GoCorral

This session was attended by Jamie, Trajan, Will, Tyler, and Avery. Held over Google Hangouts using the Roll20 app just like usual. This was also when Roll20 introduced character sheets that I began to use. The players still used Mythweavers though. I had hoped that Roll20 would create a way to import Mythweavers sheets, but no such program was developed. At this time Roll20 surpassed the amount of income they needed to be fully funded for continual updates.
This session also marks the introduction of Tyler’s new character! Aldarian was a good character for introducing Tyler to D&D in a high level campaign. Unfortunately, Tyler was unable to make Aldarian shine even after we redesigned him to be more effective. His role as a sidekick to Amalius was too deeply ingrained to be changed. Tyler’s new character is super cool and the whole group liked his portrayal.

Return to the Clouds

After regrouping and resting at Lakatia the party decided they should go back to talk to Talon. Some of the party members were still confused as to why they’d destroyed the Orb instead of using it. Amalius, the main proponent of destroying the Orb when that discussion was had, admitted that their may have been a personal reason for his desire to destroy the Orb. He hated seeing two lovers magically captured, no matter what type of creature they were, because he and his wife had once been there as well. This answer satisfied everyone else without any hard feelings.

Everyone teleported off to Greshendale while Hektor remained in Lakatia. As he was still an official member of the Alliance he could not openly associate with the other party members. He risked his ties with the Alliance if he did so. Additionally, as a wizard, he had a greater interest in maintaining access to the floating city, access that might be revoked if he was seen with the group that destroyed the Red Orb of Dragonkind.

The group ported in to Greshendale’s entrance pad and for the first time the pad was guarded. Two Sky Patrol members looked over the party and waved them through. All except Tagenadi who they asked to speak to privately.
“Sir, nothing personal, but you’re not allowed in the city. There are restrictions against necromantic magicks.” The Sky Patrol clearly saw through Tagenadi’s hat of disguise to the skeletal form underneath
Tagenadi said, “And those restrictions don’t apply to the dragovinians as well?”
“They’re a unique case. Dragovinians are in a halfway state, being both living and dead. Plus, the peace treaty contains a specific exemption for them. I’m sorry there’s really nothing I can do.”
“Alright. I’ll go.”
Tagenadi spoke with the others and arranged to meet them on the ground after they spoke with Talon. Tagenadi stepped onto the entrance pad and it teleported him four miles down to the outskirts of Greshendale.

Normally the only way into Greshendale is by teleporting. Not everyone can teleport or knows someone who can. After numerous complaints the higher-ups in Greshendale created another means of accessing the city. A teleportation pad on the surface that requires a special token to activate. Where does someone get a token? From the nearby Dungeon of Trials, fully stocked with vicious monstrosities of all kinds, one of which might be guarding a token for accessing Greshendale.

After the Dungeon of Trials and the pad were built a small community grew up around the base. The people in this community act as intermediates between visitors who can’t teleport or complete the Dungeon of Trials. These go-betweens will travel up to Greshendale to procure a spell or magical item on a visitor’s behalf, for a small fee of course.

When Tagenadi teleported down he was approached by one of the less respectable go between merchants. The merchant offered Tagenadi a free sample of Magical Miracle Cream, which the exiled knight turned down. Tagenadi found a stone bench not far from the pad and sat down to wait for his friends to conclude their business with Talon.

An Irritated Insectoid

Up in Greshendale, Torin, Amalius, Aldarian, and Eathirilu went to Talon’s office in city hall, just off the plaza surrounding the center well of Greshendale. They asked for the soonest available appointment with Talon. The secretary went in to speak with Talon and upon emerging granted the party an immediate audience. They filed in. Talon sat behind his desk with a tired look on his face. His hands were clasped together in front of him and as the party entered he lowered them to the desk.

