Session 19 - The Prophecy Ordained
General Summary
Madison says to the party “well, I’d like to think this was a one-off, but I’m pretty sure that I will be back in touch.”
We all make our way back to our rooms to think on the recent Madison endeavor[span style="font-size:13px;"]talk about the items recovered and gets them distributed. [/span]
[img id="pbImage81132" src="2023-08-28%20A%20NowWhat%204%20a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
[span style="font-size:13px;"]They make plans to take four days off for people to craft things. During this time, Jakahaiel, Joice, and Nilgan look at the topazes they have.[/span]
Nilgan does a ritual with them. He creates a protection circle and casts identify. As the energy of the spell hits the topazes, they augment the spell and push the circle to the walls of the room.
[img id="pbImage806772" src="2023-08-28%20A%20NowWhat%206a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
With a whisper, an angel and demon are in the room, although their appearance does not go unnoticed by the rest of the group.
As they appear, Jakahaiel grabs the two gems trying to keep the two topazes apart.[span style="font-size:13px;"]Jakahaiel can tell them apart and which one was his.[/span]
“Ah, it has taken them, now it must choose!”
“Yes, Jakahaiel, you have called us forth as per the prophecy. Now Choose!”
Joice raises an eyebrow at him, as in “now what did you just do”
“yesss, yesss, it is times for you toos choose Jakahaiel” says the demon in an evil hissing sounding voice.
In the hallway, Benny and Rivenn can hear the voices from the room, and know something is up.
“Everything OK in there?” calls out Rivenn.
“You have been fulfilling the prophecy. Once blind, now you can, see? And then, once you have made your choice, then Joice will have to make his.” Calls out the Angelic figure.
“I assume the little one is my sacrificessss?”
“No,” says Nilgan.
“Are our choices the same? Or are they independent?” asks Jakahaiel.
“Joice has his own choice.”
“But whatever you chose will influence him! As per the prophecy.”
“What choice?” asks Joice.
“We are not talking to you yet. Jakahaiel, pick a Topaz.Once he has done that, then you, Joice, will choose"
As Jakahaiel looks, the straps and descriptive items are gone. The two Topaz’s look the same. Jakahaiel thinks he had the Angel Topaz.
So, he says “I will take the one I had before.”[br /] “That makes me quite happy,” says the angel.
“Now, Joice, are you ready to make your choice?”
“What are my choices?”[br /]“It is as per the prophecy.”
“Enough with that. Speak plainly, what are my choices? And don't give me any of that vague stuff. What is my choice," demands Joice.[br /]“I do not have free will in this, or you would have a tough time picking truth from fiction.”
"I agree with that one," says the angel, a voice less harsh. "The choice is between truth or deception."[br /]
"Be glad I cannot speak as I want, mortal," spits the demon, its voice like stone rubbed on stone, "or I would say things that would cause you to weep with madness."[br /]
“Yes, we are constrained. You need to decide about between truths or secrets”
“There is no choice, Truths win out. You were expecting different results?” Joice says, crossing his arms and looking at two creatures.
"No," cackles the demon. "You may learn to regret it.[em style="font-family:inherit;font-weight:inherit;"]Jakahaiel, your choice disappoints me, but the choice has been made…” [span style="font-size:13px;"]says the demon, eyeing the monk.[/span]
“And decisions finished, we must leave….” And the Angel and the demon vanish.
With that, the two disappear. Energy pulses out from Joice and the other recognize a zone of truth. However, it's more than that. This is a zone of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but. They can choose not to answer but they know if they start to speak, it's must be the whole of truth, without hinting at deception. They answer a few questions that way to understand it, for themselves and Joice.
The group spends some time making items. Rivenn finds a friend. Wands are recharged.
An artisan approaches the group one evening as they dine. He introduces himself as Terindelle. Himself, his sister, and brother in law have a chandlery, seamstress, and cobbler shop. He explains that they use conjuration magic to get ingredients to make the best smelling candles in Llorkh! However, four days ago, the group bristles at the timing, instead of conjuration, it was summoning. It pulled a creature that from description, one was from the plane of fire, and one a demon! He heard that they helped get rid of problems like this and ask if they will help him. They nod, saying they need to do so.
