Session 4: Most Wanted

Plot

 

Act I: Ensnared

With a gun placed at his temple, Asguir thought fast and attempted to deceive Commander Nico Enşalo that he and Elräen are surviving members of the army who have stayed hidden in the wilderness for the last few decades. The commander is not too convinced, and continues to question the two. In the shadows of the Arcane Forest, the rest of the party get into positions for an ambush. Fauna in her invisibility goes towards the soldiers, noticing their anti-magic snares used to capture dangerous individuals with magical abilities. The guards fan out to search the area but the party are able to stay hidden in the vegetation when Nico holsters his gun and orders Asguir and Elräen to come with them for questioning. As they are taken away, Asguir draws his sword and a fight ensues. The clashing of swords commences as Fauna attacks a soldier from behind with her dagger and the Nico lashes out with his sword at Elräen. Asguir with adrenaline rushing through his veins cuts straight through a soldier's torso, while Fasûl summons a wolf nature spirit and, in snake form, wraps around Commander Enşalo's legs as he reaches for his pistol. Turning the tide of the fight, Fauna manifests her nature magic in a verdant aura around Commander Enşalo's head and puts him to sleep. Eventually three soldiers are left who surrender to the party, whom they take prisoner.  

Act II: Interrogations and Miscommunications

Surrounding the now unconscious commander and his surrendering forces, the party tie them up in their own snares and get to questioning them. Nico explains that he had orders to arrest them and take them to his King and Max Treschlande for interrogation, only killing as a last resort. When the party convince him of their innocence with some help from Fauna's illusion helping to explain Sareth's destruction, Nico gets aggravated and says they had good authority and information from the highest ranks of government to arrest them, though under his stalwart exterior Elräen can tell he is more worried about the contradiction of his orders versus the reality of the party's explanation. The party huddle together, with Asguir and Fauna stating they wish to continue their journey to Krolask to warn of the coming war. Commander Enşalo offers to take them to the King at Fort Enther, and then to the capital to convince the government of their true enemies. They plan a route avoiding the Fracksûre Marsh going south then back north to the fort. And so the party place the soldiers in their own prison wagon and continue on their journey on the hilly paths and redgrass plains of Vashnir.   The days pass without issue: Nico aiding the players in traversing the landscape as well as explaining the situation to any military scouts that come upon the group. Elräen notices that as they continue moving west, the prince's necklace glows slightly brighter with each day of travel and also sees a subtle symbol neck to C.B on the worn wanted poster - 4 vertical lines like a claw scrape. One night the party play a game of cards, Fauna using her bardic skills to best the other players and taking their gold with a smile. However, at the edge of camp Fauna sees Piper alone, deep in thought. The bard comes over, suprising Piper who apologises for not being honest with her at Sola. She unwraps her bandage to show a deep bite wound, old yet unhealed and with flecks of darkness in the exposed flesh. Dissociating as the memories flood her, Piper recalls how she had left a festival party early to get some air, when she saw rageful eyes glaring at her from the bushes. She tried to run but it caught her and bit into her arm, its teeth laced with her blood. Reeling from the pain, Piper watched from the shadows as the wolf was chased by a group of figures in red robes, seemingly hunting to capture the creature. It was then she knew she was taken over by the werewolf's curse, and hasn't trusted herself around others ever since due to her inability to handle herself when she's in her beast form. She cries and says to Fauna "I don't want to hurt any of you." Fauna comforts her, distraught for her friend and the little she knows of how to remove the curse. The next day their journey continues.  

Act III: Hellish Revelations

On a calm night camped on the rolling hills just south of Fort Enther, the party sleep after their hard travels as to regain their energy for the important days ahead, with Fasûl and Elräen on watch for any ambushes. Despite the peace of the autumnal air, a dark presence coalesces around the group. In their deep slumbers, Asguir and Fauna enter a strange dream-state as feelings of terror shroud them. Asguir awakes in a barren landscape with a sky of burnt crimson and mountainous caverns that seems to shift beneath his feet. His skin is seered by the firey air and smoke coats his lungs. Faces appear to him in the shadows of the basalt mountains: his parents, his king, fellow soldiers and friends from times long past. They whisper hurtful words of failure and torment, eventually repeating the same word in a torturous mantra - "dishonourable." He pushes through the manifesting memories surrounding him and climbs over a ridge in the charred rocks, looking down upon a deep crater with blackened brick pillars protruding from it. Infernal runes are carved into the rock and at their base is a massive altar of blood and fire with a symbol of a 4 clawed scrape etched into the darkened stone. Suddenly, robed figures converge at the altar, chanting in low voices and strange tongues. Fauna hears this chanting too, though she awakes in an abyss empty of life. She calls but no-one answers. She wanders the darkness realising she is alone, and as that chanting rises in her head - not heard as much as sensed - the walls of blackness close in on her. Both adventurers hear a calm, eloquent voice amidst the chaos, saying the words "Free me." As the voices grow louder the altar splits in front of Asguir with a bellowing crack and a creature rises from the depths below. First, its skeletal horns like towers of bone pierce the red sky, then its hands with claws the size of greatswords dig into the the altar and push the ground apart, forming a great chasm as wings of leathery flesh fan out from its back. Finally its head rises from the pit, a charred skull with a brutish jaw snapping shut into a wolf's grin. Where its eyes should be, there are instead two sets of 4 clawed gashes in its skeletal face. As this gargantuan creature rises, towering Asguir despite being hundreds of feet above the altar, both his and Fauna's heads scream as images sear into their minds: a staff emanating a strong arcane power; a cloaked figure being chased across the wilderness; and finally the face of this devil. The chants then switch from an ancient language to whispers of names and titles - "Avatar of Wrath. The Chained One. Devourer of Suns. Archdevil of The Seven Hells. The Son of Chaos. Rage Incarnate". The eloquent voice grows louder, laughing uproariously. The chorus settles on one last name - "Yolgaroth." As it echoes through Asguir and Fauna's heads, the facade of calmness falls away from the voice which suddenly screams in pure fury and hatred. "FREE ME."  

Act IV: "You're Out of Your Depth"

As Fauna and Asguir experience these nightmares, Fasûl and Elräen notice that they have gone missing from camp, strangely with no sign of a struggle or any missing items. They awake the rest of the group and, following trails in the mud, arrive at a cave in the nearby hillside. At its mouth stand the two missing adventurers in a trance-like state and, perched above them with its blackened skull and four arms of flaming skin glistening in the starlight, the devil from Sareth's destruction looms over its prey. It growls in deep tones of malice that the party has no idea what forces they are messing with. Elräen and Fasûl attempt to pull their possessed party members back, but whatever consciousness controlling them was so powerful it was forcing them in place. The party attempt to attack the creature, but arrows and gauntlets barely damage its thick molten hide. It buries its claws into Fasûl's sides and slashes across Elräen's chest, leaving a deep four clawed scrape of heat. A solemn anger comes over Elräen as the devil leans in, declaring "I got pleasure from watching your little friend die in that swamp. If you don't stay out of my business, the last thing you'll remember as you leave this mortal realm is my name - Czaatli Bloodborne." Leaving him extremely hurt with just one attack, Czaatli leaps across the red grass hills and cliffs, fading into the night. Asguir and Fauna suddenly drop to the floor, no longer possessed, seeing the despaired faces of their group and the silhoutte of a horned devil in the distance.