GoCorral

This session was attended by Will, Ben, Trajan, and Avery. Tyler was in the process of moving to California and couldn’t make it. Jamie was participating in a Hearthstone tournament. I think he ended up getting in the top 16 out of 60 people. The session was held using Skype for voice and video and Roll20’s website for die rolling.

Divine Interrogation

The first step in the anti-assassination plan was to clear everyone in the war room. King Ballard cleared asked personal questions of all his subordinates in private to clear them while High Priest Alkmedemos cast discern lies and interrogated the party.
The interrogations were carried out with everyone still on the Skype call, but separated in character. The questions were also asked sequentially. I asked Hektor the first question, then I asked that question to Eathirilu, then Amalius, then Torin. Then I went back to Hektor and asked the second question, then Eathirilu, etc.

Who hired the assassin or the assassins?
Everyone answered something along the lines of “Amalgami hired the assassin through Duke Jingo of Nomingburg.”

What is your real name?
Hektor: Lord Hektor Rackgard of Lakatia.
Eathirilu: Eathirilu Treeheart.
Amalius: Amalius Halkias.
Alkmedemos looked up at that answer and said, “The grandson of Amalgami?”
“Yes.”
“Betraying you family for the greater good as Orestes did, eh? We’ll have to come back to that then won’t we?”
Torin: Torin Stoneblade.

Are you working with the assassin or the assassins?
Hektor: No.
Eathirilu: No.
Amalius: No.
Torin: No.

What do you know about the assassin or the assassins?
Hektor: They were hired from Duke Jingo as some sort of test for Amalius. And the assassin left Nomingburg two days ago.
Eathirilu: Amalgami hired the assassin two days ago in Nomingburg.
Amalius: Amalgami hired the assassin to kill King Ballard. The assassin left Nomingburg two days ago.
Torin: Amalgami hired the assassin to kill King Ballard as a test for Amalius. I think its some sort of contest between them that the lich set up.

Are you the assassin or one of the assassins?
Hektor: No.
Eathirilu: No.
Amalius: No.
Torin: No.

Do you have any special magical or mental triggers such as a programmed response to kill King Ballard when you are alone with him?
Hektor: No, but in the interest of full disclosure I do have a contingent teleport that will take me back to my home in Lakatia if I get knocked out.
Eathirilu: No.
Amalius: No, I do have my psicrystal, Merlot though.
Torin: No.

Additional questions for Amalius
As Amalius had identified himself as the grandson of Amalgami and not “Alan” Alkmedemos had a few more questions for him.
“Are you still in contact with your grandfather?”
“He speaks to me sometimes, but I never seek him out. He’s despicable.”
“Are you working with him on this assassination?”
“No. I’m working against him.”
“Do you have any plans to betray the Alliance or Aractrash to the Xorians?”
“No. Never.”
“What are your goals in your exploits with Hektor and the others?”
“To overthrow the Xorians. They kidnapped my family. We’ve been reunited, but I plan to make them pay.”
“I see. I trust you Amalius. I shall make your case to King Ballard myself. Zeus Pitar willing, he will grant you clemency in the court.”
After hearing Alkmedemos’ endorsement of Amalius, King Ballard allowed Amalius to remain with the same trust and respect that he gave the other companions.

The party also wanted to ask the same set of questions to Alkmedemos to see if he was working with the assassin. Along with a few questions of their own. Eathirilu acted as a lie detector using his supernatural intuition.

Who hired the assassin or assassins?
To the best of my knowledge, Amalgami the Betrayer did.

What is your real name?
Alkmedemos son of Theseus.

Are you working with the assassin or assassins?
No.

What do you know about the assassin or assassins?
Only what you have told me.

Are you the assassin or one of the assassins?
No.

Do you have any special magical or mental triggers?
No.

Do you have any gaps in your memory over the last two months?
No. I can’t drink as much as Bacchus anymore. Getting on in my years, you know.

What are your opinions on Aractrash joining the war against Xoria?
I stand with the King, but I wouldn’t be against taking the fight to those undead.

Batten the Hatches

Amalius set up his password of the day system for everyone who got close to the king and the defense began! The divination from last session would’ve only worked if the assassination attempt was coming within a week, so the party waited, ready for the assassin.

During the week, King Ballard had a conversation with his old archmage, Hektor. Ballard admonished Hektor, “I’ve heard you’re working with the Alliance now. I don’t appreciate you going over my head in this. I chose to stay out of that war for a reason.”
Hektor said, “I respect your majesty’s opinions, but frankly they are wrong. This war is not something you can choose to keep out of. You are the single strongest power that could oppose the Xorians and you choose not to. Without your aid the Alliance has no hope against the Xorians. They will lose and where next will Blendegad turn his serpentine eyes? South to the jungles that fought him in the last War of the Alliance.”
“And it was in that last war that the Xorians captured and killed 10,000 Aractrashan lives. I won’t subject my people to such brutality.”
“Those people were only captured due to the actions of the Betrayer, Amalgami. Amalgami isn’t on our side in this war.”
Ballard said, “We do have his grandson here, although Alkmedemos said he could be trusted. What about Amalgami himself though? He’s the one who hired this assassin. Why?”
Hektor said, “Amalgami is a follower of Eris, goddess of strife. My guess is that he wants you to join the war so that no city in Cimmeria will be at peace. The assassin is just a means of stirring things up.”
“Hmm… Well he has stirred things up. I’ll consider your arguments again. With Phoenix lost to the Xorians you may be right. The Alliance may not stand a chance without Aractrash and it is better to fight with allies than without. No promises though.”
“Thank you, your majesty.”
“It’s good to have you back at court, Hektor. You make me think.”

