Post by Trevor on Mar 21, 2013 0:11:05 GMT -5
One-time DM meatgrinder night, courtesy of nobody else having anything fully prepped.
Our heroes were resting in a depressingly empty guild hall when a badly bloodied cleric of Iomedae burst into the room, begging for help to all those present (Sam, Alex, Robb, David and... B- something. I'm bad with names. The air oracle ^^; ), and imparting a few scrolls to aid them . Apparently the city of New Norenshire, a trade port on the Sword Coast of Faerun, had come under siege from an army of fiends. The slaughter sounded strictly demonic in nature, but after an interpretation of their description, it seems Baatezu (devils) were to blame.
Arriving at the borders of the city, the party found it a smoldering ruin, a cloud of hundreds of Host Devils and Erinyes circling the sky above it. Approaching the gates, they were accosted by powerful fallen angels wearing strange porcelain masks, who asked them to turn back, claiming that the pact allowing this harvest of souls had been more than forty years in the making, and that an entity called The Maleficent would not approve of innocents being slain.
After disregarding this warning and defeating the Erinyes with relative ease, the party moved into the city, encountering an animate suit of blackened armor, with another strange mask floating where its head should be (an Apostate Devil; pretty much Satan from the Adventures of Mark Twain. Look it up and be horrified). It, too, warned that their presence would not be tolerated by The Maleficent (revealed as a greater fiend and consort to Belial and Fierna, Dukes of Phlegethos), and his overzealous legions might attack them. Again ignoring this advice, the party found themselves subject to a mindf*** as the Deimavigga hit the group with a Mind Fog, and proceeded to do it's thing.
A narrow victory later, the party retreated into a house with refugees, narrowly dodging a patrol of a half dozen Cornugons. The commoners hoped to flee to the tower of Marcus Terell, a wizard who had helped found the town. For whatever reason, the devils could not enter his tower.
The next morning, the party slipped through the streets unnoticed until a raven picking at a corpse started screaming in broken Infernal, sounding an alarm. Running from dozens of greater devils and a literal tide of Lemures, the party reached the gate of the tower, opening it with the phrase "The debts of the father are repaid by the son", which was inscribed in Celestial on concentric circles embedded in the gate. Closing the gate behind them, the devils would not enter. Wiping their brows, the party headed into the tower and to the top floor.
Alex very stupidly tried to steal an oil painting of Mechanus from a 20th level wizard and was hit by 40D6 disintegration damage, negating his res token. At the top floor, they found Marcus, a Tiefling, sitting at the fireside, drinking wine.
A bit of exposition revealed that Marcus had indeed founded the city, and to promote fast population growth, had offered free land to anyone signing on to become a citizen. A pretty high int check revealed a clause of the contract, a paragraph of bureaucratic language, boiled down to "btw, if you sign, I own your soul". So while dickish, it was technically a binding infernal contract. And he had 12,000 of them on record.
The party played to his lawful nature, challenging him to a fight for the fate of the city's souls. He rather politely let them buff to full, then sprouted wings and unfolded into his real form, a Pit Fiend.
Mid fight, the fiend rendered himself immune to nonlethal damage via a spell, making most of the party's damage effectively zero (aligned weapons are a must these days). Luckily the oracle used a scroll of Miracle given to him by the Iomedae cleric to mass align weapons, effectively only buying Marcus one turn of safety.
After some very close scrapes, including surviving a Transmute Blood to Acid, and Steve surviving simultaneous Cloudkill and pit fiend venom, the party was on the verge of winning. A bit of a sore loser, the fiend used Mass Hold Person, conceded defeat, and willfully smashed the soul gem containing the city's souls, then retreated, and his legions with him. Not before giving Steve (who had dealt him the most damage) a ~50 damage Shoryuken 10 feet across the room, though.
While only saving about 20 people of the 12,000 present, the party's actions ensured the lost souls would at least find their way to the proper Outer Planes, denying Hell most of its bounty. Also you beat like a CR30, so... bragging rights.
Loot: Standard plus a hero point and an influence for everybody
Alex:
You get the Deimavigga's mask, which has all the powers of the Deimavigga's Evangelization ability, (on the OGC), with the same DC's, as well as retaining the Mask of the Skull ability. Note that this doesn't work if they're in melee with ANYBODY.
You also have a note directly from Belial and Fierna, suggesting you should go to the Iron City of Dis and "Do lunch sometime". You get a +4 on charisma checks when interacting with devils, diabolists, or worshipers of Asmodeus.
Sam:
Steve gets a +2 to will saves (permanent), and his stomach now has a Dimensional Anchor effect on it so that extraplanar rifts can't open to facilitate devils punching you anymore.
You've also made an enemy of a Duke of Hell, giving both Steve and Zeff Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider (+2), as per the ranger ability.
Robb:
If your dervish dance puts you behind an enemy that has a clear "front" and "back", you get a +2 to hit and damage. You also get a +2 to all will saves.
David:
Having raided the wizard's library, you get 12 levels worth of free spells added to your spells known, your choice. They can only be of your second highest level slot or lower.
You also have a constant effect Mage Hand, and Acid Resist 5 from taking a 9th level spell like a champ.
....Oracle man. That is your name now:
You learn to appreciate the value of aligned weapons, and now can 1x a day as a full round action provide an alignment of your choice to all friendly's weapons in a 30ft radius. It lasts rounds/level.
