![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Dawn of Magic
We were down a player this week, too. Poor Mike ("Rufus") was still down with the Dreaded Lergy. However, Bonnie ("Leif"), Marc ("Mushamee"), Martin ("Kaeso"), and Stéphane ("Vinz") were all present!
Time: Late afternoon, Odin 18, 1002 Imperial Reckoning.
Place: Shahim's chambers in Indu, Indistan.
Last Event: A meeting with the Shahim after a tense trial won by a magical demonstration of good faith.
With Vinz's magical trace on the Sun Sword of Ré and Leif on Samar's scent trail, the group dashes from the Shahim's palace with the ruler's blessing -- but also with orders to bring Samar to justice, not to slay him. Leif and Vinz soon lead the group to the location of both Samar and the sword: Samar's home, an imposing stone structure off Indu's main square. There are two guards at the door, and no obviously accessible windows.
Leif walks up to the guards, playing at "dumb barbarian" in the hope of getting close enough to sucker-punch them. Unfortunately, Leif is a warrior, not an actor, and the guards don't fall for it. He runs off, with the soldiers stabbing at his rear with their spears, and the commotion attracts a city watch patrol and a good-sized crowd of concerned citizens. In short order, something close to a riot is brewing in the city square.
Vinz takes advantage of this unintended distraction to sneak up, hidden by his remarkable cloak, and examine the door. It looks as if it's barred from within, and so won't be the most useful way in from a crowded city square. Stealing around the back, however, he finds the kitchen door ajar. Peering within, he sees the cook . . . dead, and hanging from a meat hook. He hastily heads back to where Kaeso, Mushamee, and Rufus are waiting in a nearby alleyway.
With Leif still distracting the natives, Vinz reaches the others without trouble. He explains the situation and leads them back to the kitchen door. A bit of stealth and a bit of luck gets everyone (well, everyone but Leif) there in short order. Moving into the kitchen, weapons at the ready, the heroes stumble upon a slaughter. The kitchen is full of dead cooks and maids. From what he can see, Rufus deduces that the servants were killed by a group of assailants leaving in a hurry. Vinz's trace leads through a nearby door, so that's the next stop.
The door gives way to the main hall, which is the site of more killing. This time, it appears that Samar's retainers and guards -- his gang, truth be told -- fought a last stand here. There are corpses aplenty, mostly in a pattern that suggests a pitched battle. From what Rufus can glean, Samar's men fought and lost a sword battle of some description. Nobody is alive to talk about it.
Still following the trace, Vinz leads the way upstairs. There are more dead guards here. Indeed, the whole place seems eerily quiet, and Mushamee suspects a setup of some kind. Led by Vinz, he, Rufus, and Kaeso follow the trail to a door left slightly ajar on the upper floor. The smell of charred flesh emanates from beyond it . . .
Meanwhile, Leif has managed to ditch the mob outside by running past some stone statues, ducking behind them, and calling upon the power of the chameleon to assume the appearance of stone. Having escaped the angry citizens, he doubles back to where he last saw his allies, picks up their scent trail, and soon reaches the kitchen door. He ducks inside, sees the slaughter, and starts to prowl around. He hears his associates upstairs, but doesn't immediately join them.
Upstairs, the others burst into what proves to be a well-appointed study. Seated in the burned remains of massive chair, behind a fire-damaged desk, is a smouldering skeleton clutching the Sun Sword. It's immediately apparent to Mushamee that the dead man tried and failed to invoke the weapon's power, and paid the ultimate price for his arrogance. Some mundane detective work combined with Rufus' psychic gifts reveals the truth, however: The charred victim was held in place and forced to hold onto the blade!
Mushamee snatches back his sword and urges the others to get moving, as this now very much smacks of an attempt to frame the group. Vinz remains behind, concealed by his cloak, to examine the scene using magic. He identifies the crispy corpse as Samar's, and soon finds a secret strongbox in the wall, behind a painting. Opening it, he removes a bag of coins and a strange, sealed letter. A quick look around the upstairs reveals nothing else of note.
Downstairs, the others join Leif, who has finished searching the lower level. Leif has found the body of Rachid the mortician, garrotted just inside the front entrance. He has also found the corpse of the guard captain from the portal -- the one who lied at the group's trial. Leif decides to bring along the two bodies, and Kaeso gives the barbarian an invisibility elixir so that he can do this without drawing attention. With the dead captain and Rachid on Leif's shoulders, Kaeso, Leif, Mushamee, and Rufus head back out the kitchen door to wait for Vinz. On the way out, Leif can't help but notice the scent trail of the killers, leading out into the alley.
