GoCorral

This session was attended by Trajan, Will, Avery, and Ben. Jamie also came, but he was a little late. We used Skype for voice and video and Roll20 for tabletop interactions.

Recover the Royals

Torin’s method for finding the assassin was a discern location spell. Infallible and able to penetrate all but the greatest divinations, the party used it on King Ballard. The spell revealed that Ballard’s body was kept in the bag of holding of R, leader of the assassins guild of Nomingburg. Specifically Ballard’s body was between the bodies of Staynard and Shasta.
Next Torin cast the same spell on R. The spell revealed his location in the assassins guild hall in Nomingburg.

The party cast their buff spells and teleported off. Clank insisted on coming with them. They arrived outside the guild hall and Hektor shouted, “Give us the body of King Ballard or we will burn your guild hall to the ground!”
A few moments later and Ballard’s body was tossed out the front door by two men in black.
“And the other two as well!”
Staynard and Shasta’s bodies were tossed out next to Ballard.

Clank rushed forward and checked the bodies for signs of life while Amalius began casting a divination. Clank found that Ballard and Shasta were dead, but Staynard was still alive. He was comatose, but alive.

Amalius’ divination probed into the status of Ballard’s soul. He got this response:
“Ballard’s soul is imprisoned
Not to roam wild and free
Ballard’s soul is held
By the Betrayer, Amalgami.”

A Different Tack

Cursing, the party returned to Yuettencal with the bodies. The group had a quick discussion of what to do next while Clank broke the news to the king’s entourage. The party decided that they needed to act quickly on the information Amalgami had granted them about the Xorians attempting to meet with Invernix and Sartoria. Guessing that Devanane would be the one sent, Hektor tried a scrying. It failed. Eathirilu, hoping for better luck, tried a greater scrying which proved successful.

Eathirilu saw Devanane flying on the back of a shadowy dragon. The group teleported to Lakatia and picked up Tagenadi for extra muscle. After prepping their buff spells once more they teleported off to catch Devanane with his pants down.

They ported in and Amalius led off with a dominate. It was successful and Amalius ordered Devanane to shout out, “I am under the control of Amalius!”

Ignoring this obvious news, Eathirilu cast a sunburst spell and Tagenadi moved to engage. Devanane wheeled his dragon around and darkness fell on the party. Those with true seeing (Torin, Amalius, and Eathirilu) could still see Devanane and his dragon, but the others could not.

Eathirilu and Tagenadi stopped attacking and Amalius ordered Devanane to land on the ground a mile below them. Hektor, wanting to get in on attacking a foe who couldn’t fight back, cast acid fog on Devanane. Amalius practically screamed at the party, “He’s under my control! Stop!”

Devanane teleported past the acid fog and continued towards the ground. As he did so, Amalius asked him about the magical items on his person. He begrudgingly gave them this list:

Upon landing on the ground the group interrogated Devanane.
“What were you trying to do?”
“Meet with Invernix to convince him to join us.”
“What were you going to offer him?”
“A space in the new pantheon Blendegad is creating.”
“And the dragon you’re riding? What is it’s name?”
“Her name is Briasanon.”
“How do you control her?”
“By dominating her.”
Amalius ordered Devanane to allow Briasanon to speak freely and turned to her, “Would you like to eat Devanane?”
“Very much so, but Blendegad wouldn’t approve.”
“You care what Blendegad thinks?”
“Of course. He’s the greatest thing to ever happen to dragonkind in living memory. He will restore draconic dominance to the land and overthrow the Olympians. Why wouldn’t I serve him as fully and completely as possible?”
“But you want to eat Devanane?”
“Oh yeah. He’s a huge asshole. I’d love to grind him up for all the shit he’s given to me these past few years.”
“I see.”

The group moved out of earshot to discuss their plan. They weren’t going to get much more information out of Devanane. Amalius could feel him fighting the domination with all his will. They decided it would be best to eliminate him, a complicated prospect given the exception to dominate, “the target will take no obviously suicidal action.”
Amalius asked Devanane, “How long does your dominate on Briasanon have left?”
“Four days,” Devanane answered.
“Good. Order her to fly north for two days then back here.” Devanane looked at Briasanon and she took off to the north.

