Editing Session009 (section)

====LONG VERSION====
 - <u>[[Media:The_Demonplague_-_Session_9.mp3|Link to audio file]]</u> - 


As the fireball faded and Morthos rushed to stabilize her companions, a dwarf stepped towards the evil sorceress Merriath and fired a guiding bolt at her - having recognized a 'bad un' when he saw one. In surprise, Merriath dropped the body of Kadra that she was carrying with difficulty and spun to face the dwarf, who quickly cast a spell of silence, hoping to prevent her from casting spells. Her eyes narrowed in anger at the impertinent dwarf, and in silence, her fingers flickered in fast and complex arcane patterns, as she cast a spell using meta-magic to avoid needing verbal components. With the hint of a smug smile, she faded from the dwarf's sight and turned to run. Despite being unable to see or hear her, the faint still-fading glimmer from his earlier Guiding Bolt spell gave the dwarf enough of an idea to swing his axe, and he, in turn, allowed a hint of a smile to grace his lips as he felt the axe strike something, and a spray of blood appeared.

Meanwhile, happy that his companions were not going to die immediately, and catching shouts that Isperil Lightwind and Paumine Sandlewood were coming to deal with the injured and the fire respectively, Morthos turned and pushed through the gathering crowd, all the time shouting denials in response to half-heard accusations that the demonic-looking tiefling must have been behind the fire and general chaos. As he got through the people and tents, he spotted a commotion and made his way to Kadra's body at about the same time that the dwarf returned, having failed to catch the now invisible and impossible to find sorceress. The dwarf dispelled the silence he had cast and quickly examined Kadra's body, the tiefling obviously having no clue beyond the fact that Kadra was still breathing. He quickly determined that the single stab wound to her shoulder was probably not enough to kill her, but that the slight stain around the wound implied she was likely poisoned.

The dwarf cast a spell of healing, then working together, the tiefling and dwarf carried Kadra back towards the still-burning house of Kadra and where they could see Cormir and Drex had both been healed by Isperil Lightwind. Paumine Sandlewood, the druid, was also there now, and started systematically putting the fire out using a simple cantrip. With everyone clamoring to find out what the hell was going on, Isperil cast a spell to remove the poison from Kadra who came around. With the chaos still going around, Kadra explained that the last she remembered was being hit by Merriath's poisoned dagger and Morthos and the dwarf explained how they had rescued her, the latter introducing himself as Mogadon Ironheart.

In the background, a group of knights came down from their fort led by Sir Brenarform Steelcrest, who tried to take control but ended up having an argument with Village Master Bjalien Viadas instead about who had jurisdiction in the village.

As Paumine finished putting out the fire, she stepped up and asked Kadra what was going on. Kadra, with some reluctance, explained her secret - the fact that she was a sorcerer but was in hiding from Merriath the Quick who was mad and wanted to drink her blood in some completely bogus ritual to ''"make her into a dragon"''. Hearing this, Bjalien looked somewhat put out and griped that Kadra was bringing her troubles to the village, only to be interrupted by Mogadon putting him in his place. Spluttering his indignation, he tried to impress his importance as Village Master, only to be dismissed by Mogadon as wasting time in finding the sorceress. Scowling, Bjalien sent for the last of the council members, the hunter come butcher Colinus Birthwitch, who had a mastiff that might be able to follow the scent of the sorceress. Cormir suggested, quite sensibly, that Kadra needed somewhere safe to stay and proposed that they stay with the knights. Sir Brenarform Steelcrest had been standing close by, and having already had his nose put out of joint by Bjalien, was not in a good mood. At Cormir's attempt to persuade him it was a good idea for Kadra to stay in the knight's fortified compound, he started to make excuses about how having a woman in the fort would not be good for the morale and discipline of his knights. After getting a lambasting from the righteous dwarf, Drex tried to intimidate the knight into doing the right thing, but only succeeded in making things worse, and the knight suggested that the village sort their own problems out as he and his knights had more important things to do than sort out spats between magic users.

Paumine offered to put up Kadra, the latter's home still fire-damaged, and Bjalien offered for his two heavies (who were effectively the village's part-time militia/town guards) to provide some additional protection overnight.

The group headed to Paumine's house, and Paumine invited the group inside. As they discussed how they might track down the evil sorcerer, Morthos came up with the idea of checking with Bazil the Bizarre, since he would no doubt have what Merriath would need to perform her ritual. Drex, in the meantime, started the ritual to summon a new familiar, his previous one having been crisped by Merriath's fireball. Not wanting to watch, Mogadon headed to the inn where he took advantage of the generosity of the innkeeper Malaga Taerwain, who was putting refugees up for free on the floor of the taproom.

