Deldrics player was not able to come to the first game, Khazads player has moved out of area and Olivers player may not have his Sundays free for the next few months. That said,
The Heroes of Kenebras
Zuriel Riversong: Female Half Elf Druid
Grunyier Cragsward: Male Dwarven Barbarian
Deldric: Elf Rogue
Fidgit Tannenbaum: Male Gnome Fey Blood Sorcerer
Oliver: Human Inquisitor, and
Khazad: Dwarf dual ax wielding fighter
Fidgets team moves forward with Irabeth detecting a source of evil around the corner. She and the rest round the corner to see a svelte man dragging the limp form of Grunyeir. Irabeth commands him to drop the dwarf, which he does quite unceremoniously but thick dwarven skulls are made for such damage. The man explains his name is Murance, that the heroes had come across him earlier and freed him. That they recently fell to a Vrock and some archers, and that he was in the process of hiding their prostrate forms until he could find aid. Murance takes Irabeth and the others around a large section of rubble where a small alcove holds the crumpled forms of Oliver, Zuriel and Khazad. Fidget cradles them one by one and commands Nura to heal them, so that the first thing they see will be the face of their daring Commander. Zuriel, Oliver and Grunyeir are all less than thrilled to see Fidget, despite the aid he brings with him. Tragedy however strikes when Fidget reaches for Khazad and finds the Dwarfs skin pallid and cold.
Deldric returns from his scouting to see the expanded group and relays his information. There is a small group in a chapel ahead 4 men and one woman, he was unable to grasp what they were doing but assured the party it seemed odd. He spied the outline of a secret passage to the rear of the chapel but was unable to explore further without risk of raising the alarm. Fidget thanks him and informs the elf of Khazads passing. With Nura having expended almost all of her spells to cloak their entrance and now heal the others Fidget makes the command decision to send Deldric back to camp with Khazad and the others, Fidget, Grunyeir, Zuriel, her cat, and Oliver will see what is transpiring in the chapel.
Without the skill set supplied by Deldric, Grunyeir takes point determined to deal with any traps quite literally head on. Keeping a spaced out formation they advance on the chapel. Grunyeir loudly announcing their arrival with his heavy footfalls. The dwarf spies a rather beautiful woman having her armor removed by 4 crusaders. She seems taken aback by his presence and invites him inside. Grunyier and her converse for near a minute before, exasperated the rest of the party advance to see what the hold up is. The woman identifies herself as a priestess of this chapel and offers to allow the group to participate in their ritual. When Zuriel asks what is involved she replies that the specifics are difficult to explain to one not indoctrinated already and it would be easier to demonstrate. When the half elf druid declines the priestess begins chanting and Zuriel feels a presence invade her mind for a moment before she shrugs it off. Fidget well versed in Enchantments easily identifies a Charm spell and warns the others.
Oliver and Grunyeir move up but are unable to reach the priestess as the crusaders hinder their movement. Fidget moves to get a clean line of sight and pushes his mind towards hers, Suggesting that she wants to resolve this peacefully and to answer all his questions. The "priestess" form shimmers and the visage of a succubus takes its place, she smiles coquettishly and somehow makes her walk towards the pews seem indecent before she sits, crosses her legs and looks at the gnome,
"Well my dear, what would you like to know?"
While the tensions are momentarily halted Fidget convinces her to have the crusaders, clearly mentally dominated by her to relax their grips on their weapons. Grunyier tries to drag them away which almost starts it up again right there before Fidget smooths over the transgression and assures her than no one will take her "play things". Fidget gets some small intel, the succubus knows of some troop dispositions and speaks about the previous commander of the citadel who has left with most of her garrison some time ago. Seeing that she has no more useful information she would willingly part with Fidget asks if there was anything she would like that he could bring for her, perhaps some lubricant. She answers that she prefers blood as her lubricant,
"Well dear if its blood your'e after do I have the 2 men for you, Oliver? Grunyier? Would you come over here please?"
Grunyeir, mistakingly takes the gnomes cue to get within striking distance of the succubus, to grab 2 of the crusaders and starts pulling them out of the room. Oliver, assuring Fidget that he at least gets his meaning moves up and starts engaging the succubus in conversation, attempting to placate her. Fidget, looking perplexed at the 2 most bloodthirsty fighters, avoiding a fight turns to Murance
"I don't know if this is my fault or theirs, but did YOU get my meaning?"
Looking confused at the human and dwarf Murance replies holding up his rapier
"Yeah, it was pretty clear, can't do much with THIS but I guess its going to have to do"
The fencer stabs the succubus in the shoulder and finally the course of action becomes clear to the Inquisitor and Barbarian. Several hits are landed and the succubus appears gravely wounded, but not having started within melee distance means Grunyier is not able to bring his full prowess to bear and she uses some magical ability to disappear. Fidget throws his hands up and declares that the succubus is their problem now, he will start looking at that secret door. Fortunately the magical ability used only briefly transported the succubus and the party is able to put he down. With her death the crusaders regain their composure. Fidget tells them to gather their things, that Deldric had recently lead a well armed party to an encampment of paladins just outside and gives them directions to the front door.
