.</p><p></p><p>We talked about having Marxine just smash it with her hammer of unmaking, but Elderron really wanted to try to dispel it and had saved a spell slot just for that purpose. When he cast the spell, there was a moment of pause, then the red glow in the infernal letters faded. But the physical structure remained. The gate was disabled.</p><p></p><p>Elderron continued to study it, while the rest of us waited for the right moment to smash it, but that moment didn’t come while it was still dark, because he wanted to look at it in the daylight.</p><p></p><p>So he made a tiny hut while the rest of us checked in on the halflings. Marxine asked them if they wanted to have a celebration that night -- but they weren’t in a celebratory mood yet. They were able to find a place for our horses.</p><p></p><p>We took a long and uneventful rest in the tiny hut.</p><p></p><p></p><p>14 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 165)</p><p></p><p>In the morning, Elderron and Vinya together studied the portal. After a bit, Vinya gave Elderron the helmet of comprehend languages to wear to help him understand what he was seeing, and went to talk to the villagers.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: What exactly happened here?</p><p>The halfling who’d saved Aldalomiel: This caught us by surprise. We were having a wedding.</p><p>Vinya: Was one of the people involved in the wedding a descendant of Sarik Whitesand who lived a couple of hundred years ago?</p><p>Halfling: Not directly. A grand-niece maybe. Sarik left to go adventuring and never returned. I really don’t know much about her.</p><p></p><p>Later, Vinya found Elama.</p><p></p><p>Vinya: You might want to send a message to Lt. Linnolim to let him know that we’re out of town but will be returning as soon as we possibly can.</p><p></p><p>Elama did so.</p><p></p><p>Elama, to Linnolim through the spell: We’re in Brush Bend. We’ll be heading back to Dhaqi presently.</p><p>Linnolim, through the spell: Well, stop by when you come back if you want to keep working as temp guards.</p><p></p><p>Vinya asked one of the villagers, the one who’d poured the potion into Aldalomiel, if there was anyone in Brush Bend or Elthir who could teleport us back to Dhaqi.</p><p></p><p>Halfling: Maybe the Shining Silver Tetrahedron can have someone come get you. They don’t like to do that because it takes two spells from that person. So it’s very, very expensive. Your best bet is to go by boat.</p><p>Vinya: Is there a road that parallels the canal we could travel along?</p><p>Halfling: There are some roads. But there isn’t a contiguous road from here to Dhaqi. Your better bet is catching a canal boat.</p><p>Elama: Will a boat be able to take our horses? I’ve gotten attached to Nibbles.</p><p>Halfling: Maybe not the first one that comes by, but certainly some of them do.</p><p>Vinya: So we just wait here and catch a boat?</p><p>Halfling: Yeah. That’s about what happens. Usually there’s one every few days.</p><p>Vinya: Perfect.</p><p>Halfling: There’s an inn with beds that will fit you. You’re welcome to stay there.</p><p>Vinya: Thank you!</p><p>Halfling: You saved our town. It’s the least we can do.</p><p>Vinya: We couldn’t not. Once we knew you needed help.</p><p>Elama: And we can help with whatever you need as far as rebuilding.</p><p>Vinya: We can also help find the people from the village who scattered out into the desert.</p><p>Halfling: Once the smoke and the glow from that [wave in direction of where the cold remains of the portal still stood] stop, they’ll come back.</p><p></p><p>Elderron, still studying the portal, took down the names of those who Rajalmin answers to, up to Dispater. He also got an idea of how the creation of this gate was pulled off -- though that creation is way beyond Elderron’s power. He also learned that Rajalmin is not a normal rakshasa -- he’s more powerful in some way, but it’s not clear how. He isn’t exactly fully invested in the hierarchy of the Hells--which is a feudal-ish conglomeration of debts and promises and responsibilities--and is apparently working as something of a free agent for Kastrioch (and eventually for Dispater).</p><p></p><p>Elderron: The rock of this portal is not of this world. And it’s not elemental fire or elemental earth. This is stuff that broke through from the Hells.</p><p>Vinya: So it’s Hell rock? It’s got to go!</p><p></p><p>Once Elderron had all the information he felt he could get from the portal, Marxine encouraged the people of Brush Bend to help smash the portal, so it wasn’t just us coming in from outside as rescuers and smashing it.</p><p></p><p>Marxine explained to us that she wanted to leave the villagers feeling empowered and capable of taking care of each other and their town.