In attendance were;
Kumak Morudall: Half-Orc Bloodrager
Susan: Human Universalist Wizard
Thaddeus Whisperheart: Gnome Trickster
Arriving this session were
Tim: Halfling Ranger
Kronk: Human Haunted Life Oracle
The surviving 3 Redeemers looking down at the bodies of the slain ghouls and the pool where Tiberius's body had disappeared into are startled to hear movement coming from behind. Weapons to the ready a unassuming human man comes around the corner and walks right into them. After poking him to ensure he is real and not another haunt the newcomer introduces himself as Kronk. Seeing the team is in dire states Kronk offers his assistance. Kumak demands that Tiny Nuggets be healed first. Using several spells Kronk brings Thaddeus back from deaths door to something resembling health. Kumak dives into the pool and retrieves Tiberius's corpse, stripping the body of usable gear Kumak is too encumbered to bring the body back, neither Susan or Thaddeus have the strength for the task so Tiberius is laid to rest back in the pool. Thaddeus stays back with Kronk to compare notes while Kumak and Susan explore the room that Aldern came from. Susan spies a broken puzzle box which she identifies as a broken phylactery, Kumak is overcome by a vision of a man, who he suddenly knows is Vorel Foxglove, in the process of consuming a potion that will complete his transformation into a lich when suddenly a crossbow blot shatters the remainder of the potion, his body wracked with arcane energies Vorel screams in agony and collapses on the floor as his corpse rapidly turns into a rotten man shaped pile of mold. Kumak regains his senses to find he is standing over that same man shaped mold patch, consuming portions of it. The realization is cut short by the wracking pain as whatever illness takes hold. Susan collects some notes, paintings and most disturbing what appears to be bits of her hair and scraps of her clothing. On their way out of Aldern's abode Kumak spies a set of well made wind chimes off in a corner. Pocketing them, the Redeemers move back up to the house proper.
The sun not yet risen Kumak doesn't spy any of the dangerous ravens outside. Mounting up on his horse, which had weathered the night inside rather well all things considered, Kumak offers to take another on the horse. Susan speaks up and with Thaddeus riding on Kronks shoulders the group leave behind the nightmare of Foxglove manor.
Choosing between a 6 hour walking speed to Sandpoint or an hours walk to the Asylum the group chooses Sandpoint and in the wee hours before sunrise they spy a campfire and wagons. Thaddeus wishes to approach and as they near an armed guard demands to know their intentions. Some discussion is had and the guard commands that they join him. Taking the reins of Kumak's horse he leads them to the campfire where they find a caged wagon holding several prisoners and 5 other armed fighters. Based off the specialized armor 3 of them are wearing, Susan and Thaddeus identify them as Hellknights. The Captain begins asking pointed questions which the group answers, while lacking manners the Hellknights had not made any untoward moves on their persons. Suddenly two arrows fly out from the darkness. The 2 lightest armored Hellknights rush off to deal with the threat while the group is warned not to make any moves. Complying for several seconds while a scuffle can be heard a few feet into the darkened woods the one Hellknight holding the reigns starts shoving his blade into Kumak's face and making increasingly aggressive demands until the Bloodrager dismounts and swings the flat of his blade against the Hellknights head. Kumak faces against the Hellknight Captain and 2 Sergeants while the fight in the woods continues. Suddenly one of the "prisoners" stands up, his bonds falling off him like rain water, takes one step and in a flash appears outside the cage. The fight is on the verge of going sour with the Captain in the mix but the golly rotund prisoner chuckles and with a touch sends the Captain to see his beloved Asmodeus via a Plane Shift.
Regrouping, the golly Cleric of Cayden Cailean introduces himself as Father Lum. The arrow had come from one of his misguided agents seeking to rescue him, a halfling named Tim. Working the cage locks Thaddeus and Susan manage to free the remaining prisoners. Father Lum offers to take the group wherever they are heading and with that the group returns to Sandpoint slightly ahead of schedule. Over a conjured feast at the Rusty Dragon Father Lum inquires about the group and offers them a contract of 1,000 gold to accompany Tim to Magnimar to "remove" some more Hellknights. Kumak worries that the authorities might take offence if they were to go around and "remove" problems like that, Father Lum attempts to assure him that there would be no repercussions should they agree. The group elects to sleep on the offer and after several hours Kumak attempts to sell some of their wares around town but Sandpoint seems to be money poor.
Susan reading through one of the notes found in Alderns lair finds that he had a townhouse in Magnimar and whatever nefarious organisation he belonged to might be found there. Their destinations seemingly aligned for the moment Thaddeus proposes they agree to the terms.
Notes:
Not a great session I found.
First introducing the new characters, having the Oracle just stumble into us at the bottom of a haunted mansion we had literally just finished clearing out then we all just have to kind of shrug and say "team up?" felt way off to me.
Then as we were riding back to Sandpoint the Ranger stealthed and watched us pass, then followed us until the Hellknights encountered us. Then decided to silently fire an arrow at them and provide no context to clue us in about whose side we should be on. After 2 rounds of not doing anything since as far as we could tell he was a bandit I picked up on the GM's clues to engage. The Ranger cheered that he had caused us to enter the fight but in all honesty I had to metagame pretty hard to keep him from losing his character again.
The Hellknight encounter itself was weird. The Capt was something like a level 8-9 Inquisitor I think. With Father Lum ending up around level 13 based off some abilities. Combat was a drag for the most part, new characters meant that people needed more time to figure out their moves. Much of the session was wasted.
The push to team up and go to Magnimar was jarring. As I see it we would be getting 1,000 gold total to go to one of the most populous cities, commit mass murder against a well funded very dangerous organization and somehow also not attract the ire of the local constabulary.
Based off what I know here, there being a group in Magnimar that was allied with Foxglove, possibly pulling his strings. I think a better move would have been to team up the Oracle and Ranger, stick them in Sandpoint, fast track our travel back from the mansion, then have them arrived last night having lost an ally or two to "The Brothers" (I don't actually know their name only the Wizard read the note, she just summarized it's contents for us). So they are out for payback but need more muscle, we have the local rep as heavy hitters plus wanting to tidy up the loose end of Foxglove makes for a neater package than an Oracle who just wanders in and decides to hang out and a Ranger who is trying to kill some people who mean nothing to us. Coupled with a monstrously high level cleric severely underpaying for mass murder.
Not being able to sell anything is also getting annoying. I acknowledge that the 10.5k gold dagger might not be able to be sold in Sandpoint but I should be able to sell some mundane but masterwork weapons and armor. Instead I got, "the blacksmith only has 400 gold to buy anything". A small town should have a purchase limit of 5,000 gold that a shop can spend on just a single item.
No comments:
Post a Comment