You may remember Morin the halfling merchant from Nomingburg, that the party had dismissed as a red herring? Lord Valen interrogated him and found that he was, indeed, a red herring. Morin was removed from Yuettencal to make sure, but it was very unlikely that Morin was the assassin.

Secure the Main Sail

Three days after the meeting in the war room, the assassin struck during the night. The defenses in place were Torin, Eathirilu, and Amalius. Ballard had rejected Hektor’s offer of a magnificent mansion to sleep in. He preferred his own bed. Torin stood outside the door wearing the true seeing goggles and a ring of friend shielding. The other ring was on Ballard’s own finger. Any damage that one took would be shared with the other. Eathirilu slept on the roof next to the windows of King Ballard’s rooms. Even sleeping, a panda druid’s ears can catch a lot of sounds. Amalius wafted through the halls of the castle in a shadowy form, looking for any mental signature out of place. All seemed normal.

Torin felt a sharp pain and an enormous wound opened in his chest. The King had been attacked! Torin flung the door open and saw something strange. The King stood, holding a bloody rapier over the body of… the King. Apparently the King with the rapier had stabbed the sleeping King in the bed. The King with the rapier had a similar wound in his chest as well. Torin cast mass heal on himself and the King in the bed, assuming that the King with the rapier was probably the assassin in some sort of disguise that could fool true seeing. Unfortunately, it was too late for the King in the bed. He had already died. Amalius’s divination came true.

The assassin King pulled out a crossbow and shot at Torin. The quarrel went through a chink in Torin’s armor, but instead of hurting the dwarf, it nailed him to the door he’d just come through. The assassin turned and dove out the nearest window. The plink of the quarrel hitting the Torin’s armor awoke Eathirilu. He looked over the side of the roof to investigate and saw the assassin clinging to the exterior walls of the keep.

Torin cast freedom of movement on himself, easily removed the quarrel and dashed to the window to see the assassin as well. The assassin looked up at Torin and Eathirilu and smiled. He let go of the wall and cast a spell as he fell. He disappeared before hitting the ground.

Torin shouted, “Dimension door! He’ll have to be nearby! Search for him!”

Eathirilu cast true seeing, changed into a sparrow and flew around the castle bailey, looking for someone who looked exactly like King Ballard. Torin drank a potion of fly and joined Eathirilu in the search.

Amalius, in making his rounds of the castle passed by King Ballard’s room once more. He sensed neither Torin nor Ballard’s mental presence within. He investigated and found the King murdered. Calling on his great psionic might, Amalius bent reality and undid the King’s death. Ballard breathed once more, but the wound in his chest remained. He did not awake.

Amalius telepathed to Torin on one of his flybys and learned what happened. Torin came down and cast heal on the King. Eathirilu also came down, having looked all over the castle courtyard and around the exterior. If the assassin was outside and still in the area, he would’ve found him by now.

Prepare for Suspicion

King Ballad woke up and mumbled a few groggy incoherent words. Amalius said, “Your majesty. You died. We brought you back to life.”
“What? Died? I don’t feel like I died.”
“You’re still injured your majesty, see?”
The King looked down at the bleeding wound in his chest. Torin’s heals had repaired some of the tissue damage, but not all of it. “What happened?”
The group repeated their experiences. At the end of the short tale King Ballard said, “Call my court. I need to speak to my people.”
Amalius said, “My lord it might be best to get you to a safe place first.”
“I said to call my court. I didn’t ask for back talk.”
“Of course. My apologies.” Amalius left to summon the people who were present in the war room previously. Torin healed King Ballard back to full while they waited. When Clank, Dalen, Valen, Alkmedemos, Kokinspiel, Lucas, and Preta were present the story was repeated.
King Ballard said, “You people are supposed to protect me and the assassin got past all our defenses. I want something done now!”
Hektor said, “Your majesty, you could still sleep inside the magical mansion. I do it myself. It’s quite comfortable. You wouldn’t miss anything on the outside.”
“Fine. It seems appropriate given the circumstances. Now can we track this teleportation that the assassin used? It might give us a clue on how he got through our defenses. He shouldn’t have been able to teleport into the castle grounds from outside. Maybe he teleported back to where he got in. And find out how he disguised himself through true seeing!”
The court murmured their agreement.
“Now the sleep of the dead does not do much for my health. I will go with Hektor to the extradimensional mansion for the night. Clank will keep watch from within Hektor’s rooms. Torin, give him your goggles. We’ll meet in the morning to discuss this further.”
The room cleared out as everyone followed the King’s orders.

In the morning there was news of another attack. The assassin took on the face of Clank this time and attacked Lord Valen in his chambers. Lord Valen fought off the assassin until the guard showed up. The guard took a few more seconds to get into Valen’s rooms as the door was still locked. The assassin disappeared once more when the guards arrived.

Hektor’s entourage met with the King and his court in the war room once more. King Ballard said, “I’m through playing defense with this bastard. We have to find him and take him out, not the other way around. I’m also worried about my family. We should assign a security detail to them and have them sleep in the mansion with me. Hektor can protect us from within if the assassin somehow gets inside while Clank watches the outside. Now I want to hear ideas on how to catch this shapeshifter!”

The group came up with a few ideas, but nothing concrete. Trace teleport, a psion power, could track the assassin’s dimension doors, but only if it was cast immediately afterwards. There was also the question of how the assassin’s disguises were fooling true seeing. Hektor remembered that there was a halfling that had figured out how to get around true seeing, but could not recall any of the details.

The discussion of how to combat and find the assassin continued. King Ballard and Lord Valen were both keen on figuring out how the assassin got into the castle. Hektor thought another divination might be in order to figure out who the assassin would attack next. Amalius and Eathirilu began to suspect that Lord Valen had been replaced by the assassin, but only spoke about this in private with each other and Torin.