</p><p></p><p>The villagers got on board with Marxine’s plan and helped with the destruction of the gate.</p><p></p><p>Aldalomiel talked to the halfling who’d saved her.</p><p></p><p>Aldalomiel: I insist on repaying you for the potion you gave me. That was a major item for the village.</p><p>Halfling, the Mayor of the village, walking with her around the village: That building still stands. And that one. And that one. Our village is worth far more than a potion.</p><p>Aldalomiel: [nodding]</p><p>Mayor, ending their walk at the rubble of the gate: A couple of our people have died. If you want to repay us, find the one who built that and kill it. But take your time. We don’t want you to die trying.</p><p></p><p></p><p>15-17 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 166-168)</p><p></p><p>We spent the next few days while we were waiting for the boat following Marxine’s lead as far as helping to provide opportunities for the villagers to build their sense of being able to care for and support each other. It was important to Marxine, and all of us, that we left the town feeling empowered rather than victimized.</p><p></p><p>We also did some martial training -- Vinya doing some very basic martial arts training, Aldalomiel doing some archery practice and lessons, etc. Our lessons worked pretty well -- some of the younger people of the village said they might want to go out adventuring like us, and then return to the village with more ability to defend it.</p><p></p><p>The villagers turned out to be pretty good at fending off native threats -- wild animals and bandits -- but a lot of devils was out of their league.</p><p></p><p>These days passed as a community-building montage.</p><p></p><p></p><p>18 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 169)(immediately after)</p><p></p><p>In the morning, a barge arrived on the canal with enough room for us and our horses. The captain agreed that we could let the horses walk alongside the oxen that towed the barge to get exercise.</p><p></p><p>The captain explained to us that the canal is largely at sea-level. There are drawbridges across it along the way, so we’ll have to be aware of that sort of thing.</p><p></p><p>We ended as we loaded up our horses and stuff and prepared to leave Brush Bend on a barge called The iv-Nulis.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="prabe, post: 8271103, member: 7016699"] Session 42: Brush Bend Saved! Barely! Dramatis Personae: Aldalómiel - Wood Elf Ranger (Hunter Conclave)/Druid (Circle of Stars) Elama “Lamie” Galanodel- Wood Elf Cleric (Tempest) Vinya Anar - Wood Elf Monk (Way of the Sun Soul) Elderon - High Elf Wizard (Loremaster) Marxine - Mountain Dwarf Fighter (Champion)/Paladin GM - Everyone Else 13 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 164)(immediately after) We began this session in the same pickle that we’d ended the previous session. Vinya and Aldalomiel were both grappled and restrained by Chain Devils and pretty badly hurt. The villagers of Brush Bend were held prisoner -- the last Aldalomiel and Vinya had seen them, they were chained and cowering in a couple of buildings near where they were restrained by the Chain Devils. Elama was in melee with a Barbed Devil and badly hurt. Three other Barbed Devils were throwing globs of fire at Elama, Elderron, and Marxine from the darkness, where they couldn’t be targeted with return fire. The lowest stress part of the combat was Marxine standing between two Bearded Devils, one of which had been slowed by the Rod of Litrices, and Elderron. Aldalomiel took some damage from the spiked chains that were restraining her. She cast cure wounds on herself, getting herself back up to half hit points, then fired a radiant bolt at the chain devil restraining her. At the other side of town, Marxine stood between Elderron and two Bearded Devils. Marxine: If I stop being your cover, you’ll be okay? Elderron: Yeah. I want to get you moving into the town. Marxine then took advantage of being hasted and ran to attack the Barbed Devil on Elama three times. She hit twice -- including a crit that didn’t do as much damage as one would hope. Elama cast cure wounds on herself. Then she made an attack with the scimitar of speed and got a hit. The Chain Devils up near the prison buildings, tightened their grips on Aldalomiel and Vinya and swung additional barbed chains at them. Each of them was hit once, Aldalomiel worse than Vinya. Vinya managed to wriggle out of the grappling chains, taking damage on the way. She circled around the devil so she could get closer to where Aldalomiel was dealing with her own devil with the thought that they were stronger together. Then she did patient defense, in hopes of not immediately getting grappled and restrained again. The Barbed Devil in melee attacked Marxine, which was good news for the