Session009
Session Nine - 28th July 2023
SHORT VERSION
The dwarf Mogadon Ironheart, recently arrived in the village and by happenstance nearby, forces the evil sorcerer Merriath the Quick to drop Kadra's body and flee into the night, wounded but invisible.
In the aftermath of the battle, Council member Paumine Sandalwood arrived and put out the fire in Kadra's house by using her druidic magic, the village priestess Isperil Lightwind arrived and revived Drex and Cormir, and Sir Brenaform Steelcrest, leader of the Knights of the Last Bastion tried to take control, but was shooed away by Bjalien Viadias, the current Village Master not wanting them to interfere in "village business" - as well as insulted/shamed by the righteous dwarf Mogadon.
Mogadon and Morthos brought Kadra's unconscious body to Isperil, who removed the poison so that Kadra could be revived. The final council member Colinus Birthwitch was summoned with his one-eyed mastiff to help try to track down the sorcerer, but the trail of blood went cold behind the palisade of the Knight's wooden fort and the group gave up the search in the night - realising that with her magical abilities to either go invisible or put on another face, she would be very difficult to track down.
Paumine agreed to host Kadra whilst her house was unliveable and Morthos agreed to also stay the night to help reassure Kadra. With "Barbie" crisped, Drex summoned a new familiar, surprised when a "fire-monkey" stepped out of the fireplace, before heading back with Cormir and Mogadon to the inn to sleep.
In the morning, Paumine helped Kadra start to clean up and repair her somewhat charred house whilst Mogadon joined the "Heroes of Fort Frostfell" as they considered their options on how to track down Merriath the Quick. Since Merriath would no doubt need space, time and materials to perform the ritual, the group headed to see Bazil the Bizarre, where they discovered that Merriath had already been there and that Bazil was in fact mad and had three dead bodies in his basement. The council were summoned and the bodies were recognised as:
- Kylar Birthwitch (Nephew of council member Colinus Birthwitch)
- Vibnor Prefect (a 15-year-old orphan who had been reported missing by the brewery owner)
- Dreena Capple (the half-elf apprentice to Elred Olfusal, the village Goldsmith)
LONG VERSION
- Link to audio file -
As the fireball faded and Morthos rushed to stabilise her companions, a dwarf stepped towards the evil sorceress Merriath and fired a guiding bolt at her - having recognised 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 have 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 appear.
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 gets through the people and tents, she spots a commotion and makes her way to Kadra's body at about the same time that the dwarf returns having failed to catch the now invisible and impossible to find sorceress. The dwarf dispels the silence he had cast and quickly examines Kadra's body, the tiefling obviously having no clue beyond the fact that Kadra was still breathing. He quickly determines 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 casts 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 clamouring to find out what the hell was going on, Isperil cast a spell to remove the poison from Kadra who comes around. With the chaos still going around, Kadra explains that the last she remembered was being hit by Merriath's poisoned dagger and Morthos and the dwarf explain how they had rescued her, the latter introducing himself as Mogadon Ironheart.
In the background, a group of knights come down from their fort led by Sir Brenarform Steelcrest, who tries to take control, but ends up having an argument with Village Master Bjalien Viadas instead about who had jurisdiction in the village.
As Paumine finishes putting out the fire, she steps up and asks Kadra what was going on. Kadra, with some reluctance, explains 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, looks somewhat put out, and gripes that Kadra was bringing her troubles to the village, only to be interrupted by Mogadon putting him in his place. Spluttering his indignation, he tries to impress his importance as Village Master, only to be dismissed by Mogadon as wasting time in finding the sorceress. Scowling, Bjalien sends for the last of the council members, the hunter come butcher Colinus Birthwitch, who has a mastiff that might be able to follow the scent of the sorceress. Cormir suggests, quite sensibly, that Kadra needs somewhere safe to stay, and proposes 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 starts to make excuses about how having a woman in the fort would not be good for the moral and discipline of his knights. After getting a lambasting from the righteous dwarf, Drex tries to intimidate the knight into doing the right thing, but only succeeds in making things worse, and the knight suggests that the village sort their own problems out as he and his knights have more important things to do that sort out spats between magic users.
Paumine offers to put up Kadra, the latter's home still fire damaged, and Bjalien offers for his two heavies (who are effectively the village's part time militia/town guards) to provide some additional protection over night.
The group head to Paumine's house and Paumine invites the group inside. As they discuss how they might track down the evil sorcerer, Morthos comes up with the idea of checking with Basil the Bizarre, since he will no doubt have what Merriath would need to perform her ritual. Drex, in the meantime starts the ritual to summon a new familiar, his previous one having been crisped by Merriath's fireball. After an hour of spell casting, keenly watched by the curious Paumine, 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.
With instructions to keep an eye on the ... TBC
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