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Jayma is disappointed that her spell didn't have a greater effect on the creature, but is soon distracted by trying to fend off more of its mandible attacks. When the first strike comes in, she is gratified to see Emdi take care of most of the damage, and then activates her magical shield to handle the rest; only the barest tip of the poisoned mandible makes contact and draws a line of blood from her shoulder as her magical protection fades away.
"Thank you Emdi, dear. That's was kind of you. These creatures are quite exasperatingly belligerent." But no sooner does she say these words, that a second and more devastating mandible attack hits her in the chest, leaving behind an open bleeding gash and producing a stunned gasp from Jayma as the pain of the injury makes itself felt.
Fortunately, with Itka's help, her otherwordly gnomish blood rejects infection from the poisonous ichor left in her wounds. Recovering sufficiently from the attack, Jayma stands, pushes her chair back and quickly moves away from the action. "I'm feeling a little cramped here, and these hideous insects are not much to look at up close." Once clear of the battle, she pulls a healing potion from her jacket.
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Symeon slaps another layer of his patent healing salve on Emdi, "Hold on, we can't be having you go down to onw of these creatures."
After patching up the man some, Symeon takes a moment to calculate how good of a shot he has here with these demons.
+7 for Religion.
Finding that he'd more than likely miss the surgeon backs up a few steps instead, trying to become less of a target and thus another liability to the party.
Arfsnarf sends three missiles of magic at the demon that looked the most wounded. They hit the creature who shrieks in pain.
Itka calls for guidance that she passes to her allies.
Jayma blocks one of the attacks with her prepared spell gets of the chair and moves out of the cluster of foes. She reaches for a healing potion
Emdi takes out his bomb, moves out of the flank, and throws it at the creature. Despite him missing, the water splashes on yellow who yells in great pain. The stench of sulfur is easily smelled in the air.
Hornbori strikes with his ax, but misses. Then he moves and heals Jayma
Symeon heals Emdi and moves away, he does recall that those devils are immune to fire and show better saves against magic.
The heavily wounded creature strikes at Emdi. The other demon flies after Itka
Only a second of the bites hit Emdi.
The other demon flies after Itka
The first bite leaves a serious mark on Itka's neck.
The second hit is equally strong and Itka falls to the ground. The acid keeps on burning the creature.
Round 3 - Devil Dance in Southgate Inn
Hornbori
Symeon -5 (25/30)
Jayma -10 (26/36)
Emdi -46 (22/68) Fort Save DC20
Arfsnarf
Itka dying 2 (0/32) 2x Fort Saves DC20
Yellow Accuser Devil Religion to Identify -36
Pink Accuser Devil Religion to Identify -20 1d6 Persistent Acid
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Jayma is about to take a pull from her potion when Hornbori steps up to her and slaps a poultice on her chest wound. His callused hands feel rough against her skin, but she doesn't flinch away. She begins to feel better almost immediately. "Hornbori, you're a life saver! For a moment there I thought I'd be visiting the Boneyard." She glares at the creatures over his shoulder and watches as her assailant knocks Itka to the ground. Her face darkens. "Let's finish this," she growls at Hornbori.
As the dwarf turns and cuts down his own opponent, Jayma keeps her focus on her earlier attacker. With her staff, she taps her fist three times in quick succession. Thrusting it straight out toward the human insectoid, she snaps her fingers open and shouts, "bolts blast bug blighter." Three darts of force leap from her hand and plunge into the creature's chest.
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Itka's eyes snap open, and it's a rude awakening. The hideous man-baby-insect is still hovering over her, the floor is uncomfortably hard, and she must've hit her head when she fell, because she feels like crap. Growling menacingly, she rises to her feet and stares it dead in the eyes while giving it an appallingly rude gesture before limping to put Emdi and a table between it and her. Hmp. My cane's still on the floor. Tough.