You can also cast Crusader's Edge once a day on your own weapons only
Our heroes were resting in a depressingly empty guild hall when a badly bloodied cleric of Iomedae burst into the room, begging for help to all those present (Sam, Alex, Robb, David and... B- something. I'm bad with names. The air oracle ^^; ), and imparting a few scrolls to aid them . Apparently the city of New Norenshire, a trade port on the Sword Coast of Faerun, had come under siege from an army of fiends. The slaughter sounded strictly demonic in nature, but after an interpretation of their description, it seems Baatezu (devils) were to blame.
Arriving at the borders of the city, the party found it a smoldering ruin, a cloud of hundreds of Host Devils and Erinyes circling the sky above it. Approaching the gates, they were accosted by powerful fallen angels wearing strange porcelain masks, who asked them to turn back, claiming that the pact allowing this harvest of souls had been more than forty years in the making, and that an entity called The Maleficent would not approve of innocents being slain.
After disregarding this warning and defeating the Erinyes with relative ease, the party moved into the city, encountering an animate suit of blackened armor, with another strange mask floating where its head should be (an Apostate Devil; pretty much Satan from the Adventures of Mark Twain. Look it up and be horrified). It, too, warned that their presence would not be tolerated by The Maleficent (revealed as a greater fiend and consort to Belial and Fierna, Dukes of Phlegethos), and his overzealous legions might attack them. Again ignoring this advice, the party found themselves subject to a mindf*** as the Deimavigga hit the group with a Mind Fog, and proceeded to do it's thing.
A narrow victory later, the party retreated into a house with refugees, narrowly dodging a patrol of a half dozen Cornugons. The commoners hoped to flee to the tower of Marcus Terell, a wizard who had helped found the town. For whatever reason, the devils could not enter his tower.
The next morning, the party slipped through the streets unnoticed until a raven picking at a corpse started screaming in broken Infernal, sounding an alarm. Running from dozens of greater devils and a literal tide of Lemures, the party reached the gate of the tower, opening it with the phrase "The debts of the father are repaid by the son", which was inscribed in Celestial on concentric circles embedded in the gate. Closing the gate behind them, the devils would not enter. Wiping their brows, the party headed into the tower and to the top floor.
Alex very stupidly tried to steal an oil painting of Mechanus from a 20th level wizard and was hit by 40D6 disintegration damage, negating his res token. At the top floor, they found Marcus, a Tiefling, sitting at the fireside, drinking wine.
A bit of exposition revealed that Marcus had indeed founded the city, and to promote fast population growth, had offered free land to anyone signing on to become a citizen. A pretty high int check revealed a clause of the contract, a paragraph of bureaucratic language, boiled down to "btw, if you sign, I own your soul". So while dickish, it was technically a binding infernal contract. And he had 12,000 of them on record.
The party played to his lawful nature, challenging him to a fight for the fate of the city's souls. He rather politely let them buff to full, then sprouted wings and unfolded into his real form, a Pit Fiend.
Mid fight, the fiend rendered himself immune to nonlethal damage via a spell, making most of the party's damage effectively zero (aligned weapons are a must these days). Luckily the oracle used a scroll of Miracle given to him by the Iomedae cleric to mass align weapons, effectively only buying Marcus one turn of safety.
After some very close scrapes, including surviving a Transmute Blood to Acid, and Steve surviving simultaneous Cloudkill and pit fiend venom, the party was on the verge of winning. A bit of a sore loser, the fiend used Mass Hold Person, conceded defeat, and willfully smashed the soul gem containing the city's souls, then retreated, and his legions with him. Not before giving Steve (who had dealt him the most damage) a ~50 damage Shoryuken 10 feet across the room, though.
While only saving about 20 people of the 12,000 present, the party's actions ensured the lost souls would at least find their way to the proper Outer Planes, denying Hell most of its bounty. Also you beat like a CR30, so... bragging rights.
Loot: Standard plus a hero point and an influence for everybody
Alex:
You get the Deimavigga's mask, which has all the powers of the Deimavigga's Evangelization ability, (on the OGC), with the same DC's, as well as retaining the Mask of the Skull ability. Note that this doesn't work if they're in melee with ANYBODY.
You also have a note directly from Belial and Fierna, suggesting you should go to the Iron City of Dis and "Do lunch sometime". You get a +4 on charisma checks when interacting with devils, diabolists, or worshipers of Asmodeus.
Sam:
Steve gets a +2 to will saves (permanent), and his stomach now has a Dimensional Anchor effect on it so that extraplanar rifts can't open to facilitate devils punching you anymore.
You've also made an enemy of a Duke of Hell, giving both Steve and Zeff Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider (+2), as per the ranger ability.
Robb:
If your dervish dance puts you behind an enemy that has a clear "front" and "back", you get a +2 to hit and damage. You also get a +2 to all will saves.
David:
Having raided the wizard's library, you get 12 levels worth of free spells added to your spells known, your choice. They can only be of your second highest level slot or lower.
You also have a constant effect Mage Hand, and Acid Resist 5 from taking a 9th level spell like a champ.
....Oracle man. That is your name now:
You learn to appreciate the value of aligned weapons, and now can 1x a day as a full round action provide an alignment of your choice to all friendly's weapons in a 30ft radius. It lasts rounds/level.
You can also cast Crusader's Edge once a day on your own weapons only