Fobb barks a word of power as Selgaer swings his spear, and the weapon passes through the halfling as if he wasn't there! The illusory decoy fades away, and the real Fobb teleports behind the rest of the group, closer towards the exit!
A cold fury takes over Shen's body and he rushes the demon without a second thought.
The elderly man pounces like tiger, clawing through the demon's flesh with his dagger. His stone-like fist collides with many of the waving human heads, caving in their faces. Shen's face is a mask of cold fury as he slices through the more tender parts of the bloated creature.
Joy blinks then smiles.
"Oh hi, TaBog! It's been a while!"
**************
Joy is able to think clearly but the whispers are frustrating.
When Fobb teleports, she tries to stop him by channeling power into vines growing on the wall outside.
"Oh, no you don't, Fobb!"
The vines infused with torrents of nature magic, they grow and change form, the window shattering as a bramble hedge grows across the carpet, blocking Fobb's escape in that direction!
Selgaer and Joy would see to Fobb, so Dramm focused his efforts on the demon. He had seen thousands of faces like this one when he witnessed the Sword of the Unmaker's destruction. Now he knew where he would send this one when he killed it.
"I'll remove you from this place." Dramm growls, and a glow spreads from his wedding ring to the rest of his hand. He places one glowing fingertip to his other hand, and a minute burst of destructive magic draws a single bead of blood from the flesh to send streaking at the demon.
Dramm puts one hand out to the Demon, anticipating a rushing attack. He can already feel the energy washing through the magical connections in his body to explode.
"Oh what? Damn already with the bloody demons? Who? Do we need to go after that guy? I can totally go after that guy. Murdered or not murdered?"
Tabog quickly knocks an arrow and fires at the demon's weird face!
Tabog reflexively dodges backwards for cover to put between himself and the demon.
Uruuna is frightened by the demon’s horrifying appearance, but she still moves in to slice at it bloated form. Joy blocks off Fobb’s exit while Dramm disintegrates a portion of the demon and both Shen and Tabog strike the demon.
Fobb casts another spell, summoning a flying shadow bat that nips at Selgaer’s ears. The demon whips its tentacles around, and while Sel and Shen dodge the attacks, Uruuna takes a hit. The demon’s head continues to spout forth maddening whispers.
The demon's foul whispering fell on dead ears as Shen focused his mind on slaying the beast. "We will handle this demon, stop Fobb!" Shen shouts as he continues his attack.
The old man continued to slice into the beast, but his movements slowed a bit. Was old age catching up? He was still a dangerous foe, carving into the demon's softer flank.
"Aye, aye!"
Joy launches a ball of witch fire towards Fobb!
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You cannot escape me, Fobb! Sel yells to the halfling. Sel darts through the combatants to the councilor, again trying to knock him to the ground.
"Troublesome monster."
Dramm unleashes traces a burning sigil into the air to sunder the invader's flesh.
Dramm directs the explosion in front of him again, warding himself from his enemy.
"I don't even know who the hell you are, but sure I'll go after Bob and leave the terrible demon to you!"
Just a moment behind Sel, Tabog starts toward the man in question, knocking an arrow mid stride.
He aims carefully at his target and threads his arrow between the man's ankle bone and achilles tendon, pinning him in place.
Joy scorches Fobb with her witch fire, then Tabog pins the halfling’s foot to the floor with an arrow! The elderly man passes out from the pain.
The rest of you focus on the demon. Uruuna misses, but Sel and Shen land good hits. The demon avoids the worst of Imedren’s fireball, but Dramm’s spell causes significant damage. Thick black sludge pours from its wounds. Continuing its incessant whispers, the monster bashes both Shen and Selgaer with its tentacles!
Seeing the cat trying to get in his way again (typical of cats, really), Sel pirouettes out of the way and heads towards the demon. TaBog! Grab his implement before he wakes up! And make sure he doesn't have any incantations!
The tentacle whip hurt, but Sel continued to fight.
The maddening whispers finally got to Sel! Instead of stabbing the demon, his spear penetrated a shadow. Confused and muddled, Sel had difficulty keeping his focus as his eyes watered and his mind reeled.
Dramm grimaces. He had expected the creature to fall by now. Uruuna and Selgaer had withstood worse, their wounds were not serious yet. He had been continually impressed by how much punishment Uruuna seemed capable of simply brushing aside. Dramm expends one last burst of destructive power on the demon with another violent rend.
This ferren's ability to act aloof knows no bounds as the group continues their onslaught of the demon, and he just continues to sarcastically make retorts their expense!
"His what now? Uhhh, that's okay, he's not my type... Sicko..."
Despite his protests Tabog curvets over the halfling, kicks his bag away, and quickly pats his pockets. He sees the fight happening just yards away, finds some cover, and takes a moment to study the demon in a way only someone with a killer's keen eye can.