Vinz joins the others in the back alley shortly. Kaeso quickly whips out several elixirs of reanimation to use to interrogate the dead men. He applies the first one to Rachid, to learn how the man was killed. The mortician's voice is a croak: "The captain did it! I was strangled! Why? Why?"
Meanwhile, Rufus -- the only one present who can read Indistani -- scans the mysterious letter found by Vinz. It proves to be a bizarre contract, signed by Samar in blood and by some other party with only a sinister sigil. The contract promises Samar rulership over all of Indistan in return for services to be specified at a future date . . . after "the upcoming invasion." There are no further details, but it's obvious to all that the other signatory must have been a representative of the Starfish-Men, with whom Samar was known to have dealings.
Kaeso brushes the next elixir on the captain's lips and has unusual success with his interrogation. He learns that the captain killed Rachid as part of a convoluted scheme to cover up evidence of a delegation of "demons" with whom Samar was dealing -- unwisely, in the captain's view. These beings were headed to the portal to take advantage of the "troublemakers" (the heroes, presumably) being detained, with the goal of crossing through to Tenosia and seeking a physical route from the displaced subterranean city to their own realm above ground. Apparently, Samar and friends were expendable at this point, and the creatures turned on them. From what Kaeso can figure out, the mysterious "demons" are probably Starfish-Men, and headed for the portal even as he works!
The heroes dump the corpses into a couple of convenient barrels found by Mushamee and then rush to the portal. Sure enough, Leif picks up the scent of those who slew Samar's men near the magical passage. The captain's guards are still present, and clearly uneasy with the group's presence, but don't move to interfere . . . doubtless because the Shahim's hand-picked house guard are nearby, watching them with hands on swords. The captain's cronies reluctantly admit to having allowed a few parties of "merchants" past.
Moving toward the portal, Vinz suddenly senses terrible danger and motions for the others to halt. He has Rufus inspect the portal with his second sight. Rufus realizes that the portal has been tampered with, and redirected to some horrible prison plane. Fortunately, Vinz has some idea of the magic involved, and feels that he might be able to reverse the curse. His spell takes much longer than his usual magic, and causes such terrible strain that it almost kills him, but it appears to work. Leif heals Vinz as well as he is able, and then the group hastens through the portal, Leif staggering and Vinz supported by Rufus.
On the far side of the portal, the party finds Tenosia . . . much as they left it. Mushamee runs up to the Amazons guarding the entrance and has them send runners to all of the magical gates out of the city with orders to the guards there: Let no one past, and detain anyone who forces the issue. He also issues a general order than all Indistani travelers within city limits be summarily arrested, as there's reason to believe the Starfish-Man conspirators are among them. Finding Ilya, Josef, Oleg, and Vladimir nearby, Mushamee has them hand over their healing potions to Vinz, thereby restoring Vinz to health.
While Mushamee shouts orders and summons his soldiers, Rufus commandeers a horse-drawn wagon. With fleet-footed Amazon runners dispatched to all corners of the city, the group boards the wagon and makes haste for the winding passage from the underground city to the Starfish-Man realm. Should the Starfish-Man party reach it and pass the wards, they will be able to reveal humanity's rallying point to their legions, which would likely doom the world! Leif tells the horses this, and they seem to understand and gallop even faster.
Upon reaching the cave entrance, it's immediately apparent that the guards posted there have somehow been magically dazed, no doubt at considerable cost to whatever Starfish-Men wizards cursed them. Rather than awaken and interrogate the troops, who Vinz says won't remember anything useful, the party rushes into the passage at a full run. At this point, surprise is secondary to preventing the enemy from revealing Tenosia -- at any cost.
Mushamee pulls far into the lead, turns the final corner, and runs into 13 Starfish-Men. Eight are guarding the passage while the remaining five -- clearly wizards -- work magic on the sealed end of the cave. The general wades into them with the Sun Sword and cuts down six in only a few seconds. In the process, some of his foes manage to fire repeating bolt-casters at him, inflicting grievous wounds, but he doesn't stop. Pressing on despite his injuries, he slaughters two more, thereby exposing the spellcasters working on the stone wall.
At this stage, Mushamee's allies begin to arrive in ones and twos. The battle goes swiftly. Although the Starfish-Man wizards are protected by their magical charms and manage to complete their ritual, they are unable to maintain it for long enough to breach the seal. The heroes mow them down, thus saving Tenosia and their world from certain invasion. When the body parts stop flying, everyone in the party has been at least winged by the enemy's repeating bolt-casters. Mushamee, who faced a veritable firing squad singlehanded at first, is barely alive, and collapses once the immediacy of battle wears off and his injuries make themselves felt.