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Symeon gives a grimace as the bugs attack another person and this time lay them out flat on their back. He moves in closer to Itka and slaps some healing salve on her wounds as he pulls out a potion.
"You're mostly up and about, so I'll try my more experimental salve. It heals wounds much better but it's more unreliable. This should help patch you up and here's a potion if you want that as well."
Hornbori's powerful swing destroyed the more wounded demon. His remains disappear in a cloud of smoke. Then he heals Emdi.
Jayma sends magic missiles at the remaining foe. All three hits, but the demon is still standing hovering. It needs Emdi's arrow to take the demon down, the arrow pierces the creature through as it also disappears.
Emdi's Lay on hands bring Itka back.
Nan quickly moves towards the bar and yells for her bartenders
"Stuf the bodies into the barrels, tomorrow someone will come for them. Take the chairs as they are splattered with blood. "
Then she turns towards you "Follow me, you should stay out of sight."
She leads you towards the stables, wherein in one of the boxes there is a hidden entrance underground. There is a room without windows and a simple torch giving light Nan offers you a bit to eat, and some time to heal your wounds.
Nan reveals what happened in detail.
"The count, met with another individual—a large Chelaxian woman with facial scars and a severe haircut shaved on one side. She seemed intense and dangerous. Her armor was dark and unadorned, but I think she must have been a Hellknight"
"The count and Hellknight met over drinks in the 'quiet corner table' near the far fireplace. They talked briefly, even reaching heated words after a time before heavily armored soldiers and devils rushed the building and overwhelmed them. From there, the attackers left with their two hostages."
"I recognized a few of the soldiers, they’ve must have taken the kidnapped duo to Fort Dracobellum, an old military outpost roughly two hours away. In the past, I had occasionally been ordered to make meals and supply deliveries to the soldiers at Fort Dracobellum, but the fort isn’t supposed to be 'officially' occupied. I've not convinced the soldiers' activities at the fort are strictly official or legal, but I am not certain who they might be working for."
"We keep here barrels for disposal, beyond other things." Nan responds smiling
"Look you don't need to know everything, there was a reason why Count picked my Inn for the meetup. It was safe here, I bet that Hellknight was tracked."
Oh? They still expecting deliveries from you? Maybe we sneak in with supplies?
"They haven't ordered food the past week, and usually I send one, max two people with food. So the rest would have to get there some other way. And even the ones delivering the food should be able to bluff their way through."
She reaches for a basket of food and drinks "Look, the beer mugs are watch towers, there are guards there. Sausages are walls, rarely but still there are patrols walking there. The single loaf of bread is the stables, the two loaves are the main castle building. When we bring the food, we cross two gates, turn left on the courtyard and get into the castle. There we leave the food."
"If they keep Count and Hellknight there, I bet they are in the basement. The entrance is in the southwest corner of the castle."
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Jayma blanches at the idea of trying to break into the dungeon of a well-defended military installation. It was one thing to slip quietly into Cheliax, but quite another to try and sneak into a fort full of heavily armored soldiers and devils. If she were captured, her identity might well be discovered and then who knows what would happen to her; nothing good she guessed. And yet, Jayma felt a certain excitement welling up in her at the the daringness of the endeavor and the danger involved. If nothing else, the attempt would definitely push back her bleaching for a while... assuming she survived it, that is.
She speaks up. "I don't know about the rest of you, but getting myself into the fort shouldn't prove too difficult; either I make myself invisible and walk right in, or I disguise myself as one of Nan's delivery girls and lie my way past the guards at the entrance. I'm pretty good at that sort of thing. It's the getting out again that concerns me the most, but I suppose we'll deal with that problem when the time comes."
She mulls a little more and talks as she thinks. "If I use invisibility to get it and, say Itka and Symeon talk their way past the guards as Nan's food delivery people, that still leaves Emdi and Hornbori on the outside. Maybe they could climb over the walls or sneak in some other way." Jayma then snaps her fingers as if remembering something. "We should search the bodies of the soldiers we just killed in the bar. Maybe they have an entrance pass or something we can use to get in."
