Billy nods empathetically. "We agree with you completely, Mistress Sonnorae. This so-called Prince must die." He continues, "After all, he tried to destroy our realm too." He sips his honey mead and continues, "We're more than happy to work together, and bring you his head and your Harrow Deck. So I believe we have a deal. However ..."
Billy asks delicately, "This card of yours, it looks like The Tyrant, could be very useful to my friend here, when we take on our common enemy." After a short pause, "Is there any chance you'd consider parting with it now, to improve our chances of success?"
Regardless of her answer, assuming the group has no objections, Billy stands on his tiptoes, and raises his little halfling hand as if to shake on it. "You have a deal."
Getting the feeling that Sonnorae will do as she says, Slick nods in agreement. "Very well. Our plan was to hunt down and kill the Prince regardless. If you keep your word and hand over that card upon our return, then I see no reason why this situation should devolve into violence. With the card in our possession, we will leave you to your realm and return to ours."
He holds out his hand. "Now if you would kindly hand over the Lens, we'll be on our merry way to our reckoning with the Prince."
Sigourney has been deliberately keeping quiet this whole time. She has a feeling that Sonnorae is a fiend and so she should get rid of her...but at the same time having Sonnorae co-operate with them would lead to the Prince of Wolves and more fiends to kill.
Sigourney makes the smart decision to shut up until this blows over. She nods her (reluctant) assent to Billy.
Sonnorae rises up above Billy, crossing her arms and scowling down at him. She snorts, Hmmph, very well, if you think you are incapable of dealing with this miscreant then take the card now. She casually tosses the Harrow card at Billy's feet.
As for the Lens here it is she says drawing it from a small bag at her belt. It has two functions, I shall demonstrate how they work.
Floating down she presents the rune carved, delicate glass lens and begins a complex explanation of planar mechanics which Billy, perhaps, struggles to follow. Sigourney however is well versed in the magical arts. The Lens has two functions.
The first allows you observe the world as if the Deck were the source of your vision and hearing. The second allows you to cast Discern Location with the Deck as the target.
With her explanations complete Sonnorae flies back into the air. Off you go now but be sure to return with my Lens and the head of this so called Prince.
Billy smiles up at Sonnorae, "Well, if you insist." Assuming Slick doesn't injure anyone diving after the card himself, Billy retrieves it and hands The Tyrant to the fighter. "Cool! You can turn into a dragon."
The halfling assures Sonnorae, "We'll return with your lens and the head." He adds, "And the world will be a better place."
As Sigourney studies the magical lens, Billy confirms, "So we can locate the deck? And we can scry through the deck, wherever it is?" He asks the group, "Should we rest for the night so we're at full strength? Then in the morning, we locate, scry, and go?" As an afterthought, he adds, "Hopefully, it's easy to get to."
Sigourney nods in response. "The lens appears to work that way, yes. I think we should rest for the night. Additionally, we should also inform the Pactmasters, whom if I recall correctly, wanted to help out against the Prince. If we're all going to show up at the Prince's front door, I'd rather do so with the backing of an army." She says.
"I don't know if an army is in the cards," says Point, popping up to see the lens and the new card, "but we can try."
Slick happily palms the card that Billy hands him and slips it into a pocket. "Very generous of you, my lady. We will return with your prizes once the Prince has been dispatched."
Then addressing the group, he adds, "I think our work here is done. We should return to Harrowheart and prepare for our upcoming encounter with the Prince of Wolves."
With a bow towards Sonnorae, they all head back out the fortress and flick back to Harrowheart as soon as convenient.
Once back in the castle, Slick greets Baines perfunctorily. Wasting no time, he heads outside to epitomize their new card. A magnificent and immense blue dragon appears in the courtyard. "Greetings my new friend. Your lair awaits you below Harrowheart. I hope it is to your liking. But before you get too comfortable, I first need you to take me to the Mountain Man."
Upon arriving at the remote cabin in the mountains, Slick hops off the dragon and greets its occupant heartily. "Hail, Mountain Man. I have returned with more trophies and stories. Your last gifts were of great use in defeating the velstrac Algon, chief champion of Sonnorae, but that story is for another time."
Slick then pulls out the spiny branch he collected from the tree that nearly killed him. He holds it up for the Mountain man to see; it is still stained with his own blood and entrails. "This is a branch of the massive blood-pear tree that almost defeated me. Let me tell you how the battle went..."
After a blow-by-blow recitation of the fight, Slick collects his prizes and returns to Harrowheart.
You return to Harroweart and get to work. Activating the Lens to scry on its position shows nothing but darkness. It seems likely it is still in its box or a similar container. Using discern location however provides significantly better results.