Time: Late afternoon, Odin 18, 1002 Imperial Reckoning.
Place: Shahim's chambers in Indu, Indistan.
Last Event: A meeting with the Shahim after a tense trial won by a magical demonstration of good faith.
With Vinz's magical trace on the Sun Sword of Ré and Leif on Samar's scent trail, the group dashes from the Shahim's palace with the ruler's blessing -- but also with orders to bring Samar to justice, not to slay him. Leif and Vinz soon lead the group to the location of both Samar and the sword: Samar's home, an imposing stone structure off Indu's main square. There are two guards at the door, and no obviously accessible windows.
Leif walks up to the guards, playing at "dumb barbarian" in the hope of getting close enough to sucker-punch them. Unfortunately, Leif is a warrior, not an actor, and the guards don't fall for it. He runs off, with the soldiers stabbing at his rear with their spears, and the commotion attracts a city watch patrol and a good-sized crowd of concerned citizens. In short order, something close to a riot is brewing in the city square.
Vinz takes advantage of this unintended distraction to sneak up, hidden by his remarkable cloak, and examine the door. It looks as if it's barred from within, and so won't be the most useful way in from a crowded city square. Stealing around the back, however, he finds the kitchen door ajar. Peering within, he sees the cook . . . dead, and hanging from a meat hook. He hastily heads back to where Kaeso, Mushamee, and Rufus are waiting in a nearby alleyway.
With Leif still distracting the natives, Vinz reaches the others without trouble. He explains the situation and leads them back to the kitchen door. A bit of stealth and a bit of luck gets everyone (well, everyone but Leif) there in short order. Moving into the kitchen, weapons at the ready, the heroes stumble upon a slaughter. The kitchen is full of dead cooks and maids. From what he can see, Rufus deduces that the servants were killed by a group of assailants leaving in a hurry. Vinz's trace leads through a nearby door, so that's the next stop.
The door gives way to the main hall, which is the site of more killing. This time, it appears that Samar's retainers and guards -- his gang, truth be told -- fought a last stand here. There are corpses aplenty, mostly in a pattern that suggests a pitched battle. From what Rufus can glean, Samar's men fought and lost a sword battle of some description. Nobody is alive to talk about it.
Still following the trace, Vinz leads the way upstairs. There are more dead guards here. Indeed, the whole place seems eerily quiet, and Mushamee suspects a setup of some kind. Led by Vinz, he, Rufus, and Kaeso follow the trail to a door left slightly ajar on the upper floor. The smell of charred flesh emanates from beyond it . . .
Meanwhile, Leif has managed to ditch the mob outside by running past some stone statues, ducking behind them, and calling upon the power of the chameleon to assume the appearance of stone. Having escaped the angry citizens, he doubles back to where he last saw his allies, picks up their scent trail, and soon reaches the kitchen door. He ducks inside, sees the slaughter, and starts to prowl around. He hears his associates upstairs, but doesn't immediately join them.
Upstairs, the others burst into what proves to be a well-appointed study. Seated in the burned remains of massive chair, behind a fire-damaged desk, is a smouldering skeleton clutching the Sun Sword. It's immediately apparent to Mushamee that the dead man tried and failed to invoke the weapon's power, and paid the ultimate price for his arrogance. Some mundane detective work combined with Rufus' psychic gifts reveals the truth, however: The charred victim was held in place and forced to hold onto the blade!
Mushamee snatches back his sword and urges the others to get moving, as this now very much smacks of an attempt to frame the group. Vinz remains behind, concealed by his cloak, to examine the scene using magic. He identifies the crispy corpse as Samar's, and soon finds a secret strongbox in the wall, behind a painting. Opening it, he removes a bag of coins and a strange, sealed letter. A quick look around the upstairs reveals nothing else of note.
Downstairs, the others join Leif, who has finished searching the lower level. Leif has found the body of Rachid the mortician, garrotted just inside the front entrance. He has also found the corpse of the guard captain from the portal -- the one who lied at the group's trial. Leif decides to bring along the two bodies, and Kaeso gives the barbarian an invisibility elixir so that he can do this without drawing attention. With the dead captain and Rachid on Leif's shoulders, Kaeso, Leif, Mushamee, and Rufus head back out the kitchen door to wait for Vinz. On the way out, Leif can't help but notice the scent trail of the killers, leading out into the alley.