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"Hmp. Lying. My best strategy is to say as little as possible. But here's a question, Nan. Would they know or recognize your servants? No point in pretending if that's not going to work anyway." She mulls over their options, working her jaw like a cow chewing cud. It sure would be nice to be able to fly. "Hmp. It's too much to hope for a postern door around the back, isn't it?"
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Emdi spends some time in the secret room holding a mini-rave in honor of Shelyn to Refocus. All are invited, all are welcome.
---
"We don't all have to take the same approach. A few of us could approach openly, a few try to sneak, and a few could also pretend to be prisoners. We could also pretend we're two different groups - one group that was sent by Nan, and a second group that saved them along the way.
To make it realistic, we could smash one of the barrels as if the delivery wagon had been ambushed, and eat all the sausages as if they had spilled all over the countryside."
Emdi sheds a tear for those poor, uneaten sausages.
"Anyway, I'm game for any approach."
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All these plans good! One more thing: I think Arfsnarf fit into barrel, so there that!
He crouches slightly and holds his hands over his head, palms up, as if pressing against an invisible lid. Once in position he gives the group a toothy grin, and stands back up.
Also, I'm good with people but not great at lying.
Nan is listening to the ideas
"I can provide you with a cart, barrels, and such. Just tell me what you need." says, Nan
Soon one of Nan's accomplices come and passes a bundle
"This is what the men in the tavern had"
The bundle contains a map leading to Fort Dracobellum and 50 sp and a one lesser healing potion.
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After agreeing on the plan you go towards the fort. You look at the 'abandoned' place from afar, it is mid-afternoon and soon the sun will go down. You realize that the bread and sausage model looked less terrifying.
The old hillside fort is an image of a bygone era. Three domed buildings are connected to a long stable with thick stone walls bearing angled crenelations. The unadorned sandstone walls look like they belong in southern Taldor or northern Qadira rather than among the ornate structures of imperial Cheliax. Though set far from the road winding along the Andivian River north to Egorian, the path up to the fort is well-traveled and level. From its vantage on a small hill, Fort Dracobellum has a clear view of the skies along the southern approach to the capital city, as well as the brush and forests surrounding it
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As they head towards the castle, Jayma gives her familiar a last head rub and says. "Twyl dear, this is going to be dangerous, so I need you to go hide in the bottom of my backpack and stay very, very quiet. Can you do that for me? Good boy."
Jayma wraps herself in her drab and nondescript coat and uses the cart to shield her small form and keep it out of view of the castle. As the cart approaches the guards at the main gates, she swipes her hand across her body and says, "fabulous figure fades." She blinks out of sight and then quickly moves ahead of the cart and to one side of the gates. When the cart arrives and distracts the guards, she carefully sneaks past them and into the fort. Just as Nan described, she works her way through the first courtyard, then the second and into the castle proper. She hides herself in a dark corner and waits for the rest of her colleagues to join her.
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"Hmp. Well, since we haven't come up with another option, I will pretend to be a new hire of Nan's, though I won't speak unless I have to. Who else will join me? Someone with a silver tongue, I hope." Itka grasps her heavy cane and heaves herself off the box on which she'd been sitting and stumps out to the cart.
As they approach the gates of the fortress, Itka allows her teammate to step ahead of her, not bothering to hide her customary resting-grump-face.
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Arfsnarf looks around the cart at the various containers, hoping to find one comfortably large enough.
Okay, so where my barrel?
Once he eyes his conveyance for the trip, he asks the group Could someone label this something nasty, like Goblin Pox samples? That way gate keepers not want to crack lid!
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Symeon decides to try taking advantage of his heritage and dresses up in a few sackcloth items and puts on the air of a frightened halfling slave who finches at the slightest hint of anger. He looks at Arfsnarf ",mind keeping my gear in there with you? If I carry nothing on me, it will help sell the story. Also I'm going to try sealing up the cast so it's water proof and writing 'Pickles: Do not open on risk of spilling juices' on the side."
