Murderhoboes Back on the Town
Fresh from a rest stop after defeating the nascent cult of
Qo, the Twin-Headed Snake Goddess (and completely ignoring an open door to more
adventure against the sweet mummified deity), the party picked up the trail of
the missing courtier of Lord Osmund of Junia – Back to the whorehouses! They
tracked the randy little bugger through three of the places over on the west
side. They managed to track him to a favorite doxy and questioned her
(strangely, they were quite restrained). She happened to know that he kept a
bolthole over in the Shanty district, so they meandered over there and found on
an alley wall a sigil that shifted between its forms – each saw something
different and even that melded into new forms as they observed it.
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Bad art by Me! |
The wizard
was able to deduce that this was a sigil of Jalianos, the Fluid Forms – a shapeshifting
demon known to be the patron of assassins and powerful spellcasters. Searching
the alleyway, they found the courtier’s lair and realized through various
letters and things that the courtier was actually an assassin sent to kill the
fat Lord Osmund. Rushing back across town to the great lord’s town mansion,
they found the gates unmanned, the yard full of corpses, and a keening wail
coming from upstairs.
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Art by Rick Hershey |
Heedless of their own safety, they ran up the stairs to find
Lord Osmund under attack by a Shifting Demon – servant of Jalianos, the Fluid
Forms. The party leaped to attack, finding that their weapons were useless
against the mind-bending
Gordian knot of tentacles, viscera and jagged bones that comprised the demon.
Lawithem (also known as Law) the mighty elven servant of Hhaaashh-Lusss, Lord Duke
of Reptiles invoked his patron, burning away his very lifeblood to ensure that
he got the Cold-Blooded One’s attention.
He
got the Serpent Lord’s attention (31 on the roll).
From
Angels Daemons and Beings Between:
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Art by David Fisher |
Some portion of the Lord Duke of Reptiles extends into the
material plane to aid the caster. For example, a broad and scaly back might
appear to form a bridge, or a huge reptilian mouth might appear to attack a
foe. When Hhaaashh-Lusss makes an attack, he strikes with a +10 bonus, doing
2d20 points of damage, and his target must make a Fort save (DC 25) or die from
his potent venom. This manifestation is AC 25, has a +6 Initiative bonus, and
takes 60 hit points of damage before being driven away. Otherwise, the Lord
Duke only appears to aid with a single problem, and then fades back to his home
plane.
So, reality bent in Lord Osmand’s solar, splitting the roof
and disintegrating one wall. Some number of characters were consumed in the conflagration,
though the Lord Duke struck and swallowed the Flickering Demon. Osmund himself
was grievously injured, but the party managed to pull him out of the wreckage
as his once beautiful mansion imploded in flame and eldritch energies.
The Zaitian, devotee of the great Bear God, Greim, gave what
healing he could to the injured lord and the team beat a hasty retreat,
intending to come back to the Osmund to ask about a reward later.
All told, they spent a lot of time getting to know the city
of Junia, destroyed a small portion of it, and uncovered two burgeoning cult
movements (and disrupted both). In the course of murderhobo events, they came
to the attention of:
- The Junia Thieves’ Guild – for distributing platinum pieces each time they attempted to gather information in the Shanty and Red-light districts. I sense a caper targeted on the party in their near future.
- The Cult of the Flickering Sign – for disrupting a three-year mission to extract information from the great Lord Osmund and then kill him.
- The Cult of Qo, the Twin-Headed Snake Goddess – This is going to be bad.
- Hhaaashh-Lusss, Lord Duke of Reptiles – Young Lawithem owes him quite a debt.
- The nobility of Junia – for destroying part of their gated community and obviously flouting several of the neighborhood association rules concerning trash storage, building façade repair and summoning/fighting demon lords.
As they spent a couple of days resting and tracking down
some better equipment, they were approached by a member of the city watch
(cribbed from Thieves’ World: The Hell Hounds) – it seems that two erstwhile
thieves, O’mosh and Bittersnail, nabbed a very expensive purple sapphire while
on its way to the Museum of Antiquities: Junia. While these two thieves were
typically bumbling idiots, they managed to pull the caper off without a hitch,
but have brought down several groups within the city on their two-bit little
heads. Qaffing another round of ale, the party spun into their next
investigative disaster.
Resources used this Session (sorry -- this reads like a shameless plug...Next session I used a lot of other third party stuff)
- In the Prison of the Squid Sorcerer -- Flickering Demon
- Angel, Daemons and Beings Between -- Hhaaashh-Lusss (Daniel's)
- The Tomb of Curses -- Qo...
- Darkhaven, City of Thieves -- Still not sure who made this map... but it's the map I'm using for Junia