Session #6: New Faces

In this latest session, Iados conducted some interviews for new members of the party to replace Mika & Adrie. Erik slept off his drunken depression while Iados conducted the interviews - in the end, Gwenn bought herself a role on the party by paying Iados' outstanding tab, and Aludiana fought her way on by showing off her healing skills. The party then decided to investigate the corruption in the town guard - they spoke to Vilner, a former guard, and found themselves in combat when they asked him about corruption.

After defeating Vilner and his flunkies handily, they discovered that the Night Watch of the town guard was responsible for causing travelers coming in through the northern gate to disappear. They also learned after pressing him of an individual called "the butcher" who the corrupt guards were particularly afraid of.

The party investigated the northern guard tower, and were pressed into battle with a quartet of corrupt town guards and a mage who appeared to be working with them. This proved a difficult battle, and the guards nearly dragged the unconscious bodies of Iados & Aludiana into the tower to an unknown fate (though according to the mage's orders to "Take them to the butcher", it involved this feared individual). The party was victorious in the end, however, and the session stopped there for the time being.

Our session will be on for the usual time - 6 PM Pacific/8 PM Central tomorrow, Wednesday the 13th of July.

Today's Session (June 29th)

We'll be doing our session at the usual time - 6PM Pacific/8 PM Central start. I need at LEAST a physical description of Jordan's character Gwenn and Traver's character Aludiana. Backstories would be even better!

Session #5: "Erik & Iados", The Lost Pilot Episode

This week's session had the party finding a false wall in the trapped hallway. Progressing into the next hallway they found a number of skeletons guarding what appeared to be another dead end. After defeating the skeletons, they discovered another two false walls - one on each side. The party chose to head down the east passage, and found themselves in Sir Cairnstone's burial chamber, along with his personal guard - a number of infernal armor animuses.

This battle did not end well for the party - in the end, Sir Cairnstone decapitated Mika and Adrie, leaving Iados and Erik to bleed out as a mysterious robed man invited him to join "his ranks". This defeat came about for two reasons - one, the animuses, which healed Cairnstone for a significant amount upon being killed, were meant to be ignored in this encounter. Two, the party could have made the encounter easier on themselves by taking the other path first - down that path they would've found a skeletal captain whose insignia they could've placed into the basin of a shrine to Pelor (also hidden behind a false wall), which would have hampered Cairnstone's ability to summon animuses. Fortunately, Iados and Erik were rescued by Halpern and his men.

Erik and Iados spent a week recovering, each having a nasty new scar to show off - afterward they went to speak to Mayor Lundgrave, and discovered that the town was being blackmailed by a hobgoblin warlord acting on behalf of the people of Beleth. Lundgrave asked for the Blacksword Band's help against the hobgoblin's tribe; they agreed, and began to head out. On the way out, they were given a letter from Smolkin, who gave them a new job and told them he was on his way up to the town after having heard what was going on up there. The new job, from a mysterious person in the Misty Morning Inn named "I", asked them to check the windmill granary outside of town and interrogate Vilner, a former town guard, about possible corruption in the guards' ranks. Iados' paranoia has continued to grow in this session - the letter from Smolkin, delivered by the runner, and the letters "I" gave them his instructions on were both subject to arcana checks. Maybe someday he'll find some explosive runes on one of them - but don't count on it.

We will have two new characters next week - and that means two new backstories! Keep an eye out for the new backstories, guys!

Iados's Backstory

Height: 5'10"

Weight: 180 lbs.

Age: 23

Eye Color: Black

Hair Color: Black

Skin Color: Red

Body Build: Athletic

Distinguishing Feature(s): Left horn is broken, scar across the right cheek, wears his mother’s cloak, and keeps his father’s dagger sheathed in his wrist armor.

I was born in the slums of Vulkannen to a Morthos and Lerissa. It was tough growing up as we didn’t have much, although my father tried his best to provide what he could. He referred to himself as a merchant, but as I grew older, I knew better. I’d come to learn that he was little more than a common thief, and did deals in back alleys for the local crime lords. My father never belonged to any specific crime circle, he was freelance, but he did have a small crew of his own. I never let on that I knew what he actually did so that he could maintain his pride, but even though I knew, I never thought any less of him. The world was cruel, especially to our race, and my father always taught me as such.

When I was 15, my father got the “deal of the century”, as he put it. He said the job would turn our lives around. Well, the night of the operation would be his last. I’d come to find out that it was a bank job. I was originally told that my father was killed by a guard as the job went bad, but later I found out there was a double cross. The crime lord, Amnon, who’d hired my father for the job, decided that he wanted a bigger cut and had my father and his crew killed.

Even for all of my father’s trust issues, precautions, and teachings, they still got him in the end, but not without a fight from what I hear.

            With our household being in a weak position now, Amnon took it upon himself to “help” us get back on our feet, as if we had a choice. Amnon made my mother work in one of his many whore houses, but before she had even serviced her first customer, she too was killed, albeit brought on by her own hand. My mother didn’t like the idea of being a whore very much, and when her first customer came onto her, she killed him with a broken broom handle. In turn, Amnon then killed my mother as she was of no use to him. As I was alone now, and I guess as a sick joke to my parent’s memory, Amnon took me under his wing and brought me up as part of his crew of thieves.