good guys, and attempted to commit mayhem on her. It totally failed at that, but unfortunately it was not slowed by the Rod of Litrices. The other three Barbed Devils threw fire wads at Elderron -- two of them broke the last two mirror images. Elderron cast shield to protect himself from the attacks of the last one. The shield blocked one shot but one got through and did a small amount of damage. Elderron attacked the Bearded Devils that Marxine had left him with -- casting a radiant damage scorching ray with two of the rays going to the devil that wasn’t slowed, one of which hit, and one on the devil that was slowed, which was a critical hit that did a nice amount of damage. In response, the Bearded Devils attacked Elderron, in the absence of other targets. Both of them missed him entirely. Aldalomiel was injured by the sharp chains wrapped around her as she tried to wriggle her way free. Unfortunately, she was not able to get herself free. She was able to cast healing word on herself and get back some of the strength she’d lost. Marxine down at the other side of town was facing a Barbed Devil that was barely hanging on. Unfortunately it took her two hits to drop it. She then ran toward the cluster of Barbed Devils that had been throwing fire and got an attack, because of the haste spell, on one of those. That was going to stop them shooting out of the darkness. Elama upcast shatter, increasing the power and damage to the absolute max so that it caught the three Barbed Devils, but not Marxine. Then she moved up next to Marxine and took a swing with her scimitar, which missed. The Chain Devil outside the prison building swung chains and Vinya but she was able to dodge out of the way of them. Unfortunately, inside the building, the chains wrapped around Aldalomiel tightened and slashed at her and she was dropped. Vinya, shouting in hopes the rest of the party could hear her: naughty word!! Aldalomiel’s down! Vinya then fired two sunbolts at the Chain Devil on her, hitting once. She then moved closer to it, so she was right up in its face, and punched it in hopes of stunning it. Unfortunately, the attempt to stun didn’t succeed. Two of the Barbed Devils tried to hit Marxine -- both of them missed but were not slowed by the Rod. One took three swings at Lamie -- she kept one of them from being a crit with the bulette shield but the collective total was a lot of damage. She was able to maintain her concentration on the Shield of Faith spell. Elderron cast magic missile on the two Bearded Devils -- one of them was left barely standing at all, hanging on by a thread. The other one was also hurt, but not as badly. Elderron: I’m almost out of spells (Note: He was down to two third level spell slots.) One of the Bearded Devils attacking Elderron missed both times. The other one missed with its glaive, but hit with its beard, which does piercing damage. (That’s a really rough beard.) Fortunately, Elderron managed to resist the effects of the poison the Bearded Devil had injected him with. Aldalomiel bled and choked (and failed a death save). Marxine noted with some dismay that none of the Barbed Devils looked especially hurt, and certainly none looked more hurt than the others. So she attacked the same one she’d attacked with her previous attack. She got two hits then she surged with energy and made three more attacks, all three of which hit. That was five hits on six attacks, two for minimum damage and three for maximum damage. After Marxine’s impressive display, that one was looking much worse for the wear. Elama, standing near Marxine, cast cure wounds on herself, then she attacked with the scimitar of speed, though not at the same one Marxine had attacked. She did a nice lot of damage to it. The Chain Devil that Vinya had been fighting outside the building missed her twice. The one that dropped Aldalomiel stepped outside the door and attacked Vinya. Unfortunately, it hit twice and damaged her badly. Fortunately, it was also badly damaged, so Vinya fired four sunbolts at it. That dropped it. She moved a little closer to where Aldalomiel was on the ground, though she didn’t have a lot of options on how to help her. Two of the Barbed Devils attacked Marxine -- they both missed. The other one attacked Elama and got one hit. Fortunately it didn’t hit hard and she was able to keep her shield of faith up. Elderron, running low on spell power and wanting to save his last two spells for attempts to dispel the portal in the lava well, drew his short sword and attacked the very badly hurt beard devil. However, he hadn’t used his sword in quite a while and his strike wasn’t true at all. In response, the Bearded Devils attacked Elderron. One of them hit with its glaive and they both hit with their beards. He resisted the poison again and wasn’t dropped