Enizver and Wrinil finish off one of the shadow demons, exploding and being banished back to its home plane.
The remaining demon blinks away and strikes the surprised Untherite to the ground, nearly killing him (31 damage, 37 would have killed).
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The end in sight, Liv called out mockingly to the one remaining demon. "Oh silly shadow, you should have run when you had the chance. Now there's only one in the bed when the little one said !"
Horat crashes to the ground, then awakens again.
This happens all too often. But at least I get to rise after.
Horat rises, then drives a halberd blade vibrating with power straight at the remaining demon!
"Let us see your tricks after this!", he calls to it.
"Oh, beds. A nap would be nice..." Enizver murmured as he locked another round into his weapon and opened fire again.
Wrinil fires off three force missiles, yet again.
For a moment, S.A.M. appears embarrassed to have missed, but hums with excitement at seeing the first demon fall. Taking his place alongside Horat, he lifts his hexblade battleaxe once more:
Concentration: Branding Smite
Bonus Action: Hex
Attack with Hexblade:
If hit lands:
Reactions:
If Horat is attacked: Protection Fighting Style (Disadvantage on Demon's attack rolls).
Absolutely every humanoid strikes a blow on the demon and it is banishes back to its home plane in an explosion of shadow. You catch your breath in the marketplace, the sun having just set. The adventurers eye this strange metal man, wondering what to think of him...
"Thanks for the help, sir," Enizver said as the creature naffed off back to whence it came, laying the smoking barrel of the Thunder Cannon over his shoulder. "I think we'd have rather struggled with that one. I'm Enizver." He held his hand out.
Wrinil collapses with his head in his hands. His shoulders shake rhythmically.
Liv was a little surprised when Olivia didn't immediately reassert control once the danger had passed. She was probably sulking or something equally boring. That suited her fine though; they were no longer in the annoying, bug-filled jungle meaning she might actually have a chance to have some fun while she maintained control.
She flew down to the ground and began picking up the pieces of the shattered staff, smirking to herself. Amari may be gone, but they had killed all three of the idiots responsible. Not a one would live to brag of their deeds. Though it was a little bit of a pity that their bodies and just disappeared; she had been looking forward to displaying the corpses somewhere humiliating.
"Well, we must be doing something right if they sent creatures to kill us." She said to no one in particular. "At the rate you enjoy impaling yourself, Horat, I fear we may need to stock a bag of holding with just medical supplies to keep you up. Maybe try ducking and weaving a little? Not every blow has to land." Her lips quirked upwards slightly to indicate she was teasing him. "We may have to get a few wrenches or something for your new friend though; I'm not sure herbs will do much more than oil its joints."
Demons, the chaotic evil creatures of the Abyss, only die if killed in their home plane. Killing them on the material plane just causes them to respawn in the Abyss.
Horat gives a smile with little mirth at Olivia's comments.
"Sadly, those three were not slain. Driven back to the Abyss, the one place that demons can truly be extinguished. But at least those three do not currently plague our world. We were lucky that this metallic newcomer came to assist, or they may have been left standing here over our very dead bodies."
He turns to Wrinril.
"Wrinril, are you in need of assistance?"
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Wrinil raises his head from his curled lump. His face is red and puffy and liquid streams from both his eyes and nose. "How!?" he blubbers. "How can this constant death and danger be normal for all of you!?" He juts a shaky finger at Horat, "Your practically in a constant state of death!"
Wrinil sucks in a big breath of air, "All for what!? Some disembodied voice? Knowledge?!" As he says this he shoves his hand into his pack and then throws papers into the air. Wrinil begins breathing quickly and clutching his chest. He curls once more and mutters, "...I'm just a librarian..." over and over.
Horat simply looks back at Wrinril.
"War and battle are commonplace in my homeland, with demons and devils as participants. So fighting the monstrous is nothing new to me."
"This is part of life as an adventurer," Enizver said with a small smile. "And it's less a state of death and more the first step towards it. Actual death is rather more difficult to overcome." There was a limited supply of diamonds, after all.
Liv pouted at Horat's comment. "Really, you couldn't even give me a moment of enjoying my revenge?" She sighed in an over exaggerated fashion as she put the remaining parts of the shattered staff into her bag.
She rolled her eyes at Wrinil outburst. Olivia would probably feel awkward at it. Or worse, she might actually try to comfort the brat. She shuddered at the thought. "No one's making you come along Wrinil. If you don't like it, leave and return to your books. No one's going to stop you."
She then turned to the rest of the group. "As for the rest of us, I would suggest we find passage back as quickly as possible. The longer we dally, the more time more minions have to confront us."
Wireline begins gathering his scattered papers, "Yes, back home...the library was safe..."
"Wrinril, I will say this. If you were just a librarian, you are not just that now. You have fought with us against monsters. You should take some pride in that. We should indeed seek passage back to Waterdeep as soon as feasible, though with avoiding pirates."