Once Arfsnarf is in the barrel, Symeon adds some flourishes to make it look like it has been waterproofed to keep liquids in.
Literally shivering in the cold on the way up to the fort, Symeon tries to practice his best at hiding from the big terrifying guards, acting the part of a mute slave.
Hornbori and Emdi prepare to climb the walls of the castle. The observe the frequency of patrols walking that way and rush as soon as they can.
Hornbori goes up first to secure the rope and help Emdi follow his footsteps.
Hornbori throws the rope to Emdi who quickly climbs after him. Then it is Emdi's turn to walk on the edge of the big tower to come to the window
With a lot of problems, Emdi reaches to the window and secures a rope to aid Hornbori to reach him. Then they sneak through the building to get downstairs.
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Symeon grabs his surgeon bag and heads straight to the gate. There he explains that he was summoned to take a look at 'prisoners'. The guards look at this bag and asks him a few questions
The guards let him in, they tell him to enter the big building from the courtyard and head downstairs.
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Pickled Arfsnarf on the cart is being driven by Itka. She presents the guards with the papers that she made
Action: Cast a Spell: Invisibility on Jayma - 10 minute duration
Action: Sneak
Stealth (Sneak): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21
Jayma turned invisible get into the building without much trouble.
Arfsnarf is supposed just to sit still and he manages it, mostly. A few times Itka had to hit the barrel with her fist to pretend that it was she.
The interior of the keep shows few signs of use. The large hall has double doors along the north wall that lead outside and two doors on each sidewall. A raised platform stands along the south wall in front of several large rugs not completely covering the summoning circles etched into the flagstones. Stone pillars form rows on either side of the room to hold up the 20-foot ceilings.
Hornbori and Emdi are standing in the side room listening...
Itka parks a cart and removes Arfsnarf barrel behind it so that he can leave it without being seen by the guards. They give back Symeon's weapons.
Through the main door enters Symeon dressed up as a surgeon and he sees two demons standing inside. With him sneaks in Jayma still invisible after using her spell
The demons turn their heads and look at the surgeon
"Look, I think they send as a pinata. We should hang him and smack him a few times to see what will come out."
The other demon interrupts
"What is your purpose here?"
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"Hmp." Itka hmps and hobbles forward with her papers, her cane's thunking echoing dully in the stone space. She doesn't bother to hide her apprehension at approaching the demons, assuming that they're used to lowly people being a at least somewhat afraid of what they could do to them. She stops about ten feet away, holding out the papers awkwardly because she isn't sure if she's supposed to finish approaching without permission.
At the back of her mind pings a thought that she doesn't have time to ponder: Can we destroy these summoning circles? Maybe by smashing or chipping the stone?
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While invisible, Jayma examines the creatures closely. Her religious training isn't what it could be; as a child in Brastlewark Castle, she'd routinely skipped her devil-taught infernal classes; much to the annoyance of her devout parents. Instead, she'd picked up her information of the outside world from surreptitious conversations with her friends, the halfling 'servants' that took care of all the work in the castle. It was this information that she relied on now.
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---
Emdi is all in favor of just attacking. There's not much to be gained by conversation with demons/devils from his perspective. But if others want to negotiate or try to sneak by, that's fine. It looks like they're torturing someone, which Emdi will find difficult to ignore (not 100% sure on paladin code but it definitely does not sit well with him).
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Symeon pauses at the doors somewhat shocked to find demons and not the usual contract bound devils here. He pauses long enough to let Jayma in as well, just in case she hadn't slipped in earlier before trudgind forward and stating matter of factly. "If you want to eat the only surgeon around for at least a day's travel, then sure, I'm your pinata, but I hear there are sick prisoners here needing medical attention. Let me see to them first. If you don't, I'll have to walk you through all of the various medical procedures they might need and how to perform them. Most likely this is Apindicitus...." As he prevaricates for time, Symeon takes a moment to see if he recognizes these things.