by the attacks. Out of the corner of her eye, Vinya saw someone approaching Aldalomiel, who was bleeding heavily on the ground. One of the halflings had wriggled out of her chains, which were loosening a bit with the chain devil’s attention on Vinya and Aldalomiel. She had a bottle in her hands, which she poured into Aldalomiel’s mouth. Before Vinya could react or say anything, Aldalomiel took a deep breath and coughed and looked around wildly. Aldalomiel: Thank you. Halfling: [made shooing motions toward her without saying a word] Aldalomiel looked around and saw the Chain Devil that held Vinya outside the window that Vinya had opened slightly. She took advantage of the fact that it didn’t know she was there and shot two arrows through the window, missing once then hitting She changed to her starry archer form and shot a radiant bolt at it but that missed because it had figured out from the first two shots that there was a threat inside the window. Marxine attacked one of the remaining Barbed Devils, missing twice but getting a critical hit with the attack granted her by the haste spell. Unfortunately, though she did quite a bit of damage, she didn’t quite drop it. Then she ran between them and past them toward where she could hear Vinya fighting. And where she believed Aldalomiel to be bleeding out. All of the Barbed Devils missed with their opportunity attacks and one of them was left slowed by the Rod of Litrices. She ran up the village street to get as close as she possibly could to Vinya and the door of the building. Elama cast a shatter spell on all of the Barbed Devils and channeled divinity again to do maximum damage. That dropped the one that Marxine had pounding on. Then she attacked with her scimitar on another one, getting a hit. The Chain Devil that held Vinya hit her with one of its swinging chains, dropping her. Fortunately, when she hit the ground she was jolted back awake (immediately rolled a Nat20 on a death save). She spent a ki point and did a step of the wind, disengaging from the Chain Devil and running next to Marxine. Then she pulled a healing potion out of her bag of holding and drank it. One of the two remaining Barbed Devils was slowed by the Rod -- it attacked Elama with its tail and missed. The other one missed with all of its attacks. Elderron cast a magic missile with one of his two remaining spell slots to drop the two Bearded Devils that were both in really bad shape. Having dropped them both, he then moved toward where he’d seen Marxine and Elama disappear into the darkness. He got to a point where he could see Lamie fighting two Barbed Devils. Aldalomiel moved away from the window and out of the building to a position of some cover from a building across the way (and at a good distance). She took two shots with her bow. One missed wildly but the other one got it in the eye and dropped it. The haste spell on Marxine ended and she leaned forward with her hands on her knees and breathed deeply for several seconds. Marxine, to Vinya: Go help Elama. Vinya (with 8 hp): Yeah. On it. Elama attacked the one that hadn’t been slowed by the rod with her scimitar. Then she struck the ground with her scimitar and cast Thunderwave. There was a loud crack of thunder and a shockwave that hit both of the Barbed Devils. Neither of them were pushed away from her, but they did appear to have taken damage. Vinya ran down in that direction then shooting four sunbolts at the more damaged of the two remaining Barbed Devils. Three of them hit and did a fair amount of damage. Then she took some cover around the corner of one of the buildings. The Barbed Devils focused their attacks on Elama, but they missed entirely. Elderron moved up and cast Toll the Dead on the more badly hurt of the Barbed Devils, but it saved. Aldalomiel moved down the street to a position where she could see Elama and the two Barbed Devils, then she fired a radiant bolt at one of them. It missed. Her two arrows hit more true -- one of them dropped the one that Vinya had fired radiant bolts at. The other one was a critical hit on the remaining one. Once Marxine got her breath back, she looked around and saw that one barbed devil was all that remained of the danger. Marxine went into the building that Aldalomiel had been in. There were ten or twelve halflings in there. Some of them had worked their way free of the chains, once the Chain Devils were no longer paying attention. They noticed that Marxine is a dwarf (not that that’s hard to spot) and the holy symbol painted on her shield. Marxine: Are there more of you? Halfling: I think there are more. Most of us ran when this happened. They rounded up some of us, but there weren’t enough of them to get all of us. So some are out in the desert, probably somewhere safe. Marxine: Were there any other