The Deck of Harrowed Tales lies within the treasure vault of the fortress of the Prince of Wolves. The fortress lies on a small island in a realm called the Wolves’ Den which is amongst the Midnight Isles on the Abyss.
As you are digesting this information, the door to the dining room bursts in and one of the maids squeals, Sirs, sirs, the gates are all acting funny!
Rushing to the Great Hall you find the six arches in Harrowheart’s great hall flicker and hum, then the smoke within the arches clears to show the same landscape in each—a barren realm of rocky bluffs under a midnight sky, atop which looms a squat stone fortification. Presumably the fortress of the Prince.
Gazing into the portals you can each sense the presence of three more cards, the Cyclone, the Keep and the Waxworks.
As you are examining the portals All Seeing Hajeck slithers into the room. I see you have located the Prince of Wolves. Maybe now is time to make contact with Katapesh and call upon your allies.
Slick rushes to the Great Hall with the others and immediately notices the six newly active portals. He looks through them at the landscape beyond and feels the presence of three of the missing cards. "Looks like getting to the Wolves' Den won't be all that difficult after all."
He looks through the portal closely looking for more clues...
...and seeing something that seems a little odd, tries to figure out what it is...
He reports whatever he finds to the rest of the group.
Then, reviewing the results of the Discern Location, says, "Midnight Isles on the Abyss? Never heard of 'em."
"Looks like a portal."
Pinebrush scoffs at anybody who doesn't know about the Midnight Isles of the Abyss. I mean, really?
Sigourney immediately takes her share of the money and absconds to Absalom. She knows what she wants - a powerful item that would allow her to reach the apex of mortal magical prowess. She spots it in one of Absalom's finest magical emporiums - an unassuming pair of Artificer's glasses that positively radiates magical power. She buys it on the spot and puts it on. She immediately feels herself getting smarter and finally getting the hang of Halfling.
"Finally. I understand how to pronounce Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch now." She says in very accented Halfling.
Returning to Harrow Heart at her own time, she notices everyone - including the maids and Hajeck - gathered around the arches. Flying over the crowd using her Disc, she stares deep into the portals...
And powering through her initial exhaustion, she tries to analyse the magic within...
She also relays what she learns to the party, although she's surprised at the depth of Slick's magical knowledge. "Maybe all the time he's spent with me is doing him some good!" She thinks to herself, congratulating herself on a job well done.
As Hajeck suggests contacting the Pactmasters, Sigourney nods profusely with agreement. "Quite right, Hajeck. I was just about to go down to Katapesh myself and let them know. Do you want to come with? They have some really great desserts - sorry, I mean 'deserts' there."
Before she leaves to visit the Mountain Man, she sees Slick confused about what the Midnight Isles are and Pine, who seems to know what they are but is too busy scoffing at Slick to tell. She decides to put her mind to the task.
After making her way to the Mountain Man's lair, she shows up to the front door and requests that he give her free stuff.
"Look, I know Slick has told you the story of how he almost got killed by a tree. But I blasted the evil vampire knight to ash and I got his helmet too. That is definitely a much better trophy than whatever Slick got you so you should definitely give me a scroll of Detonate Magic and Implosion."
Reginald spends his entire free day sleeping in the biggest bed in Harrowheart, surrounded by all the cheese he can eat and with a servant waiting on him hand and foot.
Pinebrush goes off to find this dragon. He looks up at the big blue lizard-thing, and asks very politely, "Slick told me that there was a very impressive new resident, a big, powerful dragon! You haven't seen them anywhere, have you?"
The lizard hasn't seen the dragon, so Pine has to make his way to the Mountain Man without their help.
"We beat up an evil tree," Pine explains proudly, showing off some twigs, "We have to go fight some demons now. Can you help with some cold iron blanches or alloy orbs?"
Assuming Pine gets the cold iron blanch, he notes that there's an unpleasant, stinging smell to it. Perhaps as he grows stronger he's growing closer to his fey heritage! That's probably mostly a good thing, but it could have happened at a better time.
Examining the portal both Slick and Sigourney recognises that something within the region is trying to prevent it from manifesting. It seems likely that stepping through will not take you to the place shown but to somewhere rather more dangerous.
The Mountain Man listens impassively to the various stories but in the end he cracks a smile, pats you all on the bac and provides what you have requested.
Making contact with Uslket and the Packmasters makes the strange creature deliriously happy. He devours your stories of your various adventures and assures that the Pakcmasters stand ready to aid you. They can use their teleportation devices to act as a focus for Gate and Plane Shift magics which will allow them to bring your allies to the fortress. First however, they recommend that you undertake a scouting mission to find an appropriate beachhead to use as the invasion point.
