Two main things that occurred though was the party had a second conversation with the BBEG, Ixitch, and this time it did not go in our favor. And the fight at the end showed the group was overmatched.
Ixitch at some point figured out between the first conversation and this one who the party might be. He was wrong on some level, but right on others. And flat out was/is going to use his influence to kill the group's family member and friends.
That's the truth of it. So they HAVE to neutralize him and soon before he becomes a problem.
The second part was the group had to face a concentrated enemy on their home turf - and even though we lost an NPC or two - and multiple members of the party were down - they once again underestimated the effectiveness of the enemy on their stronghold with their strengths.
Write up follows:
Bad Tom flat out said we didn’t need 2 dwarves to talk, and the camp dog was a non-starter so some sword thrusts finished them off, leaving one dwarven crossbowman and the wizard alive…for now. The wizard was young, a bit past 20 and cocksure of himself while the dwarf, Shelvar, was a bit more open and willing to talk to the party. Some questioning, some snide answers, some dead wizard and then we got some information about Ixitch and the others.
Apparently Shelvar is a temporary employee, worked for Ixitch about 5 months, was laid off for 3, and had signed another 5 month contract of which 3 or 4 months have passed. Ixitch has a trusted group of supporters who handle the downstairs portion of the Homestead and apparently they had been practicing for this situation and Shelvar let the group know that enough time has passed that Ixitch and Co. are ready for the group. No he doesn’t have particulars, but he knows that they all have a part to play.
We trussed him up after getting no confirmation about antipoison being in the locked secret room and made our way back to the Entrance Hall. It was apparent that there had been some changes here, small subtle things. We heard faint movement inside the Exercise yard as well as outside. Plus we could see/smell oil all around the front door.
We wanted to burn it off but do it in such a way that we don’t get hit with another fireburst spell. So Shim cast a ghost sound which sounded like 3 or 4 of us going to the front door, followed by a handful of loose rocks tossed at the door, which was followed by the oil being lit under the door and then followed by the fire being BURST by an unseen magical assailant! Shim made the sounds of people yelling and then going silent.
The group then dimly heard the sound of and inrushing of air from the Exercise yard and then a matching one from outside through the window. Ok…what??
Once sure no one was around, we chanced to enter the Exercise yard again. Right near the entrance, the dirt was swirled in a spiral pattern at least 6’ wide…and the ladder we had on the floor was missing. Ok…Lets look around. The thought was the people/person just here portaled out somehow, hence why the inrushing of air, pop, and spiral of dirt. As for the ladder it had to be back on the roof, so we had Brading cast Invisibility to Undead on Bad Tom, Eoghan, Barb, and Darius, and two of them attempted to climb the wall to look on the roof.
And there were two undead half-ogres up here with three ladders right near them.
Fuck, not a good idea – they came back down.
The Delay Poison was in its last hour and Eoghan was in danger to succumbing, so the group hightailed it to the north wall, Will Murder checked the door and let us know that there was a pressure against it on the other side but it was not locked…most likely trapped – and the set up made it impossible for him to disarm it on this side.
So Barb volunteered to open it and the group was expecting maybe a guard and/or a spear trap so we all spaced out and got ready and Barb used her pole to force the door open.
And a pressurized bladder popped and sprayed her with a caustic aerosol poison that go in her skin, nose, ears, mouth, eyes, and lungs…And just as it was beginning to burn – Brading hit HER with a Delay Poison Spell – stopping the effects in its tracks.
The group looked her over and the consensus by Will and Thalin was that she had two poisons on her, an acetic destabilizing one that could kill her, and flammatory one made from dried salamander skin. So it’ll weaken her, set her on fire, and then finish her off.
Crap – we had 4 hours to find a cure for her – and about an hour and a half left to help Brading.
We disarmed the trap and held the door in place and then opened the north door – and the trap on the south room went off without opening the door – and no one was hurt! All right!
Key in hand we opened the secret door and it was an armory and trade closet of some sort. Weapons, armor, boxes of trade goods – and a safe set in the floor also guarded by a key. Will checked it out and was sure there was a needle trap set inside the 5 tumbler lock – no antidote visible for now. – Most likely INSIDE the safe.
That we don’t have the key for.
We left the area and decided that we might have to go downstairs and take the fight to Ixitch – but we also know that it might be a bad idea. The thought was to try and talk to Ixitch first and see if we can salvage anything of this situation – two of our members were poisoned and needed help now – and the minutes keep ticking by.
We went back to the Exercise yard, climbed the roof to look out at the front door – no one was there just undead on the roof (who didn’t see us thanks to the Invisibilty to Undead still going) – but we saw the swirling pattern in the dirt out there as well. We went back to the main room, to the hall and disarmed the spear trap, and then talked to Shelvar the dwarf who gave us what little info he was able to – and we let him go, the dwarf VERY thankful and on his way to Grimyria for now.
We went to the dead mage and Bad Tom finished hacking the head off while Darius kept tapping the head and waving his hand it, trying to get the necromancer and Ixitch’s attention. And after a few minutes, we were able to hear once again through the head.
Ixitch was pissed; we had been killing his men, wasting his resources, and ransacking his home. Convinced we were working for Big G O who had sent us here to collect the now 7,700 commons he was owed, he had little interest in making a deal, even when Darius (pretending to be Isilwine still) tried to give him a version of the truth that we were NOT working for Big G O and instead wanted to get to him.