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"Our pasts are but a foundation we have built on for what we are now," Enizver said with a small shrug. "If they weren't then we would never have gotten this far. But yes, less pirates and more naps this time." Enizver was behind on his reading.
Manually buffing out the dings in his exoskeleton, S.A.M. says half to himself: "Oof, that *was* a nasty fall. I really don't feel very good. I'd like to rest my weary circuitry."
He turns to Enziver and clumsily claps him on the shoulder a bit too hard than would be natural. "Thank you for your healing magic. Without your aid, well, I suppose I would have finally been given the death that awaits me. Now I can continue in service of Kelemvor."
Turning to Wrinil, he ponders for a moment with the sound of whirring, then grumbles reassuringly, "Do not weep, little librarian man; death at the proper time is nothing to fear. Administering it to a worthy foe is a great honor. Clearly you have much to learn!"
Horat turns to the newcomer.
"Well met, stranger. Your assistance in combating those demons was timely and welcome. I am Horat of Unther. Who are you?"
"Not a problem, you were happy to help us after all. And I am Enizver." Enizver smiled cheerfully.
Wrinil finishes gathering his papers, shoves them into his pack, and stands up with a worried but serious look on his face. "We're headed back to Waterdeep right? Lets find a boat."
Eager to continue onwards, Liv made a 'hurry up gesture'. "Yes, yes. That's Enizver and that's Horat and that's Wrinil. I'm Liv, except when I'm not. Then I'm Olivia. Now if you don't mind, we need to go find a boat. Oh, but feel free to tag along; maybe if the captains see you they'll get scared into giving us a discount." She grinned cheekily as she started heading towards the docks in search of a ship that could give them passage. She then abruptly headed backwards. "Oh, but first, I should probably patch you up a bit, shouldn't I?"
S. A. M. Reaches out to grasp Enziver’s hand while heading toward to boats. Hurrying alongside Liv and gesturing mechanically, S. A. M. declares “The name’s S. A. M. I was built and deployed with one purpose in mind: neutralization of enemy targets. You might not believe it, but I’ve killed more people than you could count! He chuckles and then looks about uneasily.
”Erm… in any event, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance! He bows his head low to the ground with his arms out while still running. S. A. M. Gratefully accepts the healing aid to his bruised, er, hull.
My thanks to you! I feel fantastic! I would be delighted to tag along!
The group decides to head back to Waterdeep to guard Alain Turick, one of the lodestones of this plane, from demonic forces with the amulet they found in a devilish temple in the jungles of Chult.
You head back to the docks and look for passage back to Waterdeep.
You talk to various captains and show yourselves capable hands. You manage to work your way back up the Sword Coast.
As you sail, you have a chance to get to know each other a little better, conversing when you have the time.
"Excellent. Let us move on to find said ship."
Over the course of the journey, Liv slowly gives way to Olivia once more. Even so, Olivia keeps mostly to herself and can be seen occasionally staring off into the distance.
Enizver...did not convince the captains to take them for free. He instead spent some time getting supplies together.
Olivia and Enizver fail to impress with word or deed but perhaps Horat or S.A.M. will help impress a ship captain? Halgrin tries to help out but doesn't manage, seeming lost in thought.
Horat does his best to win over a passing trading captain.
Wrinil bumbles in his words.
The group looks around but finds difficulty convincing captains to take them on to work, despite Horat's show of strength. But maybe their new friend can help convince the captains of how useful they are.
Greetings, captain! Any chance we could get passage to Waterdeep?
Persuasion:
Halgrin throws his voice in with yours and you manage to convince a captain to take you along as sailors. You put in a good deal of work. Horat and Halgrin move a heavy crate together and the first mate notes "Eh you two look pretty good in a fight. And yer equipped fer it too. Seen much action?"
and rest at the end of the day, eating and drinking with the ship's crew. A sailor addresses S.A.M. "Say, what kind of thing are you? Where do you come from?"
Another crewmate sidles up to Olivia. "Hello there, pretty miss. Care to share some grog with me?"
Meanwhile, several eye Enizver's thundercannon and one bets "Five gold that thing is just for show."
Meanwhile, the ship's navigator is poring over charts of the Sword Coast, marking specific locations.
Enizver smiled cheerfully. "I will take that bet. How about any of you other fine folk? Would anyone else like to wager 5 gold coins that this little toy of mine is just to scare away the ladies and gentleman when I go to the bar, for, as you can all see, I am a very handsome man and this does better than the simple stick?"
If he was going to make a bet, he might as well see how much gold he could make off it.
Enizver gets one sailor to lay down money, scoffing "Yeah, I think you're full of talk and nothing else." He puts a bottle on a crate near the rail so any shot will go out over the water. "Let's see you shoot that bottle and prove it."
Enizver raised his weapon, cranking a fresh bullet into the chamber and sighting down the barrel. He raised the weapon to his shoulder, then let out a slow breath before pulling the trigger. The Thunder Cannon let out a sharp crack and bucker, as expected.
