ep 20 RSS 13/1/4712 to 15/7/4712 Return - CLL#9

13/1/4712
Hard battle with Babau demons & vampiric mists; the Iomedae Paladin Jarrick is killed but returned to life by the Cleric of Saranrae. Oriana proves a very tough combatant.
Leaving the caves below the Light the party see a crack has appeared in the Lady's Light as ten thousand years of aging assert itself on the ancient structure. Just outside the bullywug cave the party encounter the Pyrohydra, but Sephiria dazes it with an Hypnotic Pattern and the party are able to escape. Oriana & the Gray Maidens will serve Sephiria.

15/1/4712
Standing guard in swamp ruins, Neril is attacked by a hunting manticore; it is driven off.

20/1/4712
The Wanton Ways returns from Korvosa and drops anchor, picks up the party and returns them to Magnimar.

15/7/4712
After 6 months of training, research and hunting for/commissioning magic items, the group are summoned to Sheila's study in the Pathfinder Lodge. Several murders have struck the Sandpoint Hinterlands, bodies marked with the sign of the Sihedron... Brodert Quink, late of Sandpoint, plans to investigate and requests an escort. Sheila shows Quillax a bloody note, apparently addressed to her, found at the scene of one of the murders... it appears to be a love note.

Quillax's Account
Geddout, following the securing of the new shard, had decided to leave the Lady’s Light. None of us begrudged him wanting to get out of the Light; we had done what we had come to do and it had been a difficult period. Plus, I think there was some other pressing matter weighing on his heart to do with his clan.

After resting, we decided to go check out the ‘temple’ where the vampiric mists were rumoured to reside. With the curiosity of our wizard over the possibility of another undiscovered place of worship belonging to Sorshen and the anti-evil drive from the Paladin over the evil mists, we were pretty much guaranteed to have to investigate that place. Ensuring our runes were still painted on and visible, we moved into the room. The first room was lined with pillars on both sides where the mists hovered but seemed uninterested in us, so we moved into the second room, leaving some Maidens at the door, just in case we needed to keep the path clear. It wasn’t particularly interesting - nothing like the last one of Sorshen’s hidden temples but then Neril shouted a warning as things started to step out from the walls. Demons.

Sepheria grabbed my shoulder and called out that the group was to retreat and offered to take me with her in a short teleport. I nodded my agreement to go with her - I trust her evaluation of these situations. We returned to the door, and a moment later, Neril was dashing across the room towards us, trying to dodge the now-active mists.

We waited for the other half of the party. I wasn’t yet worried about them, the Grey Maidens were a wall of armour and would be able to shove their way out dragging Elwin and Jarrick with them, if more slowly then Neril. Except then the mists suddenly decided that we were interesting after all - four came towards us and four headed towards the rest of the party. Now, I was starting to get worried.

We needed to clear the mists to provide the team with a clear exit. The Grey Maiden’s armour worked against them with the mists as the creatures slipped through the cracks in their plate, or so we worked out from the shouts we heard from the other room. Magic worked well against the mists, so we worked our way through them. Neril forced them close and with radiant magic and a solid strikes, we destroyed most of the four. When there was only one left, which we could easily deal with, Neril darted off to help the rest of the party, who were struggling against the odds and trapped between demons and vampiric mists. Not a good place to be. Unfortunately, the only way for him to help was to step right back into the middle of the danger with his shadow step. Even with the additional warrior, the fight was not going truly in our favour.

The Maidens were taking on the mists, magics and swords were being employed to their highest capability, but it was not enough. The demons were strong and the mists acted like a wolf pack, working together. Sepheria moved away from the door and tried a fireball, which fried the enemy demons, but also some of our party if the unhappy snarl from our Grey Maiden Captain. The Grey Maidens defending the door moved to attack a mist that had run from the other fight, bespelled by Elwin. The Maidens with the other half of the party fought the mists, aside from the Captain, who battled back the demons.