Then we grew concerned as he traced the fact that Isilwine was married to Twilane Diamondcutter – who was the younger sister of an adventurer, and sell sword Darius, who had a group called the Vanguards of Ragnarok – and were them. Shit. He knows who we are.
We tried to beg for an antidote to the poison in the lock and made believe that Thalin was Avulstein – which had the “Keeper” – the Necromancer here, VERY interested in helping – professional courtesy and all. He wanted to have a good word sent back to Parylis that he was helpful and was willing to do a good turn. The antidote portaled up here and we turned the head so they couldn’t see us giving it to Eoghan who downed it with relief.
But Ixitch and Darius/Isilwine went back and forth and Ixitch flat out didn’t believe or trust the group at all. This was going to end and end badly. He was going to order a hit out on Isilwine’s wife, Twilane (Darius’ younger sister) and then do the same for the rest of the group – in a week; they were all going to be fucking dead, dead, dead.
We ended transmission at the same time he did and Darius looked at the group and said – now we have to kill them. This is my kid sister and family, he can’t be allowed to leave here and set this up.
We went to the door going down, made sure that any trap on the other side was set off, and then made our way down the steps to a large room. Some chairs, small tables, comfortable looking living room – pretty big, 30x 50. There were 3 doors on the south wall, one on the north – all reinforced oak. And each had a hanging curtain partially blocking it.
We took our time looking and listening. The three southern doors, the first one had a stink to it like unwashed bodies, the middle was silent, the last had some more foul sickly sweet smell and some weeping sounds on the other side. Meanwhile the north door heard maybe some distant shuffling noises, nothing nearby.
While all this was going on, Shim and Thalin were looking around for secret doors when they found a section of the western wall that could open – but no way to open it from this side – one way secret door. Most likely an escape tunnel. We wanted to block it up and Darius looked in his bag – finding one last iron spike.
Barb was going to set it but it would take 10 or so hits to do it – and it would be loud. So we handed out hammers and around the room we struck the spike 2 times and the ground the same and then stopped and Eoghan listened. Some noises again, nothing new. We hit it another pair of times and stopped. Listening…Someone coming closer and Eoghan could tell that who ever it was was listening on the other side of the door!
We hit it another 2 times and Eoghan let us know the figure was running down the hall. Then we just wailed on it and got it set – effectively closing off their escape route.
But now they know we’re here and most likely getting ready. So we all got near the door, Shim cast an illusion of 3 guys with flat bows looking at the door while Bad Tom was ready to open the door. And we did, one, two, three.
There was a distant moaning and then a snap.
And a god borne line of fire streaked down the hall like Sutur himself empowered it, consumed Bad Tom and the door in cacophony of shrieking flames, and burned Elsa, Darius, and Barb who were near the front.
Spells fired, sling stones were shot, Arrows filled the air and Brading turned the zombies – but only two of them managed to flee- the others circling around and engaging Eoghan. Then a ghoul ran into the room and we shot sling stones and magic missiles at it, killing it before it could get close enough to hit one of us. Barb was overmatched and starting to lose the fight when she bit her tongue and swelled up, blood running through her mouth as her barbaric rage helped even up the odds between her and the swordsman.
Elsa took punishing blows as she swapped to her butterfly axe, bleeding from a torn scalp and nursing fractured ribs as the Bugbear was beating her to death. But she managed to center herself and hacked up hard…lopping off the bugbear’s shield arm at the elbow and evening up that part of the battle! Darius was struck by flying axes as the dwarf was trying to take him down. We could hear the dwarf calling down the hall, “Empress, we need you now!!” Followed by heavy mailed figure running down towards us. Eoghan took more hits from the zombies and was starting to stagger.
And as we were trying to set up a solid line of defense, the human mercenary called out, “Empress…A Three!” as he hacked at Barb again.
And there was outrushing of air as another ghoul pounced out of nowhere and appeared in the back corner of the room where Darius, Will Murder, and Thalin was. Shit. And it hit Will Murder like a starving wild cat, tearing and biting and scratching and ripping into the hobgoblin who fell over paralyzed as Thalin ran towards Barb and Darius took up defensive line between them.
And we heard running again down the hall – something was coming and we needed to slow it down. So Shim dodged through the battle, hit the front line, and cast a globe of darkness as far down the hall he could making whoever it was slow down and stumble – buying us another round.
And for his efforts, the swordsman turned his attacks from Barb and instead hit the gnome hard, again and again and again – dropping Shim to -7.
The group was screaming for Brading to help as Darius missed with all of his sling stones at the approaching ghoul and the scroll of magic missiles Thalin read shot off FOUR of the missiles at the undead scavenger – but failed to kill it!! Brading tried to turn the ghoul but failed and it hit Darius in a twisting ripping dance of fury – and the fighter fell over paralyzed!!!
And the ghoul was staring at Thalin and licking its lips.
There we were, Shim dying, Barb struggling against a superior fighter fully in a barbaric rage, Else Ira in the single digits and trying to keep the murderous Bugbear focused on her, Brading with his back turned to the dwarf who was ready to hurl another axe at his back this time, Bad Tom immolated, Eoghan struggling against two zombies, Will Murder bleeding bad and down paralyzed, Darius struggling to break free of his own paralysis and failing, and Thalin facing off with a wounded ghoul stalking closer and closer, with only a satchel full of spell scrolls to hopefully stem the tide.
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