We're back!
LOOT
- One Yako the Blue
DEVELOPMENTS
- Much was learned about the Crimson Canyons:
> None were being let through Fort Auroch due to a 'rampaging angel on the loose' in the eastern canyons.
> Dozens of detained merchants were gathered outside the walls of Fort Auroch as an impromptu sit-in because one of their own, traveling performer Yako the Blue, was imprisoned within for the alleged murder of a guard.
> The tomb robber Whiskey Dynamite claimed an ancient ruin on the northern lip of the canyon held a priceless artifact from ages past, known as the Board of Hiad.
> Halaena Graf's gang, a rival to the Company, seems to have ties to Fort Auroch's Captain Mossak, and was seeking to make a name for herself by hunting and killing the canyon angel.
> More... read on!
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| Image from Through the Valley of the ██████, though I remixed it a bit |
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
- Gemini (he/they), 3rd level Violent, polearm-swinging sphinx guy
- Kestrel (they), 3rd level Deviant, gunslinging robot
- Hipsap Sanvalli (she), 2nd level Occult, moldomancer and slinger of sorcery
RECAP
We picked back up on the 7th of Lastmonth, 1V49, high noon. The company had just bribed their way into the imposing Fort Auroch, a remote military outpost on the edge of a crimson canyon region and the gateway to the Ultraviolet Grasslands.
The Company got the lay of the land: the guards were testy due to tensions with the prisoner and the merchant groups. A few groups of adventurers were partying and passing time at an impromptu tent bar in the Fort's courtyard.
They were then accosted by purple four-armed man who introduced himself as Girondo od Vode. Girondo was liquidating his caravan, seeking to get out of the business, and had a range of strange goods for sale for what he claimed were half-off, everything-must-go prices. Kestrel purchased a foreign blade "hammered under the finest steelsmiths of the City of Violet, far to the east." Seeking relief from their destroyed right arm, Gemini purchased a strange feather called an "ultra jay plume" that Giorondo claimed could allow them to ignore the wound for short periods of time if they jabbed it into their arm, apparently a favorite stimulant of the Fort's soldiers.
Hipsap haggled and gathered information and they spotted Halaena Graf's gang among the adventurers at the bar. Girondo filled her in that they were here to slay the canyon's angel. Girondo also pointed out a crew led by a man known as Whiskey Dynamite, who were partying it up, apparently having struck it rich; Hipsap recognized these as the tomb robbers they had let go on their way the night previous. The Company went to the bar to speak with them.
Whiskey Dynamite and his crew were messed up off of a concoction of energy drinks purchased from Girondo and their homebrew moonshine (Quatro Quarazy). They were filled with granduer and high off their success, spilling the beans about their upcoming score: they were looking to pilfer the fabled Board of Hiad from a ruin on the northern edge of the canyon, and invited the Company to take part in their ventures as hired muscle. The Company responded that they needed time to weigh their options, which as a fellow distinguished businessman, Whiskey Dynamite greatly respected.
The Company passed the time in the bar with their hats drawn low and their cloaks buttoned up, attempting to avoid notice by Halaena Graf's outfit. Around nightfall Halaena rose and headed toward the Captain's keep. With subtle handiwork and judicious application of sorcery, Hipsap casually bumped into Halaena on her way out, and managed to swipe her jeweled silver rapier from under her nose without notice, the very blade she had taunted the party about extracting from Murkvey's Rock many moons ago.
The party considered a range of options -- they had few days remaining to kill three more people to release the sword god's geas on their quarry, Breezy Pete, and the tense situation at the fortress only made matters more complicated. Eventually they hatched a scheme.
THE SCHEME
Two guards were posted over the Hole -- a small grate over a ditch in which the Fort's sole prisoner, Yako the Blue, was kept. Gemini approached the two guards in the guise of one of Whiskey Dynamite's boys, pretending to be blasted out of his mind on Quatro Quarazy, while Hipsap and Kestrel approached from behind to slay them. The guards were on high alert and quickly noticed both Hipsap and Kestrel slinking behind them (who failed their stealth rolls). Initiative turns and chaotic melee ensued.
