Again, just a single sect at the moment but in keeping things at least partially consistent here we are again. The group was escorting Clyde to Bresselwythe when the keen ears of Violet heard what sounded like a bell. Her farming background recognized it as a bell used on livestock, and, just as they were about to turn down the path to the village, they saw Sister Ishbarra and Erirderlun Earthfury. The Sister, seeing how hurt Violet was, communicated that she could help. A bit alarmed as healing magic is not known on the world of Cidri, nor is the idea of laying on hands, the party really had no idea what to expect. Though silent, Sister Ishbarra's lips moved in a silent prayer to Logton, and Violet regained 3 of her strength points from the glowing hands of the cleric. Which cost Ishbarra 6 strength, greatly weaking the cleric. And I realized I really did not quite follow my rules but close enough - it will take a bit of playing and practice. They noticed the sister seemed awfully pale after this feat. Like all magic, though, she will recover 1 point for every 15 minutes of rest and prayer. Which means sitting still and not even travelling unless you are on the back of a cart.
Heading down the path, they started to smell sulfur. The same sulfur smell from the cultist's ceremony. Then they see Indhyna the Demoness, and her little hell hound. Clyde manages to soil his britches and backs off with the horses.
The battle started, with Axe (okay, I am still not spelling this PC's name correct, and the player was not available this week) hanging back with the horses, ponies and Gerie the goat. Dawn threw a water bottle at the hell hound but missed. Hexis was perturbed that the Elf was throwing their water supply off into the woods. Even Sister Ishbarra, as greatly exhausted she was, joined the fight. There were some interesting moments: Dawn found that her arrows had no effect on the demon, Deimos let everyone know that demonic creatures often need magical weapons to have any affect. A brief discussion that silver weapons as used by magic users are not inherently magical, just safe to use but those who also wield magic. After the hell hound was readily dispatched back the demonic plain it came from, three tree golems showed up, and the fight continued. Dawn attempted to lasso the demon to try & pull her off balance, Violet and the cleric fought one of the smaller twig creatures, Hexis another, and Erirderlun was attacking the largest creature. Then Gertie came charging in and rammed it, arrows started appearing in the back of the one Hexis was fighting, and Indhyna suddenly found a magic snake wrapped around her throat (after 2 failed magic attempts by Deimos.
Violet actually got killed, but the players remembered the luck stone, so I rerolled that attack and it missed. I'm going to have to see about letting the players acquire more of those perhaps. Moving on, the two smaller wood golum constructs were soon destroyed (Sister Ishbarra actually rolled a triple damage, destroying what was left of that thing), and arrows started appearing in the back other larger one the Dwarf was attacking, while Gertie had a critical fumble, so her horns were stuck in the limbs of that creature. Deimos, recalling the symbol that the demon came from, cast an illusion of it under her. She started sinking into the illusion, though still tried to get a blast out but missed. And in moments, the demon returned to her home plane.
From the woods, a most unusual character showed, a Harefolk. Which have not existed in my world until yesterday as I found the mini in a drawer, liked it, and set it aside as backup in case the party got into trouble. I do have Dungeon Ducks for OSE, but not sure how to do a Harefolk. But I do know she needs to have a high dexterity and the missile skill as she was shooting twice per round like Dawn.
Marion has been following the cultists. She is from somewhere to the far west in a land the players (nor I) have ever heard of. But the Demoness has caused problems in their part of the world in the past, and there have been signs she is starting to get more powerful again from the cult. She gave a bit of an
info dump, but the key seems to be the old lady in the tower who originally opened the door for Indhyna to reappear on our world. Which sits somewhere near Stubboon's Second Stand.
After the introductions were completed, and the Master Physicker helps heal the few battle wounds, they head finally to Bresselwythe. Bruce is manning the gate (and yes, I kept calling Clyde Bruce, so obviously the next NPC had to be named Bruce. It is how we roll here). A bit of back and forth, and the group gets into the walled-off town. They tie the still sleeping cultist to a pole in a barn, and the group meets Ceteern Gur, who refuses to take payment for the adventures as they have saved on of their own.
A good night's sleep later, they are rested and try to find out why the girl cultist was killing Clyde. She was not happy, waking up to the staring face of Gertie, chewing whatever it is that goats chew. And Gertis is twice as large as most goats. Erirdurlun takes the goat to visit with the alchemist Ezmirylda.
The girl tells a tale of being forced to wed an older (and I did not mention that in the game, retconning time as I think it came across a bit better in my head than it did in the game) man in her village, and not wanting to so that, she fled. Hearing of the Indhyna League and that it lets women join and protects them, she found a local cult and joined in. This was her first sacrifice, but she was not holding back at the time and was willing to let Clyde get fed to Indhyna. She may have changed her mind once she saw what really happens when that demon eats her prey, but we'll never know that. She was also the one that lured Clyde out. Neither are particularly smart people. But they both clean up nice. Who knows - perhaps they will get together as Clyde is not an old man.
And that was where we called the game. I had several NPCs to play, and sometimes got the accents I was attempting all screwed up. So having an NPC who took a vow of silence, and using a small erasable board worked out well for Sister Ishbarra. Other than my bad handwriting. And while I did print out more notes, they were not as well organized as they should be, so I was shuffling a bit. I gave out 120 XP this round as they did defeat a demon, perhaps a bit too easily but their next encounter with her may not go so well. We also gave Hexis a 2nd attack with his tail, which we both forgot most of th etime but managed to remember at least once.
I also used a few of the creature cards, and they work out really well. I just have to make sure I pull them from that deck ahead of time, which I did do. So overall, I believe my preparation worked out a bit better this game. Still needs work, but progress is being made!
Hopefully everyone had a good time, and they may spend a day or two in Bresselwythe to recover. And Ceteern may mention that perhaps they could help: not only have young men gone missing, but some of the goat herds up in the hills seem to be missing some goats, and the goatherds say they saw flying women snatching up the goats...
And I probably need to come up with a tag for this adventure, so we can find all the posts for this particular round. Since they are after the Orc Fist, Orc Fist it shall be. I'll update previous posts so we can search for that easily via that word thing on the right of the posts (when viewing on a computer - don't think you see that on a phone).
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