Lucky hits from the demons killed Jarrick and Elwin struggled to get close enough to him to revive him. Neril also went down, although not dead, and Elwin healed him. Between the whole party, only one demon remained, but we were in a most precarious position as Neril was unlikely to survive another hit and Elwin had already used much of his magical strength and would be unable to res both of them should the last demon strike him down as it appeared.

Sepheria recommended I use my Major Image from the Shard and I summoned up the figure we had seen all too much in this dungeon - she who everyone claimed to be. The demon flinched back from my projection of Sorshen and bowed before her as the illusion commanded it to do. This bought us just enough time to destroy it before it could take out Neril.

Much relieved, I dismissed the illusion and watched as Elwin resurrected Jarrick and healed Neril. We all agreed that was plenty enough exploring and it was time to leave the dungeon. Neril and I split off the party briefly to collect Clank, who was still waiting patiently with the boat. We took the boats down the river to meet up with the others and started to make our way out.

However, with the death of the demon maintaining the light, the magics holding up the Light started to fail and we raced for the exit before we were crushed by the falling architecture.

Once outside, our luck did not hold as we met the Hydra we had so far managed to avoid. The Maidens formed ranks, and we spread out so as to not make an easy target and hopefully be able to flank it. I summoned up some beasts to act as a distraction with instructions not to target the heads and we started to attach. The Hydra barked out a stunning sound wave which knocked my beasts from the sky and knocked out a few of our party. A spell was cast by Sepheria, I think, though I was not near enough to know for certain, which paralysed the Hydra briefly. We considered attacking but when it began to grow another head, we decided to simply run, gathering up those of our party who were not able to run by themselves.

We decided not to stay with the half-orc witch and instead found some old ruins in which to bed down while we waited for the boat. Neril was on guard and spotted an approaching manticore before it could get into the camp. Some of us were quick to our feet - others less to due to being heavy sleepers - and we engaged the beast. Neril took a fair amount of damage from the beast’s spikes as did a Maiden from the claws but we managed to drive it off without any losses.

Thankfully, the boat arrived before we could stumble across any further creatures which wanted to kill us, and we returned to the city to present out findings to Sheila and sell our knowledge and collected treasures. The money was split evenly and we went our separate ways, though we did not go far and we kept in touch. As promised, the Grey Maidens were taken on my Sepheria’s sister as a private army and I camped in her manor grounds, with permission. Neril started a school for Monks, while Elwin and Jarrick went in with him and in on a small orphanage. I saw some of the group in the marketplace, and we all saw Gedout off, as he planned to travel back to his clan. He sold us many of his adventurer trinkets so that he would have plenty of money for his clan when he returned to them. My writings were published in the PathFinders Journals, which I have been informed is a great honour. Sepheria’s letters home, stripped of any personal commentary, were also made available to the PathFinders.

At the end of the summer, we were summoned to the PathFinders Lodge as there was a man with a strange letter addressed to me; it’s contents were bizarre. He also informed us that there was trouble in his home city and he hoped for our help. I was curious and agreed to return with him to his home city, where people were going missing. Luckily for me, the rest of the party agreed to also go, as I have come to depend on them in the tough situations - even those I have known only for a short time. We prepared for our journey and set out.

ep 19 RSS 12-13/1/4712 Completion

After resting overnight, group now including Gedout and Neril, and joined by the Iomedae Paladin Jarrick, attack & defeat the Gray Maiden fanatics under Quenelle Page, then head up into the Lady's Light where they meet Oriana before attacking the insane alu-demon Ashamintallu, daughter of Amandiyalu. Defeat her, loot treasury and find the third Shard, plus recover the Shard of Pride.

Rest then explore hidden chambers off the jail area, encountering vampiric mists & babau demons.

8 Gray Maidens CR 2 xp 450x8= 3600
Quenelle Page CR 6 xp 2300
Chamber of the Seven CR 7 xp 2900
The Spinning Serpents CR 7 xp 2900
Sorshen's Boudoir - defeat Ashamintallu & take Shard CR 10 xp 5900
Total 17600

6 PCs & Gray Maiden allies = 7

17600/7= 2514 each

Quillax's Account

After a long rest, we were met by the rest of our group, who were returning from taking Anastasia to the half-ogre witch, whom we hoped would help her regain full consciousness.