Once everyone has finished running around The Harrow Court and flitting back and forth on shopping trips to Katapesh and Absalom, Slick gathers them all at the gates. He points to the strange flickering that had caught his eye. "Do you see that? Looks to me like the Abyss is reacting badly to the presence of these portals and trying hard to shut them down. It means that stepping through may well detour us to somewhere more dangerous than what we're looking at."
He looks at each of their faces to gauge reactions. Then he laughs. "But danger is each of our middle names, no? Don't see much choice in the matter; we'll have to step through and take our licks with whatever army of demons we land next to. Once we take care of the fiends, we can go looking for that beachhead that the Packmasters need for an invasion point."
Slick looks back to the portals, and if you listen closely, you can hear what sounds like "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe..." as he points to each portal in turn.
Billy joins Sigourney in the high-end shopping district of the Grand Bazaar to look for a special apex item, the Troubador's Cap. He parts with his Fedora of the Magi, because it wouldn't be stylish to wear two hats!
Later, when Pinebrush goes off to find the Mountain Man, Billy asks, "Mind some company?" Arriving at the lair, Billy strums his lute and regales the Mountain Man with glorious stories of demons and vampire trees.
9th rank Energy Aegis (for all day Resist 10: acid, cold, electricity, fire, force, sonic, vitality, and void)
8th rank Divine Inspiration (regain 1 used 6th or lower spell slot and all focus points)
With all the commotion at the portals, Billy joins the others in peering inside.
When the group is deciding on a course of action, Billy suggests, "If there's some way an Augury spell would help choose a path, I'm happy to try."
Sigourney gathers up Reginald and looks at the rest of the party.
"Well. Whenever you all are ready - let's go into the depths of the Lower Planes."
Pine joins Sigourney and Billy on their shopping trip. He finds some new jewelry. So sparkly! And it makes him faster, which might also be important.
When Slick says the portal may lead to a more dangerous part of the Abyss, he draws his weapons.
...aren't they all dangerous parts, though?
Putting your heads together you are fairly sure you know a fair bit about the Midnight Isles. The region was once the realm of the Demon Queen Nocticula. When she ascended to godhood she moved her domain to the Maelstrom, leaving behind her former realm for her one time servants to bicker and fight over. While the area is likely dangerous due to the presence of the Prince and assorted demons, the region itself is not inherently hostile to life.
Standing before the portals you consider your options...
When the group is ready to enter the portal, Billy asks, "So is the goal of this trip to find a location for our allies to join in the fun?"
Either way, Billy retrieves his new Energy Aegis scroll from the Mountain Man and casts it.
Billy shuffles his harrow deck and draws a Harrow Omen card.
He then takes a moment to activate the The Carnival card to learn about whom we might meet the next day.
Billy wanders the Carnival, encountering a strange juggler with six arms. He gets the sense that, perhaps, to a certain extent, they can be trusted.
The group gathers before the shimmering portals and prepare to step through. As you do so your senses reel with the strange planar shifting. The sensation is different to all other times you have used these gates. This time it feels like you are being pulled in multiple different directions at once. The trip is nauseating but the destination is far, far worse.
As you come to you find yourselves inside a massive chamber. An overpowering stench of death and filth hangs in the scorching, sticky air. Dark metal sheets that appear to sweat blood line the walls, rising to heights lost in the darkness above, and beneath your feet, the metal floor is covered by a hideous carpet of squirming, screeching maggots, each of which bears a humanoid face with fanged maws. Some maggots appear to be dead and serve the rest as meals, while others seem to constantly squeeze out of the rocks lining the walls above, as if burrowing free from thick mud to rain down into the pit below.
They do not appear to appreciate your presence and promptly begin to start trying to consume you all!.
Fort Saves
, Juggernaut, +1 vs magic, crit
, +1 vs magic, fail
, pass becomes crit, +1 vs magic, crit fail
, +1 vs magic, bump vs disease, crit fail
, fail
Before the group steps through the portal, Billy describes the six-armed juggler at the carnival. He mentions, "I feel he can be trusted. Maybe we can negotiate with a large insect in this realm?" He shrugs.
Later, Billy uses some Halfling Luck to resist the disgusting maggots.
What if, instead, No?
Pine simply tries not to land on the ground. That might be more of an option for him then the others.