Hipsap struck the guards with a 3d6 blast of moldy maleficence, which sent them both into a coughing fit and quickly ate through the metal bars of the grate.
The guards responded in force with their red metal polearms, bringing damage to both Hipsap and Gemini. Gemini choked out a guard with the handle of their lucerne. Out of position for melee, Kestrel threw a bag of valuable occulith gemstones at the feet of the remaining guard, attempting to trip him as if it were a bag of marbles; the guard passed his save and crunched 1,000cp worth of treasure beneath his boots, unfazed. Hipsap was hurt in the fighting and managed to run the remaining guard through with an enhanced true strike from Halaena Graf's rapier, but not before he let out a cry of alarm. She then made short work of the incapacitated guard, claiming two out of the three lives left to satisfy the sword god's bargain.
Scuffling was heard from the barracks and the keep. A weak voice called up from the hole -- "Siblings, is it you? Have you come for me at last?". Begrudgingly Hipsap kicked through the corroded grate and tossed Yako the Blue a rope, seeing his face for the first time: a twinky blue elf looking like Punished Griffith with a ton of piercings, clearly not having a good time. Meanwhile, a searchlight was lit atop the Keep's observatory and swept across the courtyard, and the sound of the heavy iron portcullis beginning to close was heard from behind them.
The team made a break for it, having one initiative round of free movement before reinforcements arrived. Gemini used their last combat dice to sprint the full distance (like 120' or so, an impressive roll) and, under the influence of ultra jay, attempted to prevent the portcullis' closure with his own rippling biceps. The difficult roll barely failed and I ruled it as a partial success; they succeeded in jamming the portcullis' mechanism but suffered significant harm as a result, pushing beyond the limits of their mortal form. They were reduced to 2 HP and had depleted the last of their combat dice.
Kestrel and Hipsap made a break for their hoverbikes, parked on the opposite end of the courtyard, Yako weakly crawling after them. As Hipsap drew near the hoverbikes she was fired upon by two crossbowmen from the portcullis' battlements and nearly slain, but her Tough ancestry allowed her to push her luck, surviving at 1 HP.
Gemini fished in their backpack for the mysterious green metal cylinder they had looted from the biker bandits previously and pushed the button, lobbing it high into the battlements above the portcullis. A brilliant neon green explosion briefly lit the courtyard and hissing goo spattered the gatehouse, accompanied by the rippling screams of guards undergoing strange mutations in the dark.
Hipsap powered on the Company's bikes and brought them toward the gate, linking up with Kestrel and Gemini. More crossbowmen rose to the walls and two halberdiers emerged from the barracks, the sound of more clanking metal armored soldiers filing in behind them.
THE CHOICE
At this moment the Company was presented a choice. With the bikes secured, the portcullis jammed open, and the guards atop it slain, there was nothing standing between them and the open road to the west if all they sought was a quick getaway.
Behind them, Yako the Blue writhed in the sand, the Keep's searchlight circling around him.
Coming up on the end of the session I gave the Company a clear, one-and-done solution: if they wanted to escape, they were free to. If they wanted to make a run back for Yako, it would require a challenging roll to ride between a hail of oncoming crossbow fire without suffering harm.
Hipsap took the odds and rode into the blinding searchlight, doing donuts in the sand, attempting to stir up a cloud of obscuring dust.
Her hand met Yako's.
She pulled him atop the bike.
A crossbow quarrel sunk through Hipsap's chest.
She was on death's door. She would die in two turns -- roughly twenty seconds -- if untreated.
Kestrel attempted a difficult cross-bike last-ditch medical effort to stabilize Hipsap with the guards on their heels, but no one had a healer's kit, and given the immense pressure I called for a roll.
It failed. Hipsap was dead.
In frustration Kestrel pushed Hipsap from the bike, sending her corpse into the mud beside a squatting caravanner's tent. Kestrel and Gemini and Yako rode on without her into the night. Thus ended the journey of Hipsap, becoming the first adventurer entered in the Halls of the Damned; thus concluded the session.