The group finds a hidden room to the south of the chapel that is empty. Murance spots a second hidden room further in and it is through this that the party finds a hidden trove. 6 statues wearing fine full plate armor line the walk towards an altar with another statue holding what appears to be the banner they had come for, The Sword of Valor. Before anything can happen Oliver rushes to the altar to kneel and pay his respects, and the Inquisitor is bitten nearly in half by the mimic that was the altar up until now, while the statue holding the banner also reverts to its true mimic form. The fight is long and drawn out, Oliver rapidly loses consciousness from his mimic wounds, Zuriel is loath to heal him to return him to the fight, Grunyier holds on to his mythic powers so finds himself doing little damage, Fidget has no real combat spells and Murance can only do minor damage. But the team do prevail, Grunyier claims the finest full plate for himself, full of religious iconography and script. Grunyier declares that since they are low on health and magic they will seal the door and sleep in the chamber. Fidget nods and tells the group that while they are free to do that he will be walking out to the encampment of Paladins and mercenaries, since demons can teleport and sealing the room wouldn't stop that. Inspecting the banner finds that it radiates no magic. The search continues.
The rest of the group follows Fidgets lead and upon arriving at the Paladins camp Grunyier tells Murance that they should go to the mercenary camp since the paladins all suck anyways. Murance looks dubious but does follow. Fidget tells Irabeth to prepare whatever funeral rites she can think of for Khazad in the morning then goes to her tent, joined by Deldric on the way. The Elf debriefs Fidget on his progress, Fidget nods and conjures a pocket dimension to sleep in, inviting Deldric to join him if he likes. Come morning Fidget asks Nura to speak at Khazads funeral, which she does delivering an epic that impresses even the Gnome. Deldric, Fidget, Zuriel and Grunyier all step forward with torches, Zuriel catching Grunyier exclaiming under his breath how he was always a better dwarf than Khazad. Fidget stands before the pyre and delivers a short eulogy,
"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and the place for the first time"
With their companions body burning the funeral disperses. In the command tent the group delivers its orders for the day and gear up for another sortie. Fidget strongly wants Sosiel to join them but the cleric strongly requests to remain with Aron and the gnome relents. Starting in the last southern bastion the group finds no initial resistance, but scouting ahead at the top of the tower Deldric spies a lone female. Human, well built and looking haggard she stares across the battlements towards the encamped paladins, breathing heavily. Deldric starts the fight without backup and while the elf is nimble, the woman lets out a roar and in her rage she still manages to land the occasional blow. The rest of the group ascends the stairs to aid Deldric, the group start laying into the woman with the blunt end of their weapons to try and take her alive. Fidgets small legs cause him to arrive well into combat and calling up the best of his mythic potential the gnome tries to force his will onto the berserk woman, suggesting her to engage in fisticuffs instead. But fortune is with her today and Fidget is unable to penetrate the red haze of her rage. She switches targets to Grunyier and while the dwarf initially laughs off her hits he soon is frantically calling for aid until with one final thwack she collapses at their feet. Grunyier wants to kill her but the others elect to keep her with them as they can use her for information later. Murance who accompanied them back into the Citadel until he gets his revenge is told to carry her body. Grunyier complains about his wounds and looks expectantly at the group, Fidget shrugs holding up a minor healing potion he got from Kenebras as the only healing he is capable of. Deldric likewise holds up 1 potion though his is better. Oliver looks the dwarf over and declares he is fine while Zuriel nods in agreement. Grunyier declares he desires death and will refuse any healing. Deldric pours his healing potion that he had been planning on using for himself into a mug and catches up to Grunyier, offering to toast to the dwarfs prowess but whether the long enmity between dwarves and elves, or Grunyiers natural personality the dwarf threatens to kill Deldric. Seeing his offer rejected Deldric drinks the potion himself, Fidget offers up his last meager one as well.
Searching through the rest of the western portion the group finds a small armory where they stock up on arrows and Deldric procures a keen dagger for himself. Fidget finally explains how hurt Grunyier is to Zuriel and the druid offers to heal him but the dwarf stubbornly refuses and rushes towards the next door. Fidget, exasperated, mentally suggests the dwarf into compliance. Healed up to fighting form the group clear out a second chapel of some statues and kill 3 bug like demons. With the map provided by Aron indicating that there is only a handful of rooms left to search the group prepares to clear this citadel of demons and claim it back for the 5th Crusade.
Thoughts
While I fully acknowledge the Barbarians annoyance being at 25/103 hit points and not getting healed I was not a great fan of his reaction to stubbornly refuse healing and threaten attacking anyone who tried to heal him. Deldric tried sneaking potions into him and was very courteous and showed great deference and was still violently rebuffed. All that was required was my explaining to the druid how far down in health he actually was and she immediately changed her tune about saving her spell slots but he was not having it. If it was me running the front line and the healers refused to help me I would just switch to bow and arrow and declare that I would be acting as ranged while so wounded. Let the Inquisitor and Druids animal companion eat some hits and see if they change their tune. I've been trying to avoid gaming the system with crafting a few wands of Cure Serious or Critical wounds with a single charge for cheap then using my once per day ability to recharge them but I think we are going to have to go that route. I tried convincing the NPC cleric to come with since I know that the Druid hates healing and the Inquisitor doesn't fill more than 1 or 2 at the most healing spells.
Iv'e heard the arguments about doing damage being better than healing magics but honestly whats slowing down our progress is that the front liners are taking big hits and it costs about one quarter of our player spells to bring them back to fighting form.