The glass dissolved into a cloud of shards, glinting in the light in rather spectacular fashion that flew out over the oceon. Enizver smiles again and bows, his gun across his shoulders as he does. "A pleasure to perform."
As Horat hefts crates with Halgrin, he replies:
"Yes. Many foes. Some living, some undead, some demonic."
*************
As he works, Horat overhears the swaggering sailors mock Enizver's weapon.
The fools are about to throw away their gold.
He smiles a little when he hears the boom.
Wrinil keeps to himself on the ship. He helps out when and how he can, but otherwise keeps his face buried in papers or books.
When Enizver has his wager building Wrinil is completely engrossed in repairing a coil of rope. He does not seem to hear the building commotion. At the loud crack of the weapon his head shoots up in surprise and his eyes wide with fear. Without skipping a beat or even looking around he immediately does a quick incantation and contorted hand sweep and turns invisible.
Very quietly one might be able to hear muttering, "Oh Mystra not again...please protect me...I just want to get home..."
Olivia jumped slightly as the man approached her, immediately tensing. She eyed the crew member warily, not liking the way he was looking at her. It made her skin crawl. "N-no thank you. I don't really drink." She then quickly hurried away.
Liv simply sighed. What's wrong with you girl? Free booze! All it'd really cost you is a little bit of flirting! And if he was foolish enough to think that a few measly drinks made him entitled to something, well, *I'd* make sure he'd rethink his position.
If Olivia heard Liv's words, she ignored them. Instead, moving to stand near Horat. As the bearer of the amulet, she hadn't let him get too far away from her. He had a tendency to die without her, and they had gone through too much for their hard-earned prize to so easily be spirited away.
"Do you have any stories to tell, Horat? Adventures from before we met?" She liked stories. Though nowadays she had to exert some effort to ignore how much like her own life they were becoming.
Horat turns to face Olivia, his eyes alert for dangers beyond her, a tried and tested companion.
"Hello, Olivia."
He thinks a moment.
"I was not born on this world. None of my people of my age or much younger were. We were on a piece of Unther that had been torn into the world of Abeir during the Spellplague. My younger brother Seleku are I were young nobles and warriors, come to manhood just in time for the rebellion that would see us and the Mulhorandi free of Abeir's genasi. Then Seleku was brought low by plague, and died before seeing a battle. In the battles, the Reborn God-King Gilgeam saw fit to tolerate demonic allies. The rebellion continued even when Unther was brought back to Toril. We fought the lizards of Tymanther for the remainder of Untherite lands, even when they brought devilish allies of their own."
The sailors laugh and applaud while the sailor who lost the bet chuckles some and hands over the gold. "Worth it to see something like that. What say we set up a few more targets and see what that thing does?!"
The second mate was coming to inspect the rope that Wrinil was repairing but can't find the timid young man, who seems to have vanished. "Now where'd he go?"[b/]
After contemplative silence, Halgrin opens up. [b]"That chain devil made me see someone I haven't seen in a long time. What all did you see?"
Horat turns to face Halgrin.
"I saw my brother, full of life, just as he was before the plague got its claws into him. It took me too long to make myself ignore the impossible."
The gnome laughed a little. "Well, I can try that shot again, but there's a little bit of luck involved."
Two more shots cracked out, while a third went click. "Oh, darn," Enizver said as he pulled the shell. "Dud round."
Responding to the sailor a bit too indignantly, S. A. M. replies "Now look here. I don't want any trouble with you, but I'll not be called a thing. I am an independent and rational construct.
He peers down at the sailor as his lens' aperture expands and contracts rapidly. His three-digit hands interlock as he sizes up the sailor.
"I come from a forge, if that's what you're asking, though I imagine I've seen more of this world than even a sailor has in my years."
S. A. M. pauses a bit too long here before continuing.
"In any case, I haven't been to where we're headed, at least not that I can recall. What can you tell me about Waterdeep, sailor?"
Olivia stared at Horat, nodding slowly. Man, that guy has *no* idea how to tell a story. I suppose I could guess that he was unlikley to add any flair but he could have at least set up proper context. Instead I would swear he was just trying to do as much name dropping as possible. Which admittedly would have been more impressive if I knew of any of the people he was talking about...
"That sounds...uhhh...terrible?" I'm pretty sure that's the reaction I'm supposed to have. Maybe outrage that their enemy seems to have allied themselves hell-spawn? "I don't have a brother. At least, I don't think I do. I was sent to study with a hermit at a pretty young age, so I barely even remember my parents. It was...peaceful." She was quiet a long moment before she asked, "Was it nice having a brother? The sage I was with was nice enough, but he did a lot of meditating. I was mostly left to entertain myself. Maybe if I had had a brother of my own, he would have been sent to study with me. It might have been nice to have someone my own age around. I think I may have been a bit much for Tiernan to handle by himself." And if I had had someone with me, maybe I wouldn't have roamed so far from our cave. I wouldn't have stumbled into that temple...