The whispers seem to grow closer, by Joy's reckoning. The young witch turns to glare at the demon. As she turns, the witch fire arcs past her. As she points, the witch fire hurtles!
Despite her growing insanity, Uruuna remains resolute, slicing deeply into the demon's belly with her scimitar!
Shen grit his teeth as the hellbeast struck him, feeling what would surely be some bruises come morning. The old man focused himself and dug deep, hoping to slay the demon before it brought him down instead. His movements sped up again and his knife found purchase on the demon's blubbery flesh.
Imedren managed to shake off the maddening whispers of the demon. Tired of its constant prattle he decided to end this assault on their minds.
How did get a hold of the ability to summon such a powerful demon?
In his heightened state of speed, Imedren strode across the room and unleashed an attack from the raw chaotic energies he had surrounding him. Something he'd only recently learned to do but he found it ate away at the buildup of energies, making it easier to deal with.
Even as Imedren unleashed his sorcerous power, he was able to maintain his will over his magic exploding out of his control.
You continue to assault the demon with weapons and magic. Shen and Uruuna slice its legs, but Selgaer's spear fails to find purchase. Joy, Dramm, and Imedren combine their spells to severely wound the demon.
It lashes out with its tentacles once more, slamming Shen and Uruuna. But then Imedren blasts it with raw sorcerous power, and the demon explodes, drenching everybody and everything in the room with foul-smelling black sludge!
Uruuna groans in pain, badly wounded but still on her feet. "Ugh! Nice going, guys. Blech!" She gags at the stench of the sludge covering her.
Breathing a small sigh of relief as the demon falls, Imedren ignores whatever else is going on in the room and goes to his wife.
"That looked extremely painful, Uruuna. Here, drink this." Imedren says, coming over and holding a healing potion to her.
Uruuna nods her thanks and drinks the potion, followed by a second one of her own. The halfling's wounds heal almost completely.
Selgaer nearly vomits at being covered in demonic sludge. Ugh, this stuff reeks! It's going to take a week to get it off! He tries wiping some off with his hands, but it just smears and sticks with long tendrils stretching from his face to his hands.
Realizing there's nothing he can do, he calls to Dramm in assistance with Fobb. Dramm, help me with this, will ya?
Sel double checks TaBog's handiwork on removing the halfling's ability to cast spells. Take his implement away, take his incantations away, tie his hands, gag his mouth. Then hogtie him.
Elder Fobb's cane seems to be his magical implement. The halfling doesn't have anything else of value on his person. You easily bind the unconscious councilman.
Joy lets the witch fire wink out and then enchants berries.
"Uruuna? Sel?"
As Selgaer approaches the downed halfling Tabog stands from his perch atop him and steps to the side.
"What a relief this is from the stench of wet farm animal that has been following us around today!"
He glides over to Imedren and Uruuna smiling.
"Boy, that was a fun one! You've got some slick new spells I see, very nice! .... So what the hell was all that about now?"
Dramm quickly delivers some healing to Mr. Reed.
"Learning how much you can take. It's a lot more than I expected, Mr. Reed. I know soldiers less durable."
He vents the excess magic and begins to tend to other wounds about the group. He collects Fobb's cane after everyone is taken care of and trying his best to help clean off Selgaer.
"He wont need this any longer. We should study the cane in case he keeps anything inside, then destroy it. Study first. This office cant handle another demon."
Mr.Reed coughs lightly as Dramm applies his healing. It's not as effective as he'd like, but the old man hops to his feet, looking mostly recovered. "I'd say I had one foot in the grave there." The old man has a wry grin. "But we've felled the hellspawn and that's what matters. Where to next? The guardsman's home?"
The old man tends to some of his remaining wounds with a practiced hand.
We need to take this piece of shit to the Crusaders, Sel says, gesturing at Fobb. Once they learn he's been consorting with demons, they'll want to know everything else. And I think they're our best resource for getting answers. Unless Imedren wants to take a crack at it first.
Imedren looked over at Selgaer with a thoughtful expression.
"I agree that the Inquisitors may well be our most thorough way to get answers, although it will take more time with them... although I'm not terribly familiar with it, my studies of Sunionious Roo's work mentioned the viability of enchantment magic learned by Faerie creatures. There is no guarantee it will work but there is a good chance I can make it happen."
Not wanting to have any undo interruptions, Imedren proceeded to unleash his chaotic energies in controlled blasts in a corner of the room with several sorcerous blasts.
As the chaotic magic of the spell solidified, it felt as though Imedren was suddenly holding a chain connected to Elder Fobb. He immediately grasped how to use it to it's fullest effect and knew it would be easy to control the Halfling. Although he didn't like it he knew they needed to use it and so he would.