devils? Halfling: There were only two with chains. Marxine: I’m going to go back outside and wait for a signal from my friends that it’s all clear. I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come out. She then went back out to the street. Elama attacked the last one with her sword, hitting once, but didn’t drop it. Vinya stepped out from around the corner of the building, and used her last ki energy to fire four sunbolts at it, dropping it with the last one. She ran back up the road to Marxine. Vinya: The last one is down. Marxine: I think there were only the two Chain Devils. Vinya: Oh good. Vinya immediately sat down on the ground in the middle of the road. Elama and Elderron walked together toward the lava well portal to make sure nothing else would be coming through. When they walked past Vinya, she stood up and began to follow them. When Vinya stood up, Marxine patted her on the back, laying hands on her and healing some of her damage. Marxine: Good job. Marxine went with the halflings to open doors and explore the intact buildings remaining in the town, making sure there weren’t more devils around. Elama, Elderron and Vinya checked out the lava portal, with Aldalomiel watching our backs with her bow at the ready. On the way there, Vinya used the geode of living energy to give herself some ki back. At the portal, we saw writing, scribed in glowing red lava, in Infernal. Vinya pulled the helmet of comprehend languages out of the bag of holding and offered it to the others, but no one took it, so she put it on herself. The writing was a series of threats and grandiose claims, including some mentions of Rajalmin and his works. There was a passage that said that with the gate he claimed ownership of the town of Brush Bend. There was also language that placed him in a Hellish hierarchy. It was even a pretty plausible one -- not entirely grandiose. It said that he was in the service of Kaztrioch, a paeliryon (a type of greater devil that specializes in the gathering of information) in the service of Lovitosud, a pit fiend, in the service of Dispater, Lord of the Second. Elama: Do we have to dispel this with magic or can we smash it? Elderron was still intent on attempting to understand both the writing and the magic on the lava portal. He knew that Dispater is the lord of the second layer of Hell, known as Dis. It looked to him as though a targeted dispel magic would disable the portal. It also seemed plausible to him that it could just be smashed physically. Vinya: Will breaking the portal break Rajalmin’s claim on the town? Or was the portal placing the initial flag in the ground, but his claim persists after the flag was planted. Elderron believed that Rajalmin’s claim was to some extent grandiosity. He also felt that creating the gate had probably taken a lot of energy and resources on his part. He was pretty comfortable with the idea that the claim on the town would not survive disabling the portal. We talked about having Marxine just smash it with her hammer of unmaking, but Elderron really wanted to try to dispel it and had saved a spell slot just for that purpose. When he cast the spell, there was a moment of pause, then the red glow in the infernal letters faded. But the physical structure remained. The gate was disabled. Elderron continued to study it, while the rest of us waited for the right moment to smash it, but that moment didn’t come while it was still dark, because he wanted to look at it in the daylight. So he made a tiny hut while the rest of us checked in on the halflings. Marxine asked them if they wanted to have a celebration that night -- but they weren’t in a celebratory mood yet. They were able to find a place for our horses. We took a long and uneventful rest in the tiny hut. 14 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 165) In the morning, Elderron and Vinya together studied the portal. After a bit, Vinya gave Elderron the helmet of comprehend languages to wear to help him understand what he was seeing, and went to talk to the villagers. Vinya: What exactly happened here? The halfling who’d saved Aldalomiel: This caught us by surprise. We were having a wedding. Vinya: Was one of the people involved in the wedding a descendant of Sarik Whitesand who lived a couple of hundred years ago? Halfling: Not directly. A grand-niece maybe. Sarik left to go adventuring and never returned. I really don’t know much about her. Later, Vinya found Elama. Vinya: You might want to send a message to Lt. Linnolim to let him know that we’re out of town but will be returning as soon as we possibly can. Elama did so. Elama, to Linnolim through the spell: We’re in Brush Bend. We’ll be heading back to Dhaqi presently. Linnolim, through the spell: Well, stop by when you come back if you want to keep working as