After an hour of Drex's spellcasting, keenly watched by the curious Paumine, Kadra, and Morthos, a new familiar appeared - a tiny fire elemental stepping out of the burning flames in the fireplace, (much to the consternation of Paumine and Kadra) and, after leaving just a few scorch marks on the rug, transformed into a small monkey.

After ordering his new familiar to keep a watch out for trouble, Drex and Cormir followed the dwarf to the inn where they bedded down for the night.

=====Day Thirty-Three - Looking for Merriath, finding a serial killer instead.=====

After a quiet night and a light breakfast with Paumine, Morthos accompanied the two councilwomen back to Kadra's house, where the two started cleaning up after the fire, using a lot of prestidigitation to try to rid the place of the soot marks.

Meanwhile, Mogadon woke early, made his prayers to his god, and then started to help the busy innkeeper Malaga Taerwain, using mending to help her with some of the maintenance issues around the inn. Upstairs, in their more luxurious room, Cormir and Drex awakened and wandered downstairs, where Mogadon asked them if they had a plan for how to pursue this rogue sorceress. While discussing their options, the three of them stepped out of the inn and headed across to the Bakery, where a tired-looking Phelm Barrister greeted them enthusiastically, confirmed that they were still planning to stay the night in the bakery and showed them the temporary cot beds off to one side he had set out for them in anticipation of their stay.

After fetching Morthos, the four decided that the best course of action was to visit Bazil the Bizarre, as Merriath would no doubt need fresh supplies if she wanted to perform her ritual again.   As they arrived at the round house that doubled as Bazil's Potion shop, they entered through the open door, claiming to be on council business in response to Bazil's demands that the banned Drex leave.  At the suggestion that an evil sorceress might be need to restock components so she could perform her ritual, Bazil checked his stock and exclaimed that potions had definitely been stolen.  He then also acted somewhat suspiciously, checking that some pieces of jewellery were hidden under his pillow.   

Morthos decided to try to use her Mage Hand spell to steal the items hidden under the pillow, but was not careful enough with her spell casting, and Bazil flew into a rage.   Cormir attempted to step between them, and when he realised Bazil was definitely going to cast a spell, tried to punch the mage to disrupt his spell casting, but Bazil seemed to anticipate the blow and just leaned out of the way, before screaming more obscenities at them and firing a set of magic missiles at each of them.   Morthos managed to flick a shield spell into existence to avoid the missile sent at her, but as Drex was hit by the one aimed at him, he instinctively reacted with a Hellish Rebuke, and the ''incensed'' shop keeper became a momentarily ''incendiary'' shop keeper!

Trying to de-escalte things, Mogadon cast a spell of hold person, locking the now completely apocalyptic Bazil into a living rigamortis.   Drex, still feeling ripped off from the ineffective identify scroll the day before and now doubly hurt by the crazy potion maker's attack, fired an Eldritch Blast at the held shopkeeper, who was thrown backwards to crash unconscious onto his bed at the back of the shop, the bed moving slightly and exposing the trapdoor beneath.

Mogadon looked daggers at Drex for his over-the-top response and steps forward with Cormir to hold down Bazil as he administered a small healing spell.  As Bazil came too, he started raving about how everyone was now doomed as the plague would come back!  Faced with an obviously unhinged man who was not listening to anything the dwarf was saying, Mogadon head butted him to knock him out again, intending that they leave whilst the man was unconscious.   Turning to leave, both Cormir and Morthos suddenly realised that they could smell the unpleasant smell of death - coming from the trap door beneath the bed.   Opening it revealed a small cellar - with three mutilated bodies!

Morthos ran off to fetch Paumine and Kadra who were surprised to hear that Bazil the Bizarre had dead bodies in his basement.   While they were gone, Drex got his new familiar to sneak out from ytwo council members recognised the dead as people from around the village - some of whom had gone recently gone missing.  The other council members plus the village priestess were summoned and whilst waiting for them to arrive, Paumine descended into the basement, noting that off to one side (behind the steps and out of sight from above, was a small altar, covered with strange symbols and writing.   Drex hurries down and checked out the altar whilst Paumine examined the bodies.  Drex noted that amongst the rubbish, it looked like there were Abyssal symbols, and he picked out what looks like the name of a demon - "'''Xancrown'''".


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