He also glances around the room, trying to get an idea of what I'd happening in this manor as he ferverently prays to Gruhastha that halfling is not on the menu tonight.
Are these really demons and not devils? We are in Cheliax after all.
The two devils look around at Itka and Arfsnarf walking with food, and Emdi sticking his head from the side doors. "It is terribly crowded here! What a coincidence! And you should not be in here!" the devil reaches for his glaive.
Round 1 Bearded Devil Barber
Hornbori
Emdi
Arfsnarf
Barbazu Red
Barbazu Blue
Jayma invisible
Symeon disguised so far
Itka disguised so far
Hornbori runs into the room yelling "For Highhelm! Die, you dogs from the abyss!"
He charges the same foe that Emdi attacked
...
Symeon pretends to not know the newcommers, at the same time Arfsnarf takes out his swing and moves a bit.
Emdi runs into the room and fires a shot at the devil, pinning him to the pillar.
He then raises his buckler.
Hornbori hits the devil twice with his ax leaving big marks on the fiend's body.
The fiend then attacks the dwarf with his glaive
The glaive cuts into dwarf armor leaving a broad wound. Emdi uses his faith to shield the dwarf and sends another arrow at fiend
The creature cuts again with his glaive
The second glaive hit, leaves another massive, even bigger than the last one.
And hits the dwarf with his head
The other field attacks Emdi, his glaive swooshes three times
The first two strikes pass through Emdi's defense.
Round 1/2 Bearded Devil Barber
Hornbori -58 1d6 persistent bleed (infernal wound) Fortitude save DC23 vs Avernal fever
Emdi -36 1d6 persistent bleed (infernal wound)
Arfsnarf
Barbazu Red
Barbazu Blue -63(-4xresistance) immobilized
Jayma invisible
Symeon disguised so far
Itka disguised so far
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Emdi fires an arrow at Blue.
vs DC 21
Not sure if I lose the focus point or not.
He then steps up behind Hornbori and slaps a bandage on his heck.
---
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Jayma is a little cowed by these devils. It had been a long while since she'd been in the presence of such creatures and she hadn't like it then either. Especially these bearded ones; they were particularly nasty. She watches as they hack into poor Hornbori and sighs resignedly. She knows that as soon as she casts any spell, her invisibility will lapse and she will become a target of their wrath. But what choice did she have? And besides, the thought of blasting away at these creatures that had so frightened her when she was young would be satisfying and fun. "Oh well, here goes nothing."
Striking her staff on the ground once. A concentrated ball of electricity forms in her palm. It crackles and rumbles like impossibly distant thunder. She flings it at the devil attacking Hornbori and says, "dirty devil deserves damage."
She speaks the word, "protect," and the space around her shimmers again for a moment.
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Hmp. Guess it's go time. Itka casts Protection on herself, then glares at the nearest devil while giving it a crude gesture.
Jayma begins to cast her spell, a giant thunder sphere flies towards and consumes the surprised devil, who vanishes.
Itka protect herself from devils and cast a hex at the remaining foe
The devil does not even notice that Itka targeted him with a spell.
Arfsnarf sends three orbs that crash into the creature.
Emdi takes a shot at the remaining devil, missing completely. But this is not an ordinary devil whom you can shoot from point-blank range.
Then Emdi patches himself from the nasty wound and calls for magical aid to heal him. But the devils power is too strong for now.
Hornbori -58 1d6 persistent bleed (infernal wound) Fortitude save DC23 vs Avernal fever
Emdi -50 1d6 persistent bleed (infernal wound)
Arfsnarf
Barbazu Red -9
Barbazu Blue -63(-4xresistance) immobilized
Jayma invisible
Symeon disguised so far
Itka disguised so far