After Briasanon had flown a good way off the group tensed for action. Hektor led off with a sudden maximized irresistible dance. The spell ripped through Devanane’s spell resistance and he set to dancing. The rest of the group moved in and chewed through Devanane’s hit points. They broke him in seconds. He began to crawl away, but Torin stepped forward with a cure spell and executed him.

“Well that’s the end of that.” The group gathered up Devanane’s treasure, the Hidden Shield was unfortunately nowhere to be found. They scattered his ashes to the winds and teleported back to Lakatia.

New Directions

At this point there was a large discussion about what the next objective would be in the campaign. There were fifteen things everyone thought of:

1. Attempt to rejoin the Alliance (obstacles include Tagenadi being undead and Amalius being related to Amalgami).
2. Attempt to get other citystates in Cimmeria involved in the war. Other citystates include Nomingburg, Mars’ Oasis, and Balin’s Holt. Nomingburg has the assassins guilds and a few people ready for militia, but how can you motivate them without money? Mars’ Oasis has other problems to deal with (Formians and Bavastatner). Balin’s Holt is heavily anti-magic and thus hates both sides in this conflict.
3. Attempt to get Aractrash involved in the war. King Ballard was already headed in this direction after the assassination attempt. Will Staynard continue or will other forces in the court influence his decision? Could the party be one of those forces?
4. Something in Greshendale? There’s still more orbs there for them to blow up. There’s also a dragovinian population that is taking over the city by converting people.
5. Find the Lots for Tagenadi because Hades said so! Hermes has the Lots. Contacting Hermes just requires spending money. Then you “play a game of chance” with him to win the Lots.
6. Find the Bow of Apollo for Aldarian because Helios said so! The bow is certainly powerful, but why would you do things for a Titan? Also, isn’t Apollo using it?
7. Danar’s got some stuff he wants to do related to the orbs and his past life.
8. Go beat up Bavastatner or something?
9. “Divide” Nomingburg to get the Pitchfork of Doom from the Dahak for the prophecy to revive Zeus.
10. Figure out what the Alliance and the dwarves are up to (This seemed to be the #1 priority).
11. Do something with the giant undead armies. One at the Lich Shade. One at Crux. And all the undead dwarves underneath Xoria.
12. Figure out who enchanted the Antenator (Big reward for Tagenadi if they do this!).
13. Puzzle out more of the prophecy that Torin got from Athena that Tagenadi deciphered:
“When the black blade marches,
pay it no heed,
for I control it.
Of intervention, there will be no need.

Instead, turn your heads
to others of kind,
for with them the horse marches
and he plows his own seed.

And with the horse comes
the lone lost, return
to the own maid of bones
and the family he spurned.”

Or my version:
“When the black blade marches
Pay it no heed
For I control it
Of intervention there will be no need

Instead turn your heads
To others of kind
For with them the horse marches
And he plays his own side

And with the horse comes
The long lost return
To the one made of bones
And the family he spurned”
14. Play shuttle service to the lower level party to get the rest of the Druid’s Prophecy clues.
15. Hunt down Amalgami. (The guys shied away from this one because it doesn’t bring them closer to the end goal of stopping Blendegad.)

The one objective the party took a step towards was finding the Bow of Apollo (#6). Amalius cast divination and received this answer from the universe, “Follow your rage and the answer will come to you.” Securing Aractrash’s involvement in the war (#3) was favored as the next step. They sold Devanane’s loot and bought a few things for themselves before going to meet with Prince Staynard (or King Staynard now?).

Staynard expressed that he was at a loss for what to do next. The coming coronation seemed overwhelming and his father had only just begun to teach him about how to run the kingdom. Additionally, his inability to ride Kinderax weakened his image in the eyes of the people of Aractrash. Staynard also lacked the mental bond his father had with the dragon, meaning he missed out on her constant advice and guidance in his daily life. AND Shasta was dead. Nothing going right for Staynard today.

The party attempted to fix the problem by talking with Kinderax. They hoped that Amalius could somehow build up a mental bond between her and Staynard over a few days instead of the years it had taken for King Ballard and his father King Willard before him. Kinderax kept her responses to these inquiries short, “No,” and, “Leave me alone.”

