Session 15: The Way Home Report
General Summary
The adventurers make their way through the ruins of a giants' empire, colossal towers and craggy deeps thick and tricky to navigate, before they finally come to the Mountains of Sorrow and Ice. Cold winds sweep down from the heights, but the stalwart team does not balk ... for Cerice, at least, there is nothing on this side of the world that she is going to let stop her from leaving it. They negotiate steep mountain passes, sometimes through shaddowed canyons, sometimes along ridges with 1000-ft drops to either side, until at last Fallenbridge and Leonardo, leading the group as scouts, come to a sheltered clearing between two steep, rocky cliffsides. A group of twenty blue-furred goblinoids -- the same sort they have encountered again and again -- are camped around flickering firepits, bedrolls and tents laid out on light snow. There are also a handful of halfling-sized flying beings, sleek and spined. Devils! The camp doesn't spot the heroes and so barbarian and bard return to the others and tell them what they saw. A plan is formed: Leonardo and Happy will fly up the side of the cliff and drop rocks down on the camp while Sam, Cerice, and Fallenbridge attack from below, with Fallenbridge casting Shatter at the far cliffside. Things go awry from the start. As soon as Leo and Happy clear cover, the camp spots them and the devils launch themselves into the air. But the adventurers are quicker still. Leonardo and Happy make it halfway up the cliff and start a landslide that rains down into the camp, while Fallenbridge blasts apart a goodly section of the opposite cliff face. Many blue-goblins are slain outright in the stony deluge. Five survive to charge the party members still on the ground, along with two of the spined devils. The other three devils go for Happy and Leo. Sam pierces the devils with arrow fire, while Cerice launches her own, magical attacks. One of the devils falls. Fallenbridge screeches out another Shatter that kills the remaining devil and two of the goblins, but not before Sam takes a spiny dart through the shoulder. Cerice is quickly able to take down her attackers, as well. In the sky, Happy keeps killing spined devils before Leonardo can get to them to finish them off, but finally he gets his mighty arms around one of them, pulling its wings into its side, and allows them both to drop 60 ft to the ground, where the barbarian finishes the spined devil off by bashing its head over and over into the rocks. Choosing to only take a short rest (despite heavy-handed hints from the GM), the adventurers continue on after healing up. Six hours later, they make it to the high, icy meadow they saw seemingly so long ago, looking out over it from inside the ancient ruin on that island off the aerial coast of Cloudborne. Then, there was an army arrayed in the meadow. Now, that army is decimated. Tents and pavilions are crushed, dusted in white, and bodies, days-dead, lie frozen in the snow. But, there at the far side of the meadow, the massive door of the Gate flickers. Beyond it, the adventurers can see the chamber of the ruins they had found, still scattered with bits and pieces of treasure. All they have to do is step through. For Cerice, Happy, and Fallenbridge, there is no choice. Sam, of course, is already home, here in the Fallen city of Morbus Gravis on the side of the world called Orlock. But Leonardo is conflicted. He misses the familiar sights of home, of course. But ... well ... there are laws there. Here, he has been as free as he could ever have hoped -- free to indulge the bloodlust that courses through his veins. Before he can decide for certain, though, something pulls itself from the Gate -- not from the room on the far side, but from somewhere ... between. Tentacles slither and flail, claws snap and clack. The thing pulls itself out of the Gate through the image of the flip side of the world like a diver pulling himself up out the reflective waters of a calm lake. The head of the thing is madness incarnate: side-facing jaws filled with teeth, bulbous, black eyes that seem to see deeply into each of the companions. Leonardo is already rushing forward to attack (hardly waiting on the GM's exposition to be finished). Leonardo throws a spiked head he had taken from one of the spined devils, and it erupts in flames when it strikes, just as the spines had when they had hit Sam earlier in the day. But the flames don't do much to the alien creature. Fallenbridge's maximized Shatter, however, hits the creature in its leathery chest like a giant fist. And Sam's arrows also pierce that disturbing flesh, though not with the effect he might have hoped. Though they cause damage, and black blood seeps, they don't go as deep as they would have on some mortal thing. Cerice starts howling, but also begins flinging spells. The thing itself slaps at Leonardo with a massive tentacle, but the gnome rolls out of the way. Happy is not as quick and gets caught in the thing's terrible pincers ... and also begins to erode as her flesh turns necrotic. But the most terrible of the creature's attacks it saves for last. But before it can turn its deathly gaze upon Sam, whom it had targeted as being the most dangerous, Cerice throws her Staff of the Python down and it transforms into a huge constrictor that flows like water up and around the horror, pinning it. The horror, in turn, shifts its gaze to the snake and the snake ... seems to vaporize, turning into gas! But its sacrifice saved Sam the same fate. Fallenbridge howls in terror and screeches out another maximized Shatter spell. The creature takes the blow and steps forward, still focused on Sam, who pelts it with more arrows even as Leonardo lays into it with axe and fury. Cerice and Happy launch their own magical attacks, Happy bringing up a phlanx of protective spiritual guardians. The thing, though, lashes out at Leonardo with another tentacle, and when it raises, the barbarian is gone! But he hasn't been crushed. Instead, the adventurers hear a yell from above and see that somehow he has been teleported 200 ft straight up! Fallenbridge debates trying to save his friend or trying to kill the monster, and chooses the latter, knowing that that would be the barbarian's choice. Another Shatter powers into the horror. But Leonardo isn't out of the game yet. Instead of flailing, ranting, or giving up, he merely aims himself at the monster and turns himself into a living bullet ... And smashes into the creature at terminal velocity! Leonardo cuts through the monster, almost in slow motion, and the monster ... erupts around him, dissolving into a black ichor that splashes to the ground, sizzling. Dead. ...as for Leonardo ... he climbs wearily to his feet, covered in gore and his own blood. He looks once at the dead monster, nods, and then turns and walks away, heading down the mountain. There is a whole, nearly endless city of monsters to slay. He has found home. Sam chuckles softly and follows, ruffling Fallenbridge's head feathers as he goes. And only two are left. But Cerice has devolved into a state of unstable madness. She screams and pounds on the rocks. This is not the place for her. Not the place. Not the place. Happy lifts her gently to her feet and carries her through the Gate. There, the warlock feels once more the closeness of her patron, feels the power washing over her, and sanity begins to return. Happy turns to make sure Fallenbridge comes through the Gate safely and sees the bard, just on the other side of the portal, raise two wingtips in a thumbs-up gesture before stepping through ... ...and not coming out on this side! Happy's eyes go wide, but there is nothing to be done, for at that moment the Gate sputters and closes completely, at least for now. Unsure of what become of Fallenbridge but unable to investigate at this point, Happy and Cerice return to the camp they had made here on the island so long ago, it seems, and find that their treasure is still in place. Enough treasure to do whatever they want with the rest of their lives. THE END... ...for now.
Rewards Granted
For Silent Sam, the knowledge of a job well performed, and the thanks of his patron, the Rakshasa Raktavi. For Leonardo, a chance to fight his way through a world's-worth of monsters. For Cerice and Happy, a Count of Monte Cristo-level of wealth, which they use to continue their adventures (or in the case of Cerice, her quiet, safe meditations) onboard the Geographica. And for Fallenbridge, strange avian bard, mystery and ... evolution.