I had a feeling that I too wouldn’t live very long under Amnon. So, in desperation and revenge I turned to the same place that my ancestors had long ago, the devil pacts. At home there was a book of Tiefling history that touched on the basis of the rituals that were performed. I scoured the book for hours and learned the secrets of the past. I performed the summoning ritual that was laid out in the book, and a cold wind blew through the room even though the windows and doors were closed. The flames of the candles were blown out and the room went dark, but then the markings on the floor began to shimmer and glow a florescent green. There was a loud cackling that echoed through the room as a strange entity appeared, standing on top of the markings. The devil looked somewhat similar to myself – tail, horns, red skin. He identified himself as Agreas, High Vizier Devil of Bel, Master of Avernus, and demanded to know why I had summoned him. I pleaded with him to grant me power so that I may claim my vengeance on Amnon. Agreas seemed to ponder this for a second before he finally reached toward me. He grabbed my left horn on my head and snapped it off like a twig. The devil gripped the horn in his hand and closed his eyes. The horn began to flatten and elongate. When the transformation was done, my horn now resembled a sword. Agreas thrust the hilt of the blade at me, and I cautiously gripped the blade. As I did so, the edges of the blade became surrounded in a swirling, shadowy purple light, and I heard whispers in a strange tongue inside my head. As I held the blade, I felt infused with power and I felt like I could take on the world. By this time, Agreas had disappeared, leaving me alone in a dark room. I now had the power for my revenge, and all I needed now was the chance to extract it.

A couple of hard months passed before I finally saw my chance to kill Amnon. It was a night after I had just helped rob a merchant of his gold and wares while he was distracted with packing up. A part that involved the death of the merchant by one of Amnon’s goons after I sucker punched him. I’ve had to do many terrible, despicable things these past few months to blend into Amnon’s crowd. I’m not proud of the things I’ve done, but they were essential to my survival.

I went to present the night’s take to Amnon, strangely there was only one guard in the room. I handed the bag of gold to Amnon, and as he turned to put it in the vault, I hastily cast an Eldritch Bolt at the guard, hitting him in the face. Before Amnon could turn around again, I had already drawn my demonic blade and was charging him, but with quick reflexes, Amnon managed to draw his sword and match blades as the two swords clashed together. As both of us tried to strong arm the other, Amnon spoke through gritted teeth, “I should have known that you would try to kill me one day.” My strength began to give and Amnon’s sword inched closer to my face, and I grimaced as I turned my head, Amnon’s sword slicing across my right cheek. As blood trickled down my face, I shouted, “This is for my parents!”, and I kicked Amnon in his crotch. Amnon dropped his sword and fell to his knees as all of the strength ran out of his body.

I drew back my sword and swung it in an arc, the blade glowing with dark purple light at it sliced through Amnon’s neck like butter. His head flew across the room and hit the wall as his body fell to the floor with a low thud. I stood over Amnon’s lifeless body for a moment, breathing heavily, watching his blood drip from the tip of my demonic blade, mesmerized by it.

            The moment was stolen as the door to the room opened behind me, it was the other guard. He hesitated for a moment, taking in the sight, trying to put together the pieces as I stood over the bodies. Not letting the guard have the upper hand, I quickly blasted him with an Eldritch Bolt and dashed through the door, making a break for it.

            I ran back home to grab what food I could. I had to leave town, surely one of Amnon’s goons would want retribution, and I wasn’t going to stick around to let them have that. As I gathered my things, my mind was filled with whispers again, only this time I could understand them. I recognized the voice as Agreas, the devil who had given me power, “You have done well and taken your revenge. Now you must pay back your debt, but not this moment. I will let you relish in victory now. However, in ten years’ time, on your twenty-fifth birthday, you will be in my service.”

            Now I have a new purpose, to find a way out of this pact. I travel from town to town; looking for any information I can find to help me. I also help those that I can so that I can atone for the horrible things I did in Amnon’s service. When I die, my deeds may not matter, but as I still breathe, every little bit helps me sleep better at night. I live on in memory of my parents, carrying a part of them with me in my travels. I will make my life, and theirs count for something.

Tomorrow's Session

Usual time for tomorrow's session (6 PM Pac/8 PM Cent start). See you guys there!

PIXIE WHERE IS YOUR BACKSTORY

Session Recap #4: Death Coffins

Short session - had to start nearly an hour late, and stop at the halfway point of our usual time. Not much to cover but I'll go over it.

The group fought the boneshard skeleton without Iados present, as he was late. The combination of the boneshard's hard hits and the constant damage from the poison gas proved to push the party to the brink, but they managed to defeat the boneshard and emerge victorious from the encounter. Claiming their loot from the sarcophagi, they advanced further into the catacombs.

At this point we had lost Erik, so the party of Iados, Mika and Adrie advanced forward. In the next hall, Mika was grabbed by an iron maiden-like coffin trap which kept her trapped for the duration of the encounter. Iados and Adrie had to deal with the darts being launched through the hallway and the decrepit skeletons. In the end, Mika was freed just in time from the coffin trap before its iron spikes led to her demise.

Mika technically died in the 2nd encounter, but due to the nature of the coffin being a Strength-based skill check to escape, and the sole party member versed in Strength skills being absent, this was changed.

Something I would like for everyone to read - with a party of this size, we can have a more personal, in-depth sort of game, which is a lot of fun and tends to allow for a lot more character growth and role-playing. However, when people are severely late, don't pay attention, or take extended breaks, it really drags the game down, because every player in a party of four is vital to the success of the group as a whole. Please keep this in mind for future sessions; thanks for reading, and I'll see you all next Wednesday!

Today's Session (June 15th)

Today's session is on for the usual time - 6 PM Pacific/8 PM Central. See you guys there!