“Sit.”
Amalius, Eathirilu, and Torin sat in the three chairs in front of the desk while Aldarian was forced to stand.
Talon’s compound eyes stared at them in silence.
Eathirilu spoke, “We ran into some complications.”
Amalius said, “We freed the life of two mortal creatures.”
Talon snapped back at them, “And what exactly is mortal about a dragon? You’ve unleashed two of the most evil beings in our history to roam Gaia once more. Who knows what damage they’ll cause while we have to contend with the Xorians.” Talon to his feet and shouted, “Compounding that with your destruction of an indispensible weapon against the dragovinians and the sabotage of the lighting system in the Northwest Quarter! Tell me, what would you do if you were in my position?!?”
The party was stunned for a moment until Amalius said, “I guess that’s it then.”
“I’ll say it is.” Talon sat in his chair once more.
“What will you do now?”
“Inevitably the investigation that I need to order for this event will lead back to myself. I’ll need to go underground and fight back however I can.”
“When you say underground do you mean literally or metaphorically?”
“I mean literally, but I won’t be sharing more of my plans with you. You seem to have a knack for screwing them up beyond belief.”
Amalius continued, still trying to make amends, “Is there anything else we can do for you at this point?”
“Get out of my city and stay out.”
“We’re sorry.”
“Just get out!”
The party stood and left.

The Beastslayer’s Arrival

Amalius, Eathirilu, Torin, and Aldarian exited city hall and passed by the center well where the Staff of Oblivion floated transfixed between twelve bolts of lightning. Dozens of people sold their magical trinkets and other wares from stalls in the plaza around the center well. Mortals of all kinds and dragovinians walked through the plaza, going about their business. The party heard snippets of conversation about the Red Orb’s destruction and the great light in the sky as they walked.

A shadow passed over the plaza. Eathirilu glanced up and saw a small dark rain cloud directly over them. Greshendale is so high up that clouds being above the city is a rare occurrence. Eathirilu puzzled over the cloud as the party walked right by the center well.

A bolt of lightning ripped down out of the cloud and struck the Staff of Oblivion! The party was blown back from the center well by a thunderous boom. The people in the plaza scattered. As the ozone smoke cleared, the party stared at the center well. A man had appeared crouched within it, standing upon the lightning bolts in the well.

The man was human, or close to it. He wore ancient formal clothes and a golden diadem crowned his head. Electricity coursed through his hair. An eyepatch covered his right eye and his left eye was deep green with a yellowed cateye slit instead of a pupil. His hands ended in scaly claws and his right held a magnificently crafted greataxe with an abnormally long mahogany shaft.

The man stood and walked on the lightning out of the center well towards the party. Upon exiting he pointed his axe at Amalius and shouted, “Amalius Halkias, do you know what you have done?”
(And a big welcome to Tyler’s new character!)
Torin and Amalius began casting spells, but Eathirilu interrupted them, “Stop!” Then the old elf turned to the man with the axe and said, “Danar, is that you?”
Danar lowered his axe “Eathirilu? Still running with the wrong crowd I see. How long has it been?”
“Centuries! But I thought you’d died?”
“I live again as a safeguard in case the Red Orb of Dragonkind is ever destroyed. I will reforge it, to prevent mortals from becoming enslaved to dragons once more.”
The townsfolk had scattered to the edges of the plaza. The police of Greshendale, the Sky Patrol, were arriving now, flying in the sky. They maintained their positions in the air, assessing the situation.
Eathirilu spoke, “Danar, don’t you know what’s been going? There’s a greater threat than Invernix and Sartoria in the world now.”
The crowd made way as a great dragovinian wizard strode into the plaza flanked by half a dozen other dragovinian spellcasters. Torin, Aldarian, and Amalius recognized the great wizard immediately. Despite his transformation Terroc’s features were unmistakable.
Eathirilu continued, “See there, Danar? Those are the new threat. Dragovinians. Half-dragon half-vampire monstrosities that seek to subjugate of all other life and to overthrow of the Olympians.”
Amalius said, “We gotta go. The lead dragovinian is bad news.”
Eathirilu said to Danar, “Come with us and we can explain.”
Amalius held out his hands. Torin, Aldarian, and Eathirilu put their own hands in his. Danar hesitated.
Terroc shouted, “Don’t let them escape! Stop them!”
Danar put his hand in Amalius’ and they teleported to the teleportation pad on the Earth’s surface below Greshendale.

All Patrol Bulletin

The party regrouped with Tagenadi, telling him quickly about their meetings with Talon and then with Danar. They hurriedly tried to bring Danar up to speed on how the dragovinians and the Xorians threaten the world, but sadly, you can’t always get what you want.

