Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Aldelle Group – Session 17 – Demons and Devils, Oh My!

This session happened Tuesday, March 8, 2011.  This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training.

Adventuring Group:
Harkaitz of the Red Soul (male human cleric of Ra)
Wednesday (female elf rogue)
Sahar (female human fighter)
Tre-ba Bel a sheer (female elf alchemist)
Luna (female elf sorcerer)
Frankie Hu, Master of the Distracting Fist (male dwarf monk)


April 1, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Blessed is Ra, in whose Light we thrive.

Today we returned to the cave, delving deeper in search of the vrock said to inhabit it.  Past the side caves where we fought the barghests, the descending tunnel made a turn to the left and then split.  Frankie was scouting ahead, taking advantage of the dwarven ability to see in complete darkness.  He reported the right-most passage quickly opened into a chamber with opening high in the walls, wherein he heard flapping noises, but saw nothing.

To my ears this sounded like a stirge nest.  Having suffered their blood-draining attack before, I was resolute in avoiding it this time.  I stepped forward and filled the chamber with the holy fires of Ra [Harkaitz cast fireball, granted by the fire domain], confident that the blood drinkers could not stand against it.  Sadly, I was mistaken in my evaluation and we were soon set upon by what turned out to be quasits.  We quickly killed the evil pests before they could fly deeper into the cave and warn of our presence – or so we thought.  Pooling our knowledge after the fight, we realized that quasits were vulnerable to cold iron, something we did not have.  We discussed returning to Terranor to acquire some, but decided against it as, according to Tre-ba's knowledge, vrocks were had no vulnerabilities to cold iron.  (Note to self: Tre-ba seems to know a great deal about demons and devils – why is this?)

Deeper into the cave we came across a bearded devil and another quasit, one that had escaped earlier while invisible.  While a bearded devil is a fearsome foe, against our party it did not fare well (nor did the remaining quasit) and the fight was quickly over.  After putting down the bearded devil, we were faced with two possible passages to investigate, both leading further from the sunlight.  While we contemplated which way to go, I felt the presence of Ra in my soul and had the definite feeling we should follow the path on the right.  I announced this and, lacking any stronger opinions, my companions agreed to follow.

At the end of this passage we found a locked door.  Wednesday  picked the lock and Frankie opened the door.  Beyond was a shrine to evil, pure and simple.  The stained altar radiated palpable evil that filled the room with its unholiness.  I borrowed the waterskin of holy water from Wednesday [acquired early in our explorations of Dyson's Delve] and poured it upon the altar.  I then channeled the pure power of Ra into the altar [channel positive energy], cleansing it.  Evil would be supported here no more.

After the cleansing, we backtracked to the chamber where we fought the bearded devil and followed the remaining path.  This led to a deeper chamber where a battle had been recently fought.  There was much blood and the bodies of a demon of some sort, a quasit, a human, and an elf.  The human and the elf matched the descriptions of Michael and Lilss, two of the three members of The Comet of Katin.  Being only recently dead, it was still possible to return them from Duat.  That so, we cleaned their bodies (through Luna's use of a minor magic [prestidigitation]), wrapped them in their cloaks, and placed them in two of our bags of holding.

We pushed on deeper down a tunnel and came across the final member of The Comet of Katin, the halfling known only as Stunty.  He was fighting a dark angel with coal black wings and a burning bow.  Tre-ba identified it as an erinyes and stated that we should kill it.  I had no doubts of this.  This fight was fast and dangerous.  As we gained the upper hand on the dark angel, she took wing (literally) and flew down a tunnel to escape us.  Unfortunately for her, she expired from blood loss, a result of Wednesday's dire skill with her blade.

I healed those who needed it while Frankie retrieved the erinyes' weapons.  Wednesday claimed the eternally burning composite longbow the erinyes had ben using.  Frankie warned us that there seemed to be a much larger cavern ahead.  We were all tired and ready to return our fellow guild members to the guild house, so returned back to our camp.  Tomorrow we will escort Stunty and his dead companions back to Terranor. 

While we found two of the three adventurers we had been sent to assist dead, our confidence is high.  We feel certain that we have cleared most of the terrible denizens of the cave and after our side trip back to Terranor, we will return to put an end to the vrock and purge this cave.

In the meantime, Short John has prepared an excellent dinner of stew, bread, and a slab of sharp cheese for each of us.  Hiring him has turned out to be an excellent choice and worth paying the 5 silver marks a day for his salary.  He also knows several good tales from his time as a ship's cook, even if his way of telling the stories is a bit salty.

*End of Session*

[This session was played at Beck's Prime, one of the best burger places in the Houston area.  Yes, it is a chain, but they make excellent burgers and shakes you need to eat with a spoon.  We grabbed a table in the front corner and, after eating dinner, broke out the game materials and played.  We got a few curious looks from the other patrons, but had a good time and a good meal.]

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