Initiative
, +2 item visual/hearing, +2 circ scout
, Perception +26, +1 circ if visual, +2 circ scout
, +2 circ scout, +2 item visual
Damage
Pass: + +Sickened 1
Fail: + +Sickened 1 and Enfeebled 1
Crit Fail: + +Sickened 1 and Enfeebled 2
Turn Order
The Party
-----------------------------------
??????????????
Bold to act.
Combat status
Slick [248]
Billy [198], 17 damage. see invisibile, energy aegis 10, sickened 1
Pinebrush [214], 39 damage, sickened 1, enfeebled 1
Sigourney [200], 82 damage, sickened 1, enfeebled 2
Reginald [112] , 39 damage, sickened 1, enfeebled 1
Sigourney gets absolutely overwhelmed by the bugs. Choking and gagging, she spends an action to think about how to stop the bugs from getting at them. She uses her Loremaster's Etude to boost her cognitive abilities.
Sigourney isnt quite sure how to deal with the hazard but three options seem plausible. Given you are in the Abyss, that it involves bugs and they are horrifically deformed then Religion, Nature or Occultism might work.
Sigourney does her best to draw upon her deep knowledge of the natural world to chase away the bugs!
It...doesn't go well for her.
Pine tries to take a deep breath to steady himself and overcome the nausea. That doesn't help, considering the smell.
He's sure he remembers some symbols that can repel demons though, probably. He's no spellcaster, but against such weak ones, maybe...
When Slick finds himself standing on a carpet of man-eating maggots, he makes a face showing his disgust. "Ugh! Not the most pleasant of receptions is it."
Fortunately for him, the little maggot fangs do not penetrate his armored foot, but he figures it's only a matter of time before they find a way past his defenses. He watches as his friends try to figure out how to calm the maggots, but that sort of thing is beyond his ken.
Slick jumps out of the maggots; lands in a squat; and swishes his sword back and forth like a scythe through the maggots trying to shred them into smaller pieces, before rising and repeatedly poking at individual maggots to see if that works any better.
Target takes an additional 2d10 persistent fire damage - no resistance (Greater Flaming).
Seeing Pine retching makes Billy wanna retch too. He attempts to do so, as discretely as possible.
Recovering as best he can, the bard addresses the swarm. With Sigourney trying a natural way to make them dissipate, and Pinebrush using the occult, Billy tries a religious sanctification. "Oh wise Desna, can you offer guidance regarding this evil swarm?"
Sigourney and Pine make no progress but with Billy chanting counter measures the oppressive nature of the room seems to be lessening slightly.
Slick lashes about him but there are literally millions of maggots crawling and chewing at the group. He makes some progress but nowhere near what he might have hoped.
Once again the maggots surge back and swarm over the group.
Fort Saves
, Juggernaut, +1 vs magic, fail
, +1 vs magic, crit fail
, pass becomes crit, +1 vs magic, crit pass
, +1 vs magic, bump vs disease, pass
, fail
Slick is not entirely surprised by the lack of results from his sword strokes, but he is a little disappointed nevertheless.
When the maggots finally manage to get past his armor and are about to bite into him, Slick calls to The Paladin to help him fight them off.
Well, if that didn't work... Maybe he's using the wrong kind of wards, though. Prayer to holy powers is working for Billy, so, "And Saranrae, we beseech your aid and your holy light to repel this unholy blight!"
As the maggots continue to swarm around you they suddenly seem to come together and form a massive lashing whip, which strikes out at Sigourney. They smash down right next to her, splattering her with poisonous ichor, but she evades being squished.
Pines fails to retch and his invocation to the Gods goes unanswered.
, piercing and poison and sickened 1
piercing and poison and sickened 1 and enfeebled 1
piercing and poison and sickened 1 and enfeebled 2
Turn Order
The Party
-----------------------------------
??????????????
Bold to act.
Combat status
Slick [248], 31 damage, sickened 1
Billy [210], 78 damage. see invisibile, energy aegis 10, sickened 1, enfeebled 2
Pinebrush [214], 39 damage, sickened 1, enfeebled 1
Sigourney [200], 103 damage, sickened 1, enfeebled 2
Reginald [112] , 90 damage, sickened 1, enfeebled 1
Hazard: 52 damage
After seeing the maggots' whip strike against Sigourney, Slick realizes that flying above the maggots will not save him from their attacks. With little else for him do in this situation he continues swishing his sword through them trying to decapitate as many of the little critters as he can, but no longer expecting much from his strikes.
Sigourney realises that Billy is the person with the best chance of disabling this hazard. Channeling her magic, she tries to give him the best chance possible at succeeding...right after she secures Reginald by shoving him in her sleeve.
"With a bit of magical guidance, surely this will allow him to succeed..." She thinks to herself as she blesses Billy with some magical inspiration.