"Elder Fobb, get up, we have much to discuss."
Fobb groans as he regains consciousness. Entranced by Imedren's spell, he smiles at the sorcerer. "Of course, friend. Mind loosening these bindings a bit first?"
"No offense, Fobb, but you were not acting rationally a few minutes ago so you'll have to bear with it for now. Once I am satisfied that we can convince the others you are thinking clearly again, we'll see about those bindings."
He looked at the others. "Why did Katrin have to die, Fobb? Was she on to them or were they just trying to send a message to us and the city?"
Fobb scowls, but the magic compels im to speak. "I don't know! It wasn't the Brotherhood who killed her! Someone--or something--is after the bloody Eye of the Demon Lord! I told that upstart Katandramus to be careful, but did he listen? Of course not! He waltzes back into town and usurps control of the cult from me! After all that I did to keep his actions hidden and keep you off his scent! Ungrateful bastard! Now I've got no authority in the Brotherhood, and council members are being hunted. I figured it was time to cut my losses and get out of here with my life at least!"
Tabog dramatically gasps when he is reminded of the name of an old loose end.
"Huuuuh! Catty-Man-In-Duress! I totally forgot about that guy..."
He leans over, directing his next words to Dramm.
"Let's go find Nutmeg after this, I haven't seen him yet... And remind me to ask him if he wants that Catty-Man guy dead or what."
Satisfied with his new to-do list of one item, he returns to watching the interrogation, smiling at himself.
Imedren's eyes narrowed down as Fobb ranted and raved about someone or something else killing Katrin but he did also give them useful information.
"Oh Fobb, this isn't good. But maybe, it won't be quite as bad if you tell us where the cult is hiding now. We can deal with those shortsighted bastards who ousted you, even after everything you did for them. Especially Katandramus. You must know something of what Katrandramus is planning, at least. Tell me what he's going to do."
"I don't know where he is, but I know what he's going to do. He's figured out how to unlock the Eye of the Demon Lord that we found under the Moore House all those months ago. After years of planning and countless sacrifices, the time is finally here. He's ready to bring the Eternal Darkness screaming into this world and usher in a new and final age of history. One last incantation, and the end of days begins. The Demon Lord comes!"
Joy keeps mum. But visions of the horrors that may visit Crossings - and the whole world - dance through her head.
"Well, despite the dire warnings, so far the good councilman has been fairly useless. Is anything you can tell us that can actually help us, or shall we just clear the world of another demon worshipper?" The old man speaks with thinly veiled hatred and his knife glints even in the darkness.
Damn, Shen. Vicious, are we?
”I’ve told you all I know—and likely more than I should have!” Fobb huffs.
Imedren let out a frustrated sigh. "Ugh... okay. Fine! We need to go speak with Randolfus then. Hopefully he's in a mood to listen to us today."
He looked at Elder Fobb. "This is not a time for holding back information anymore, Fobb. No matter how important you think it may have been to hold off from telling us... and you're going to want to tell us over anyone else who is going to be asking you for it."
Even with Imeden’s compulsion, Fobb is unable to offer any more information of value. Katandramus has cut him out of the Brotherhood’s plans for the invocation.
It takes about an hour to navigate Crossings and reach the district of Redemption. The Inquisition operates from a somber gray building there bearing the symbol of the New God on its face. Inquisitor Ranolfus takes Fobb into custody and listens to your story gravely.
”It seems whoever murdere Mayor Edgerton is not affiliated with the Brotherhood of Shadows. But they are still a danger. We must find them and Katandramus quickly before they can cause more harm.”
Joy speaks up, matter-of-factly.
"I might be able to get the mayor to reincarnate. But that is for afterwards. Inquisitor, do you have any leads on either the creature or the Brotherhood?"
Randolfus scowls and shakes his head. "We had thought the cult eradicated in the city. Apparently, Fobb was quite skilled at hiding his corrupt affiliation. We will hit the streets right away but we will need your skills to find them faster. Perhaps Imedren's divinations can provide guidance? Failing that, asking around in various districts might unveil some clues."
Mr. Reed turns to his compatriots. "Perhaps we should poke around for the mayor's surviving guard, there is no doubt he is affiliated somehow."
Looking a bit ragged, the old man decides to ask for the inquisitor's aid. "Would you happen to have a spare set of clothes? I'd get this slime off of me."
I can provide that, Shen. Let's stop by my house and see what my brother knows. When we first heard of what happened to the mayor, we sent runners to check on all the other councilors. He should have the latest information on the situation by now. And we can get some fresh clothing for everyone there.
"Let's go find them!"
"Nutmeg is likely at the manor or the shop. He's spent a lot of time at both. Don't think he'd be safe with us right now. Maybe you should take him to Caribdus? He may agree since we saved his tower, and we could meet again at Selgaer's home."