Sunday 23 October 2016

ep 29 to 1/11/4712 AR Xanesha's End - SM#9

Xanesha the Lamia Noble & Scarecrow destroyed with aid of Sir Jereth Rogare. PCs are invited to a grand ball at the Lord Mayor's mansion. Hellknights destroy Cult of Norgorber,but Hellknight Signifer mind-blasted when he attempts to reverse scry via Xanesha's Sihedreon medallion.

1/11/4712: Contact with the Black Arrow Rangers at Fort Rannick has been lost. Magnimar suspects ogre activity - the Pathfinders have their own suspicions... Sheila suggests heading that way might help reveal the location of the next Sihedron Shard.

Quillax's Account

Journal

Jarrick expressed a great concern that the Tower will fall if we get into a fight inside it. Neril and Elwin volunteered to convince all the inhabitants within about 200 feet in all directions to be elsewhere for some hours while we investigate. They agreed to meet up with us after they had completed their task.

I carried Jarrick up the Tower in one of my forms while Sepheria cast Fly on herself and Rogare and they flew to the top.

As soon as we reached the landing, Rogare charged in and attacked, catching the Lamia off-guard and not wearing the Medusa mask. Sepheria cast Mirror Image so there seemed to suddenly be four of her and used the Guisarme to shock the Lamia with a lightning bolt.

Jarrick cast Vow of Indemnity whereas I was unable to catch the Lamia in a web. Rogare landed another series of strong blows, Sepheria followed that up with Scorching Ray, Jarrick attacked and landed most of his strikes.

The Lamia muttered a spell and vanished - none of us were able to spot her. Sepheria cast Web on a large chunk of the room but it remained undisturbed. Deciding to block her in, I spread my body out in the door way. I sensed her a moment before she bull rushed into my thorax, knocking me off the scaffolding. Luckily, I was able to land on the level below - only about 20 feet from where I fell.

By the time I righted myself and was able to look around, the Lamia was another level below me, 40 feet from where we started and Rogare was already giving chase.

Sepheria leaned over the broken railing, targeted the Lamia and struck her with another Scorching Ray. The Lamia slipped from the roof and fell to her death.

As I leaned over to see if she had survived, which seemed unlikely considering the height, the scaffolding gave way under my weight and I fell another 30 feet before I managed to catch myself again, now about a quarter of the way down the tower.

I did not want the Golem "Pumpkin Head" to get his hands on that Medusa Mask, so I quickly descended down the outside of the Tower and snatched up what I could from the Lamia, including the Mask, the Sehedron Medallion, a key chain, and her weapon "The Impaler of Thorns". Wrapping it up in a little web, I quickly scaled back to the top to lay out the bounty before the rest of the group.

The others had been busy in my absence: Jarrick cracking open some of the chests and Sepheria sorting through papers. The keys unlocked the chests Jarrick had not opened and we collected all the contents that we could make use of and threw the contents of a chest - a lot of copper coins - off the side of the Tower for the local residents to collect and make use of. The fact that no one appeared to collect them immediately showed that Neril and Elwin had successfully cleared the nearby area.

We had a short rest then I carried Rogare while the other two Misty Stepped across the dangerous and broken stairs to the Bell level where we knew at least 3 Faceless Stalkers might be residing. There turned out to be 4 of them and they appeared to be in conference atop one of the bells.

Rogare entered the room first and I followed, climbing up onto the rafters that supported the bells and arranged myself atop one where I would be safe enough but also draw attention away from the others.

One of the Stalkers moved to attack me. Sepheria cast Hypnotic Pattern which ensnared all but one of them. Jarrick moved down the stairs to get a better shot with his crossbow and was able to shoot the one not caught in Sepheria's spell. That Stalker shook awake another, breaking the spell, and the newly awoken one went after Jarrick, striking him.

Rogare moved in to help Jarrick, whilst I webbed the other non-bespelled one in hopes of keeping it from waking the others. Sepheria followed up my web with Tasha's Hideous Laughter, which I personally found vastly amusing to watch it fall prone with uncontrollable laughter. Jarrick killed the Stalker that attacked him with his knife and I tipped the one beside me off the beam, watching it fall the approximately 140 feet to the ground. Surprisingly, it did not die. Rogare and Sepheria both started down the stairs, unable to do much more as the stairs were unstable and they could not reach the remaining Stalkers.

Sepheria moved forwards while Jarrick reminded Rogare that he was wearing my Feather Fall ring and if he wanted to get to the bottom quickly, he could simply jump. Rogare did and as he approached the ground, drifted towards the Pumpkin Head as it appeared below us, landing a solid strike before his feet hit the ground.

I tipped another Stalker off the beam, watching it hit the ground. This one also did not die, unfortunately. Sepheria continued down the stairs and was soon followed by Jarrick. I could see Rogare engaged in a fight with the golem and one of the Stalkers. Sepheria attacks the Stalker as soon as she was within range, giving Rogare room to kill the Stalker and focus back on the Golem.

Earlier, Jarrick had mentioned that he had hoped to cut the trap bell free and arrange it to land on an enemy if possible. I had the opportunity as my party was at a safe enough distance and there was a Stalker directly below me. It squished the Stalker as it slammed into the ground with enough force to split in half.

The Stalker remaining, after failing to land a blow, turned and ran. I secured a web and descended as quickly as I could.

Sepheria attacks with a knife, while Jarrick casts Bane. Finally, Rogare kills the Golem. I swung and landed on the retreating Stalker, knocking it prone. It stabs me but Sepheria hurried over and struck it down. I ensured it was dead and as there were no more enemies, I resumed human form for our walk outside of the Tower to try to find the rest of our team.

Rogare revealed that the Hellknights had gotten Clerics in to talk to the Spirits at the Saw Mill and were able to find out some information which he was going to report to the Mayor.

[2825xp]

The Hellknights did report to the Mayor. Sheila later told us that they rounded up 26 Cultists to put on trial - perhaps not all of them but enough to break the Cult's hold on the City for the moment. We were invited to the Lord Mayor's home for a ball where we were awarded hero of Magnimar tokens, shaped like little angels. The Church of Abadar rewarded us for our success and the Hellknights wrote a nice letter to Sheila requesting further cooperation in the future.

While we were investigating where to go next, I took the time to arrange for Clank to be improved. Word came to us that the heads of the Scarnetti family in Magnimar were recruiting mercenaries - the Black Dogs - to clear out Sandpoint. These mercs are known to be frontier fighters and Shounti fighters.

The Scarnetti family in Magnimar contains Titus (cousin of Greydon in Sandpoint) and his mother Attilia (?), amongst others.

There was a request for us to investigate Storval Rise where they had lost contact with Fort Rannick, which gave credence to the Lamia's letter. The area is known for human-eating ogres. We would need to go by way of Turtleback Ferry, which is a frontier town also referenced in the letter.

Rogare sent word that the Signifor of the Hellknights had tried to reverse engineer the Sehedron's scrying charm and it drove him mad. He was said to have been babbling about Eyes, the Eye of Oblivion, Leng (a known alternate universe) and gems. It was feared he had made contact with a RuneLord.

We started preparing our packs for travel to Storval Rise.

[Quest completion of 1000xp for everyone]
[3489gp for each]

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