temp guards. Vinya asked one of the villagers, the one who’d poured the potion into Aldalomiel, if there was anyone in Brush Bend or Elthir who could teleport us back to Dhaqi. Halfling: Maybe the Shining Silver Tetrahedron can have someone come get you. They don’t like to do that because it takes two spells from that person. So it’s very, very expensive. Your best bet is to go by boat. Vinya: Is there a road that parallels the canal we could travel along? Halfling: There are some roads. But there isn’t a contiguous road from here to Dhaqi. Your better bet is catching a canal boat. Elama: Will a boat be able to take our horses? I’ve gotten attached to Nibbles. Halfling: Maybe not the first one that comes by, but certainly some of them do. Vinya: So we just wait here and catch a boat? Halfling: Yeah. That’s about what happens. Usually there’s one every few days. Vinya: Perfect. Halfling: There’s an inn with beds that will fit you. You’re welcome to stay there. Vinya: Thank you! Halfling: You saved our town. It’s the least we can do. Vinya: We couldn’t not. Once we knew you needed help. Elama: And we can help with whatever you need as far as rebuilding. Vinya: We can also help find the people from the village who scattered out into the desert. Halfling: Once the smoke and the glow from that [wave in direction of where the cold remains of the portal still stood] stop, they’ll come back. Elderron, still studying the portal, took down the names of those who Rajalmin answers to, up to Dispater. He also got an idea of how the creation of this gate was pulled off -- though that creation is way beyond Elderron’s power. He also learned that Rajalmin is not a normal rakshasa -- he’s more powerful in some way, but it’s not clear how. He isn’t exactly fully invested in the hierarchy of the Hells--which is a feudal-ish conglomeration of debts and promises and responsibilities--and is apparently working as something of a free agent for Kastrioch (and eventually for Dispater). Elderron: The rock of this portal is not of this world. And it’s not elemental fire or elemental earth. This is stuff that broke through from the Hells. Vinya: So it’s Hell rock? It’s got to go! Once Elderron had all the information he felt he could get from the portal, Marxine encouraged the people of Brush Bend to help smash the portal, so it wasn’t just us coming in from outside as rescuers and smashing it. Marxine explained to us that she wanted to leave the villagers feeling empowered and capable of taking care of each other and their town. The villagers got on board with Marxine’s plan and helped with the destruction of the gate. Aldalomiel talked to the halfling who’d saved her. Aldalomiel: I insist on repaying you for the potion you gave me. That was a major item for the village. Halfling, the Mayor of the village, walking with her around the village: That building still stands. And that one. And that one. Our village is worth far more than a potion. Aldalomiel: [nodding] Mayor, ending their walk at the rubble of the gate: A couple of our people have died. If you want to repay us, find the one who built that and kill it. But take your time. We don’t want you to die trying. 15-17 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 166-168) We spent the next few days while we were waiting for the boat following Marxine’s lead as far as helping to provide opportunities for the villagers to build their sense of being able to care for and support each other. It was important to Marxine, and all of us, that we left the town feeling empowered rather than victimized. We also did some martial training -- Vinya doing some very basic martial arts training, Aldalomiel doing some archery practice and lessons, etc. Our lessons worked pretty well -- some of the younger people of the village said they might want to go out adventuring like us, and then return to the village with more ability to defend it. The villagers turned out to be pretty good at fending off native threats -- wild animals and bandits -- but a lot of devils was out of their league. These days passed as a community-building montage. 18 Bluzzimin 749 (Campaign day 169)(immediately after) In the morning, a barge arrived on the canal with enough room for us and our horses. The captain agreed that we could let the horses walk alongside the oxen that towed the barge to get exercise. The captain explained to us that the canal is largely at sea-level. There are drawbridges across it along the way, so we’ll have to be aware of that sort of thing. We ended as we loaded up our horses and stuff and prepared to leave Brush Bend on a barge called The iv-Nulis. [/QUOTE]
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Erkonin (Campaign #2) [Session 45: Rajalmin's Agent]
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