Soon after this, Torin officially left the party. He packed up his stuff, said his goodbyes, and teleported off to Jord.

The group wanted to see if they could get a Ballard’s soul back from Amalgami and resurrect the king. They soon realized that Torin was the one who usually cast sending spells. The group teleported to Torin’s suite in Jord where he had just arrived and asked him, “Hey buddyyy… Wanna cast a sending for us?”
Torin grumbled, “You would do something like this. Fine. Give me a few minutes to prepare the spell.”
Torin cast the sending to Amalgami, “We want the gem returned. What is your price?” The gem being the jewel that holds Ballard’s soul.
Amalgami responded, “Which gem? I didn’t take any gems from you, dwarf. Although we can arrange an exchange for your family jewels, if you catch my drift.
The group talked over their next sending and sent this, “The dwarf sends on behalf of your grandson. We want the gem containing the soul of Ballard. What is your price? Be clear.”
Amalgami said, “Aractrash enters the war. Tell Ballard I’m hiding in Nox and am allied with Xoria. And use the power of Tagenadi’s gem. See you soon.”

Tagenadi flat out refused to use the Black Crystal he’d taken from the Bane. Hektor agreed that the evil power of the artifact should be contained and destroyed when they got the chance instead of unleashed upon the world.

As for getting Aractrash into the war? Did Amalgami mean that they were to lie to Ballard after resurrecting him about Amalgami’s location? Lying to a king didn’t sit well with the party, but it would get them what they wanted. However, with Tagenadi and Hektor unwilling to meet the other condition of using the Black Crystal and the rest of the group ambivalent about the Crystal’s use… They might just have to settle for Staynard leading Aractrash and hoping that he got his shit together soon to join the war.

Enter Origenes

The Björn used a sending spell to contact Amalius, “We need to talk. Meet tomorrow at the Monkey Forest at dawn.”

The next day the party met in the Monkey Forest once more. The Björn was there with someone else. An average human man wearing a cloak with his hands resting on two daggers that he wore at his sides. The Björn greeted the party and introduced his tag-a-long, “This is Origenes.” (Salzar’s new character! Woooo!)
The Björn continued, “I’ve heard about what happened at Greshendale. Is it true? Did you destroy the Red Orb?”
Amalius said, “Well…”
The Björn sighed, “I’d feared as much. I’d like to prevent future such… setbacks in our combined war efforts. That’s why I’ve brought Origenes along. I think he should keep a check on your more whimsical tactical decisions.”
“Of course. What exactly does Origenes do?”
“Origenes, show them.”
Origenes whipped the two daggers out of their scabbards and threw them both with lightning speed at a nearby tree, severing two branches from it. The daggers appeared back in his grasp instantly.
Amalius said, “Well, cutting branches off a tree is well and good, but how much damage can you do to a real target?”
Origenes said, “Are you volunteering?”
“Sure. Why not?”

Amalius stepped forward and cast a vigor spell on himself to improve his survivability, doubling it on his psicrystal and then using share pain on his psicrystal to effectively double his hitpoints entirely.

Origenes whipped out his daggers and threw them once more. They scorched through the air, each one hitting Amalius in the shoulder. The force knocked him back a step and the vigor spell was almost penetrated through. Amalius was sure that if he had not protected himself he would be standing there armless.

Amalius said, “Pretty good.”

The Björn updated the party on how the Alliance was doing. Minor problems continued in Bradel Fields due to the goblin slave army, but nothing major. Most of the Alliance’s force was being transported to Jipangu with the teleportation gates to be trained. The super soldier water made from the Geyser of Talos and the Tome of Agamemnon greatly accelerated the training process. The Alliance Council was confident that they’d have a formidable force by the time spring arrived. The only issue was if Xoria attacked during the winter. The Council found that unlikely, especially after the revolt in Gazeara.

The Björn also brought the group up to speed about internal politics in Dalleer. The Björn’s right-hand man, Terolio, was assassinated recently. Investigators easily determined that the assassin had been hired in Nomingburg, but who had done it and why? The Björn was confident that the normal police force would find something and that the party’s involvement wasn’t necessary.

The group said their goodbyes and went back to Lakatia.

Since the assassin plot was concluded I also revealed how the deed was accomplished to the players.