Vinz joins the others in the back alley shortly. Kaeso quickly whips out several elixirs of reanimation to use to interrogate the dead men. He applies the first one to Rachid, to learn how the man was killed. The mortician's voice is a croak: "The captain did it! I was strangled! Why? Why?"
Meanwhile, Rufus -- the only one present who can read Indistani -- scans the mysterious letter found by Vinz. It proves to be a bizarre contract, signed by Samar in blood and by some other party with only a sinister sigil. The contract promises Samar rulership over all of Indistan in return for services to be specified at a future date . . . after "the upcoming invasion." There are no further details, but it's obvious to all that the other signatory must have been a representative of the Starfish-Men, with whom Samar was known to have dealings.
Kaeso brushes the next elixir on the captain's lips and has unusual success with his interrogation. He learns that the captain killed Rachid as part of a convoluted scheme to cover up evidence of a delegation of "demons" with whom Samar was dealing -- unwisely, in the captain's view. These beings were headed to the portal to take advantage of the "troublemakers" (the heroes, presumably) being detained, with the goal of crossing through to Tenosia and seeking a physical route from the displaced subterranean city to their own realm above ground. Apparently, Samar and friends were expendable at this point, and the creatures turned on them. From what Kaeso can figure out, the mysterious "demons" are probably Starfish-Men, and headed for the portal even as he works!
The heroes dump the corpses into a couple of convenient barrels found by Mushamee and then rush to the portal. Sure enough, Leif picks up the scent of those who slew Samar's men near the magical passage. The captain's guards are still present, and clearly uneasy with the group's presence, but don't move to interfere . . . doubtless because the Shahim's hand-picked house guard are nearby, watching them with hands on swords. The captain's cronies reluctantly admit to having allowed a few parties of "merchants" past.
Moving toward the portal, Vinz suddenly senses terrible danger and motions for the others to halt. He has Rufus inspect the portal with his second sight. Rufus realizes that the portal has been tampered with, and redirected to some horrible prison plane. Fortunately, Vinz has some idea of the magic involved, and feels that he might be able to reverse the curse. His spell takes much longer than his usual magic, and causes such terrible strain that it almost kills him, but it appears to work. Leif heals Vinz as well as he is able, and then the group hastens through the portal, Leif staggering and Vinz supported by Rufus.
On the far side of the portal, the party finds Tenosia . . . much as they left it. Mushamee runs up to the Amazons guarding the entrance and has them send runners to all of the magical gates out of the city with orders to the guards there: Let no one past, and detain anyone who forces the issue. He also issues a general order than all Indistani travelers within city limits be summarily arrested, as there's reason to believe the Starfish-Man conspirators are among them. Finding Ilya, Josef, Oleg, and Vladimir nearby, Mushamee has them hand over their healing potions to Vinz, thereby restoring Vinz to health.
While Mushamee shouts orders and summons his soldiers, Rufus commandeers a horse-drawn wagon. With fleet-footed Amazon runners dispatched to all corners of the city, the group boards the wagon and makes haste for the winding passage from the underground city to the Starfish-Man realm. Should the Starfish-Man party reach it and pass the wards, they will be able to reveal humanity's rallying point to their legions, which would likely doom the world! Leif tells the horses this, and they seem to understand and gallop even faster.
Upon reaching the cave entrance, it's immediately apparent that the guards posted there have somehow been magically dazed, no doubt at considerable cost to whatever Starfish-Men wizards cursed them. Rather than awaken and interrogate the troops, who Vinz says won't remember anything useful, the party rushes into the passage at a full run. At this point, surprise is secondary to preventing the enemy from revealing Tenosia -- at any cost.
Mushamee pulls far into the lead, turns the final corner, and runs into 13 Starfish-Men. Eight are guarding the passage while the remaining five -- clearly wizards -- work magic on the sealed end of the cave. The general wades into them with the Sun Sword and cuts down six in only a few seconds. In the process, some of his foes manage to fire repeating bolt-casters at him, inflicting grievous wounds, but he doesn't stop. Pressing on despite his injuries, he slaughters two more, thereby exposing the spellcasters working on the stone wall.
At this stage, Mushamee's allies begin to arrive in ones and twos. The battle goes swiftly. Although the Starfish-Man wizards are protected by their magical charms and manage to complete their ritual, they are unable to maintain it for long enough to breach the seal. The heroes mow them down, thus saving Tenosia and their world from certain invasion. When the body parts stop flying, everyone in the party has been at least winged by the enemy's repeating bolt-casters. Mushamee, who faced a veritable firing squad singlehanded at first, is barely alive, and collapses once the immediacy of battle wears off and his injuries make themselves felt.