They get their stuff and follow Terindelle back to his shop. He shows them the basement where this is done, saying they got lucky that the walls held them but they were able to summon more. They group prepares, but listens before bursting into the room!
[img id="pbImage244903" style="font-family:'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial;font-size:13px;font-style:normal;font-weight:400;" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%203a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
The party can hear hissing and chanting and talking. Abyssal and some other language can be understood. At least a dozen creatures on the other side. The doors have been acting as a barrier, they can’t get out past the doors at the moment. The party doesn't know if opening the door will allow them exit ability or not.
“This is so easy; can we get the general and the others here?”
“I don’t know, we are trying, maybe we need a sacrifice,”…”yes! A sacrifice!”…”no, not me you fool.”
This is the moment, buffs are cast such as haste and enlarging Joice as Jakahaiel opens the door.
“OH, look, our sacrifices have arrived!”
“Yes, yes, they will do!”
There are demons and fire salamanders in the room as[span style="font-size:13px;"]Nilgan looks in. He casts “Ball Lightning”. The creature fails to anticipate the attack. Then Nilgan hits him with some cold and notices the cold does even more damage than normal against the fire creature![/span]
[img id="pbImage68400" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%207%20JK%202a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
Jakahaiel says “let me go first Benny!” and he rushes though the door. He bounces around and jumps to avoid all the creatures and run to the back right of the room, targeting the creature he believes is summoning the assassin demon. With his tumbling and a Ki Pool use, he makes it. Once there, he targets one of the demons and hit after hit land on its body. After the final hit of his initial volley, it coughs up some blood in pain. He grins and attacks again, as fists fly and smack the demon. Bones crunch, but it’s still standing, so he attacks a final time. At the end of his turn, the demon falls to the ground, dead.
[img id="pbImage661044" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%208%20BY%202a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
Benny rushes in the room, following Jakahaiel, and attacks the demon next to him. He bobs and weaves around the enemies, avoiding all their swings until he is in position. He is unable to kill the creature, but hits it twice and bloodies it.
[img id="pbImage599198" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%209%20JC%202a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
Joice moves into the room and casts Prayer. A rustling sound as pages though a book sounds, and a breeze flows over the party, and they feel more inclined to attack things. He then moves into the room and cuts down a creature with a single swipe of the great sword of Nicholas. It had been damaged by the electricity and cold. He then moves up and attacks another creature, nearly killing it.
[img id="pbImage826234" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2010a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
A demon points his pitchfork at the door and a spell-like ability goes off, and he brings forth some elemental fire to block the door. The effect is obvious, to force the others outside to run through the fire to engage in combat. The fire expands close to Nilgan and Joice, but they both manage to avoid the conjured fires full effect, only taking 15 points. Joice’s armor gives him fire resistance 20 at that moment, protecting him, and he even sucks in 5 more points, protecting Nilgan so he only takes 10 points.
[img id="pbImage140909" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2011%20ZY%203a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
Zephyr sees all the flame and thinks it looks amazing. He moves just to the outside of the fire, but then realizes he can’t see anything. So, he then rushes through the elemental fire, and trips on a loose cobblestone! He takes 35 points fire damage from the unfortunate stumble. From this location, he casts a slow spell encompassing the entire center of the room and all the creatures inside it. Of the seven creatures there, only one manages to throw off the power of the spell, so they are only able to take 2 actions. He conjures again, and as the ice hits the creature in the corner, Zephyr notices it did not take ‘extra’ damage from the cold like the other one.
[img id="pbImage525387" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2012%20RN%202a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
Rivenn steps into the fire and throws an axe. It slams into one of the creatures even as he takes 10 points fire damage. The Druid shrugs off the minor damage, as he then rushes the same creature and attacks up close and personal. His dagger slams into it cutting deeply and then steps back to throw another throwing axe. As the last one strikes the scaly kind of creature, his expertise with this favored enemy comes into play, and he cuts the creature down, dead.