Terroc appeared on the teleportation pad, not too far from the party, followed by Krodius, the elven leader of the Sky Patrol. Soon more dragovinians and Sky Patrol members filled the pad. The merchants around the pad quickly moved carts, wares, and themselves away from the pad.

Krodius pointed a magical rod at the party and said, “You’re wanted for questioning in connection to the events leading up to the destruction of the Red Orb of Dragonkind.” All the mages on the pad readied spells to fire off at the party.
A standoff ensued. The Sky Patrol made demands for the party to “Drop their weapons and stand down!” But those demands were ignored. Spells were readied but kept in check to blast whoever made the first move.

Tagenadi raised his kusari-gama and moved towards the teleportation pad. All hell unleashed. Several mages blasted Tagenadi with orbs of force. Others threw steel balls at him. Tagenadi dodged two of the steel balls, but the third hit him head-on. Upon contact the ball expanded into a multitude of metallic bands that wrapped around Tagenadi, forcing him to the ground. Eathirilu recognized the entangling spell as bands of steel.

Another mage cast black tentacles on the party. As the tentacles reached up to grab them, Amalius cast temporal acceleration. He stepped out of the tentacles and placed a few wards on himself. He lined up his shot just right and as time resumed he blasted the entirety of the teleportation pad with a massive lightning wave. The wave took out all the Sky Patrol members on the pad and severely injured Terroc, the lesser dragovinians, and Krodius. Eathirilu followed the lightning up with a sunburst detonated in the sky. The lesser dragovinins were caught in it and disintegrated.

Tagenadi, using a special maneuver taught to him by his master long ago, contorted his body and freed himself from the restricting metal bands. He raised his kusari-gama and moved to a threatening position next to the wide teleportation pad.

Krodius and Terroc, fearing for their lives, teleported out. A replacement soon filled their shoes. Lady Shunawo Li, the leader of the dragovinian revolution in Greshendale, came down along with a Sky Patrol member and a dragovinian wizard.

Lady Li led off with a devastating barrage of spells. Tagenadi attempted to disrupt her casting, but her concentration was immaculate. A version of Bigby’s grasping hand appeared to grapple Amalius. She also fired off a disintegrate at Amalius, piercing his resistances and covering him in burns.

Tagenadi warded off the magical tentacles and moved to attack Lady Li, but her magical defenses protected her from the worst of their attacks. Aldarian broke free of the tentacles and repositioned himself away from the rest of the group. Eathirilu morphed into a tyrannosaur and lumbered forward out of the tentacles. Torin attempted to break free, but found the grasping pseudopods too strong.

Danar rushed out of the tentacles and engaged the arrived dragovinian to prevent it from casting spells. The Sky Patrol member attempted to blast Tagenadi, but was stopped by Tagenadi’s kusari-gama. The dragovinian breathed fire on Tagenadi, but found the death knight protected by a spell that Eathirilu cast that morning.

Amalius struggled against the giant force hand, but instead of trying to break free he focused his mind to ignore the damage to his body using psionic vigor. Amalius also reached out and touched Ladi Li’s mind revealing that she was intelligent, but likely not intelligent enough to be a wizard. Most likely her power was innate like that of a sorcerer.

Lady Li had been tripped by Tagenadi and he stood over her, harrying her, but she continued to cast spells from the ground. A wrack spell failed to incapacitate Amalius and a disintegrate brought some pain to Tagenadi, but he resisted the greater effects of it.

Aldarian moved to flank Lady Li with Tagenadi. Eathirilu chowed down on the dragovinian and Sky Patrol members that continued to arrive. Torin broke free from the tentacles and moved out of them. The little mages that arrived threw spells at Tagenadi, but he interrupted most of them with his whirling blade. Danar brought his axe down on Lady Li. It passed right through her! She was an illusion and Tagenadi had never noticed! Even Amalius was fooled as he sensed her mind where the illusion was!

Amalius, unable to truly attack Lady Li, elected to dominate her allies instead. The minds of the Sky Patrol and lesser dragovinians were coopted by their new psion master. Lady Li didn’t let that stand for long. She whispered chaotic words into everyone’s minds. Most of the party resisted, but Aldarian and all of Amalius’ thralls were driven mad with bloodlust. Aldarian stabbed Danar in his madness, inflicting a viscious wound. Tagenadi knocked out one of the Sky Patrol members to prevent him from hurting himself. Their other affected opponents began to tear themselves apart with their bare hands.