She then provides to Billy her own take on what could be causing these maggots to act up.
"In my opinion, when praying to Desna we need to emphasise her divine domain of travel and invoke her ability to guarantee safe travels. That way, we are more likely to successfully invoke Desnan intervention."
As before, Billy attempts to demurely retch.
Perhaps he was a little too demure, as he still feels sluggish.
Billy is amused with Slick's slashing at the tiny maggots with his oversized sword, "All those swings may not be doing much, but at least you're getting your cardio in!"
With Sigourney's timely guidance and aid, Billy again asks for Desna's divine help with chanting the proper countermeasures. "Oh great Desna, I believe it's working. If you can share a little more of your wisdom with this not-so-humble bard...."
Slick manages to drive more of the maggots back with two solid swings of his blade. Sigourney stows Reginald and helps Billy with his further chanting. Billy invokes Desna who seems to be listening, are fewer magots now spewing out of the walls? Maybe...
But once again they rise up and try to consume the group.
Fort Saves
, Juggernaut, +1 vs magic, crit fail
, +1 vs magic, crit fail
, pass becomes crit, +1 vs magic, crit pass
, +1 vs magic, bump vs disease, crit fail
, +1 vs magic, bump vs disease.
The bugs once again form up into a massive tendril which lashes out at Sigourney. This time it smashes into her full force, crushing her body into the metal floor plate where bugs promptly cover it!
, crit
, P and poison, doubled for 84 -5 poison resist
Turn Order
The Party
-----------------------------------
??????????????
Bold to act.
Combat status
Slick [248], 97 damage, sickened 1, enfeebled 2
Billy [210], 134 damage. see invisibile, energy aegis 10, sickened 1, enfeebled 2
Pinebrush [214], 39 damage, sickened 1, enfeebled 1
Sigourney [200], 200 damage, sickened 1, enfeebled 2, unconscious, dying 2
Reginald [112] , 90 damage, sickened 1, enfeebled 1
Hazard: 95 damage
Seeing that Pine was planning to dive into the maggots to save Sigourney, Slick continues his relentless attacks against the maggots.
Ick. Pinebrush hurries after Sigourney to tend her wounds. As he does so he utters a prayer. This time it's just a chant he learned by rote, said quietly, to reinforce Billy.
For the third consecutive time, Billy 1) retches (demurely) and 2) prays to Desna for religious guidance while chanting. It reminds him of repeatedly inspiring and hasting every encounter.
Hopefully feeling a little better, he prays, "Oh wise Desna, I feel we're close to overcoming this evil. Many thanks for your continued support." Billy chants countermeasures.
Pine manages to bring Sigourney back from the brink and to remind Billy of certain prayers he might use. Billy focuses his mind and calls on Desna's grace. Above you, in the darkness of the upper hall, a breeze seems to stir and a single moonlight beam briefly illuminates him. As it does so the maggots and other filth slowly fades away leaving you lying on a blood covered metal floor in a massive metal chamber with no apparent exits...
Slick [263], 97 damage, sickened 1, enfeebled 2
Billy [210], 134 damage. see invisibile, energy aegis 10, sickened 1, enfeebled 2
Pinebrush [244], 39 damage, sickened 1, enfeebled 1
Sigourney [212], 161 damage, sickened 1, enfeebled 2, wounded 1
Reginald [119] , 90 damage, sickened 1, enfeebled 1
Pine's first order of business is settling his stomach.
"Huh. That wasn't so bad."
But being trapped isn't good. Something else bad will probably happen if they don't escape soon, so Pine decides to prioritize finding an exit over treating the party's wounds. He examines the floor, walls, ceiling...
While Pinebrush is busy retching, Billy approaches Sigourney, "How ya feeling?" He pats her on the shoulder to lay on his healing hands.
Billy then helps Pinebrush search for anything interesting, like an exit.
Later while Pinebrush is treating wounds, Billy plays his lute, sending his undying thanks to Desna for her guidance, and refocuses his energy.
As a group, you can start patching yourself up.
Looking around, you find a few items amongst the discarded and dismembered bodies of abyssal maggots. Lying on the floor are 300 gp, 500 sp, 1,400 in various pieces of jewelry, a viper’s fang talisman, a set of bracers of armor type II, a mithral scroll tube worth 500 gp that contains a scroll of mind blank, and a belt of regeneration.
As far as the chamber itself goes, it is massive. Some 50' on a side it rises hundreds of feet above you. The walls are solid metal and there are no exits. It is going to take a substantial amount of time to search the chamber...and you dont know when the hazard is likely to reset...