[img id="pbImage578265" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2013a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
Gredelewe, the demon in the bottom right, suddenly heals some of his wounds from Benny’s attack. He then concentrates, looks at Benny at Jakahaiel, and says “STAY.” Energy slams into both of the warriors. Jakahaiel feels it come onto him and throws it off. Benny is unable to push it off, and is immobilized. He has all his actions but cannot move.
“I expected one such as you would have to make the choice, and you have a strong will…” says Gredelewe, “lets see how well you do against this!”
Energy flows out and hits Jakahaiel, and he is able to resist having his lifeforce pulled out, so he does not take any negative levels. Then, as a free action, the demon teleports to the other end of the room!
“There is no honor in attacking one stilled….” Says a demon next to Benny, who teleports and attacks Rivenn. His gaze penetrates deeply into Rivenn’ s mind, but Rivenn also manages to throw off the life draining of the demon. Instead, he claws Rivenn, striking him and cutting through his armor.
[img id="pbImage414971" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2016a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
And then it is the demons turn. One after another, they teleport. Some to the enlarged warrior in the magnificent armor, as Joice is surrounded.
Others to attack the lone warriors in the area.
The first demon teleports next to Joice. His first swing misses, but the second claw strikes true.
A second Demon teleports to attack Jakahaiel, clawing at him but as with Joice, misses the first claw but hits with the second.
Joice is attacked by another demon, taking two hits.
[span style="font-size:13px;"]Rivenn is then attacked by a demon that attacks three times. But the ranger dodges two of the three attacks.[/span]
Another demon moves up on Joice, but neither slowed attack can penetrate his magnificent armor.
The last demon rushes up to Rivenn, but only one manages to get through and strike him.
[img id="pbImage526186" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2017%20NG%201a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
A fire shield appears around Nilgan, as his arcana tells him it will minimize the fire damage by giving him -15 fire resistance. He then walks through the fire barrier and into the room. With the new shield, he is correct and takes no fire damage. He then moves the lighting balls to attack a salamander and then hits it with a cold ray! It survives, but barely.
[img id="pbImage963687" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2018%20JK%203a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
Jakahaiel starts pounding the creature in front of him. The creature takes the pounding and doesn’t drop. So, he punches it again and again until it does drop into a pulpy mess on the floor. He then rushes to the caster that had teleported away, and attacks him with his last action. He stares down the creature, making sure it knows there is no escape!
[img id="pbImage738710" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2019%20BY%201a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
It takes all of Benny’s turn to throw off the magic that is holding him in place, but he manages to do it!
[img id="pbImage213893" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2020%20JC%202a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
Joice casts a judgement, and starting at the south side of the room, begins to attack his foes. He is using a bane attack, and strikes the creature three times. And each time he hits, he cleaves the creature standing next to it as well. He turns to the demon, and with one hit takes the creature to bloodied.
The demon surrounded by lighting balls tries to move, and in that instant, fails his save against the bolts and dies.
[img id="pbImage525802" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2022%20ZY%201a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
Zephyr takes a potion; happy he has a new MW potion belt so he can draw as a free action! Feeling better, and seeing all the damage Joice caused, he shoots rays of frost at the creatures. Bolt after bolt fly out, and with three bolts he takes down three wounded creatures. Seeing the other creatures looking strong, he takes another potion.
(To the untrained eye, it looks like a club, but it's a cold ray, trust me on this!)