Eathirilu cast true seeing on himself and scanned the battlefield for Lady Li but he couldn’t find her. Torin ran over with his goggles of true seeing, but was similarly unable to locate the missing mage. Even Danar joined the search party. He flipped up his eyepatch to reveal a magical gem in his socket. He swept the area but could not find Lady Li.

Amalius decided to use a different method to locate her. He used a bit of himself to bend reality to cover her in glitterdust. Their dragovinian opponent appeared a few yards away on the opposite side of the party from the plot of thrashing tentacles. All the true seeing effects missed her because they didn’t think to look thirty feet up in the air where she was flying!
Lady Li swiftly flew next to Amalius and blasted him pointblank with a disintegrate. Amalius survived by the skin of his teeth. She blasted him with a second one. Amalius fell unconscious and began to bleed out in the grasping hand.

Aldarian attacked one of the dragovinians in his bloodlust. Tagenadi, Eathirilu, and Danar moved through the melee to get within attack range of Lady Li. They each scored a few hits on her despite her altitude due to their large forms and/or their reach weapons. Torin rushed closer to the party and got off a mass heal spell that restored Amalius to conscious and removed some minor cuts and scraps from Danar and Eathirilu.

More Sky Patrol members poured in along with their fully healed leader, Krodius. The biggest and closest target was Tagenadi, who received a salvo of orbs of force in his back. Deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, Amalius called for a retreat. The group quickly agreed over telepathy. He temporally accelerated himself and positioned himself and his psicrystal, Black, to teleport everyone away. When time resumed, Black brought Aldarian closer with a dimension door and Amalius got Aldarian, Tagenadi, and Danar out with a teleport. Aldarian resisted in his insane state, but Amalius overcame the elf.

That left Eathirilu and Torin. Torin still had his teleport boots, unfortunately, Lady Li was familiar with her enemies. She placed a wall of force between the two divine spellcasters. Perhaps not as familiar as she thought. Eathirilu changed into a sparrow to fly over the wall and into Torin’s hands. Torin clicked his heels together and joined the rest of the party back at Lakatia.

What is Right and What is the Law?

At Lakatia, Torin had a few choice words for Amalius. In the course of the fighting Amalius had killed ten Sky Patrol members. Was lethal force necessary during the battle?
Torin said, “It’s not so much what you did, but how easily you made that choice. Those men weren’t asking to die. They were defending their country, same as we are.”
Amalius said. “What should I have done then? They’d all but joined the dragovinians. Killing them was regrettable, but force WAS necessary.”
“But you didn’t need to kill them, only incapacitate them. I know that’s wrong and you know that’s wrong. Just a few days ago these people might’ve turned into our allies.”
“It happened though. What should I do now? Turn myself over to the Sky Patrol for judgement? We all know how that would turn out. A swift trial and an execution.”
“You shouldn’t do that, but…”
From here the debate went in circles. Amalius had done something wrong, but who could punish him? What was an appropriate punishment? Should Torin decide as the only clerical member of the party? The Björn? Turning Amalius over to Greshendale, the Alliance, or the Xorians for judgement was out of the question.

A small description of how law works was brought up. There are two types of laws in Cimmeria, divine law and mortal law. Divine law concerns sacriligeous crimes. Desecrating a shrine or killing a priest is a divine crime. Killing anybody within a city is a divine crime, but the fight took place just outside of Greshendale, not within it.

Mortal law are the laws that mortals make for themselves. Amalius would certainly be guilty within the jurisdiction of Greshendale, but is it appropriate to try him there? Shouldn’t he be tried by his people and peers? But who are those people? The party effectively functions as their own entity separate from any city-state or government with an established judicial system. How then could they mete out punishments upon each other?

Torin left to discuss the matter with Athena and ask her guidance. Amalius would suffer no punishment for now, but Torin remained concerned. His friend was losing sight of what was right in favor of revenge for what the Xorians did to him and his family. He would talk with Wise Athena and only after that take action if action would be warranted.