Geddout and Neril were a welcome sight and rightfully mourned the passing of Keelan when the news was shared.

They also brought a companion, Jarrick, who had been sent to investigate the Grey Maiden activity by his Order. As long as he did no harm to our allied Maidens, I was happy to have him along. He didn't know Keelan, so he kept his distance from our mourning, along with Elwin.

Despite the risk to Gert, we decided to move quickly - we couldn't risk the Shard getting into the wrong hands as it still has power despite the binding of the Ioun Stone. We planned to move with stealth and spent time detailing the layout of the path we needed to take but we also decided to bring a contingent of strength and gathered all our allied Maidens with us.

We found that taking all the boats had been a wise move, as the beach showed sign of heavily armoured boots. Those with heavy armour were instructed to stay back while those with stealth capabilities moved ahead. We decided to take a huge risk and split the party with the ranged and more vulnerable attacking from the balcony, while those better in close combat took the floor. In the hall of the illusatory dance, we met two enemy Maidens. They were quickly and rather brutally dealt with, but there was now a higher risk to Gert as we were spotted and barred from the next room.

Our group rejoined and we worked to break down the door. Between Geddout and myself, we forced the door, but too late for Gert as her severed head was thrown at us. Our allied Maidens kept their calm, though I admit to no such restraint as I ignored all other enemies to head for Lt Page, taking the damage as a matter of course.

We beat down the group only to find that the Shard was missing. The Maidens had shown themselves particularly resistant to mental magicks, so perhaps it wasn't unexpected that they could ignore the slight remaining pull from the Shard of Pride. We managed to keep two of the enemy alive for questioning, although if left to me I admit I would not have.

While Gedout did his best to intimidate the Maidens into answering our questions, and very successfully did so, we arranged Gert to be re-united with her head and taken out to be buried in the sands of the beach. With good information, we were left with the conundrum of what to do with our captives. Our allied Maidens preferred not to kill them, so we left two to guard the captives in a cell and keep them alive. We also field-promoted one of the Maidens as she was capable and our Maidens had lost all their leaders and needed someone to provide order and structure.

Instead of investigating a room with vampiric mist, we decided to head up immediately to the next set of teleporters. This room contained an interesting riddle about embracing the Lady and the Liar. The Lady was obvious. The Liar was not hard to find; Greed would hardly give away anything, even a rose.

Geddout and Jarrick were volunteered to go first. They disappeared into the light easily enough, so we arranged for the rest of us followed.

When we were reunited, we had found the missing Captain, who had been banished to this strange limbo room, unable to leave as in the next room was our false Sorshen. Our Maidens helped convince her that we were telling the truth and we went to confront Anastasia's sister and hopefully rescue one final Maiden that had been left with her.

We had to travel in groups as the whole of us could not pass through the portal at once.

When I arrived, we found that the Maiden had not survived, and Anastasia's sister was being thoroughly trounced. Neril had landed a perfect blow, which stunned our enemy, and our combined strength was enough to kill her without any losses on our side.

We found Keelan's body in the bed, which raised thoughts that did not sit well with any of us. Wrapping Keelan and the Maiden in the bed silks, we sent Maidens off to bury them, while we looked for the Shards, both stolen and our next objective.

We found them in a little room, which sounded oddly of breathing. That turned out to be caused by a rather wicked little orb, which thankfully I was able to avoid being ensnared by. Sepheria was beside herself with joy at finding a small library of spell books, and all of us were thereby happier yet to find a bag of holding large enough for her to fit them all in. Else, we would have had to try to carry whatever might not have fit in our existing bag. Aside from other magical trinkets, we located both Shards. I claimed mine immediately, pleased to have it safely back and not being used for evil. The other was picked up by Sepheria, who we trusted to carry it. The two new members of our group had not yet proven themselves fully trustworthy and as a Monk, Neril was ill-placed to carry the Lust Shard.

We packed up what we could and left Anastasia's sister's body where it lay.

We decided to rest and organize ourselves before we would go investigate the mists.