[img id="pbImage645351" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2023%20RN%201a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
[span style="font-size:13px;"]Rivenn also takes a cure moderate potion from his new masterwork potion belt, then sizes up his enemies and takes a 5’ step away from them. Getting some distance, he targets and throws an axe, easily striking his favored enemy. (In the heat of battle, his axe looks huge!) He attacks someone else to get a nice bonus, hits that creature, and then throws again at his favored enemy, and again strikes him, killing it. Going back to the demon next to him, he attacks and again hits. The demon isn’t bloodied, but it is damaged.[/span]
[img id="pbImage768765" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2024a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
Gredelewe the demon is now ready to act. It looks at Jakahaiel, smiles, and starts concentrating. He starts speaking at Jakahaiel….and then energy rolls off of him and moves at Jakahaiel. Jakahaiel can tell he barely made the save, and even so, the spell “blood of my blood” manages to leach his life energy out and it flows into the demon, healing him. And for a second, he sees a different plane, and Sonja, and of a giant temple, and her sacrificing something up on an altar. “yes…you will do….” The creature takes his claws, rips along the inside of his forearm, and then tries to hug Jakahaiel. Jakahaiel tries to avoid the hug, and feels the hot blood splatter on him, but like a drunken prom date, Jakahaiel avoids the entanglement hug from the demon.
[img id="pbImage35639" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2025a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
A demon teleports up behind Rivenn and attacks, but it misses. He tries again, and again it misses. So, he opens his mouth, scraps his tongue along his teeth cutting it and tries to bite Rivenn with green spittle coursing over his teeth. The bite gets Rivenn in the neck. He can feel it flow up in his neck as he takes strength 2, dex 3, con 2 draining.
Another demon does the same thing and attacks Joice on the neck with a bite attack. He manages to throw off the poison.
[img id="pbImage388004" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2027%20NG%202a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
Nilgan moves his lighting balls to assault more demons but both of them manage to ignore the lightning effect. He then casts magic missiles at a demon and follows it up with a cold ray. All of the attacks land, injuring but not killing the demon.
[img id="pbImage739335" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2028%20JK%201a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
Jakahaiel takes a quick potion to build up his strength. He then focuses on the demon Gredelewe, ups his Ki defense, and attacks. The first attack lands, but the second hit misses. Then the third and fourth attacks land, striking him again. He can tell it’s just not landing correctly to do damage on all attacks. He keeps punching. Miss, miss, miss. It’s very disappointing as none of those three punches land on the shifting demon. Concentrating, he calculates and throws his last two punches. As they land, the demons eyes cross and the body hits the floor as those are the attacks that take the demon out!
As Gredelewe falls down to the ground, the demons eyes roll and look back up into Jakahaiel's eyes, and it says something only Jakahaiel understands, and then dies. (blood of my blood, I will return through you!)
[img id="pbImage591689" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2029%20BY%202a.png" alt="" width="1029" /][br /]
Benny finally gets into the fight. He rushes up and attacks a demon next to Joice. With three well placed attacks, the creature falls to the ground dead. Seeing one creature left, he moves up and swings over Rivenn’s head, striking that creature a solid blow and nearly killing it.
[img id="pbImage12885" src="2023-08-28%20B%20Basement%2031%20ZR%202a.png" alt="" width="1029" /]
Zephyr looks at the bloodied creature. Ice and missiles and more ice fly out and strike the creature, killing the last creature standing.
TREASURE: MW Spears, a single obsidian dagger with purple liquid inside it that Gredelewe was carrying, nothing else.
Joice detects evil radiating from the dagger, and at the last moment calls out “it’s evil!” and Jakahaiel stops his movement as he was about to pick it up.
He wraps it in a cloth and takes it, just being more careful not to touch it.
As the casters start looking around, it looks like this is a conjuration area only, as described by Terindelle. There are supplies that were destroyed by the demons, wax, scented items. Everything matches the story, even through they are all smashed beyond use. There is no way the creatures got here because of their conjuration circle.
Jakahaiel tries to take some blood from the creature that took his blood. Not sure why when asked, but he says “I have reasons.”
GM Notes
- I do like when I, or the group, can think of examples to help cement how it would work.
- In the case of the zone of truth, I like the example of Liar, Liar.
- It shows that they have to say it all, even if it doesn't help them.
- This session went well from my perspective.
- I got what I wanted done, which was setup for later things.
- I didn't go off the rails with the topaz ritual, which would have been easy to do.
- The prophecy looms.
Rewards Granted
6800 xp