21.01.2023 - Scribe-5 - Jaws of Defeat

Recap

• the warforged were labelled with Arnini's symbol and a two of them were very similar to Scribes
• There were a lot of very old books (200-500 years)
• Scribes grabbed two wands and Bucket took one of the warforged heads (he saw a golden acorn)
• She also found a secret pathway through one of the bookshelves that lead to the sewers close to Veilheart
• She also found a memo reading: "Remember to update the log in the bedroom study"
• While Scribes was busy investigating they stole the empress, since some bad guys came and stressed them out
• They went out a secret tunnel, and the empress is currently awake and being guarded by Desa in Veilhearth
• The baby is apparantly gone from the bedchamber
• They also kidnapped Auren, who is also now in the palace
• They then returned to the palace doors (coming from the secret tunnel), where a maniac from the Path of Strength are rampaging and looking for a challenger
• Everyone boosted Bucket and he is the challenger
• We tried to throw a platinum ring to Bucket, but missed, so Scribes and Coty are trying to Mage Hand it to him
• At least three observers are standing on different rooftops, they are only interested in the rampaging monk
• We are all blessed

This session

• There are probably a lot of injured civilians and the walls are precarious and are likely to fall. Fire is spreading
• The monk introduces himself as Azal Drake
• He has tattooes on his skin
• Void casts Fly on Coty, Scribes and himself
• He flies over to some rubble and sees a twitching arm sticking out
• Sylword finds another civilian buried in rubble
• Coty extinguises some flames and finds another civilian
• Bucket and Azal meet and trade blows (One of Bucket's atks deals 37 dmg!)
• Azal brags that he took the hit on purpose, and will end the fight if he lands a single hit (he misses)
• Void grabs his civilian and Dimension Door's them into a pool. The civilian is very injured and unconcious
• Those that are observing seems to be holding someone else
• Sylword manages to pull out his civilian, who is beaten but consious, then Healing Words Void's civilian
• Coty turns into an evil-looking gorilla and carries her civilian to Void
• Azal misses all his attacks again
• An item Azal is carrying lights up and Ferriz appears beside him and starts complaining and calling Azal bodyguard
• Multiple of small portals open up here and in the city, hundreds of mechanical claws reach out of them
• The civilian Sylword is carrying gets dragged away, taking Sylword with it
  • Void dashes after Sylword through the portal
  • Everything is grey here with no colors
  • The mechanical jaw dragging them is moving towards something
  • Sylword notices that the area here reminds him of Tidehaven, but also the dimension we found the tabaxi death maze.
  • It feels like he is being pulled through to somewhere else
  • There are some irregularities, but there is a hole where Tidebreaker used to be
  • Sylword knocks out one of the teeth of the mechanical jaw
  • He lets go of the civilian. There is no gravity here. He grabs Void's hand and drops his waterskin
• Bucket gets in another hit on Azal, but Azal reactively blinds him with dirt
• Coty carries her civilian and leads the other one inside the palace
• Azal claims that the path of strength are not body guards. He punches a device and Arnini disappears
• Azal finally hits and deals 42 dmg. Thankfully he fails to shove Bucket far away
• Azal is a mageslayer (so disadvantage on concentration checks)
• Azal clearly expected a lot more to happen and moves away (earning himself an opportunity attack)
• The spectators are now holding two fists
• Scribes uses Mage Hand to steal the Arnini summoning device
  • She rolls well on assesing the damage of it and is confident she can fix it within a few minutes
• One of the civilians by Coty gets grabbed by another mechanical jaw
• Void flies himself and Sylword out of another portal. They are 130 ft. above the palace before Void descends 20 ft.
• Bucket Misty Steps behind Azel and hits him twice for 44 dmg
• Azal drops to one knee, barely holding on. "I refuse to lose"
• Sylword asks Void to fly them over to the rooftop people
• He releases the Holy Weapon spell, causing a burst of holy dmg
• Azal dies, muttering about someone coming now since he has died
• The observers immediately dash towards Azal and start to carry him away towards the west
• Bucket lets them take him
• After a brief mental vc discussion, Coty brings the last rescued civilian to the group, to make the coming portal available to us
• Scribes uses her wand of stars to cast Hypnotic Pattern on the retreating monks, making two of them incapacitated
• The whole monk group stops to deal with the problem
• Sylword casts a Wall of Fire to surround them (but dealing dmg outwards)
• Void flies Sylword over there and land among them
• A half-orc places himself in front of the incapacitated ones
• Bucket takes the civilian to free up Coty to deal with the fires
• Sylword asks the monks why they are doing it
  • They state that they are not his challenges
  • He continues to push them
  • They respond that they are Tulub(?). They are currently bodyguards. Malagnim gives them fights to prove themselves
  • They say that Azal acted rashly and too soon, so he must perish
  • The other monks slaps the hypnotized monks out of it, while the half-orc tries to stab Azal
  • Sylword shoves the half-orc away from Azal
  • "Salanth is your challenger, she awaits you"
  • They mess up Azal's face and touch devices on their belts making them translucent
  • The half-orc introduces himself as Ulmlaga(?) and tells Sylword to come find him if he survives Salanth
  • Sylword covers the face of the dead Azal before ending the fire wall
• Coty casts Sleet Storm and distinguishes a lot of the fire
• We regroup and talk plans
  • Scribes tells the others about her plan to fix the Arnini Summoning Device and magically force him to return the people
  • We decide to try it
• Scribes fixes the device in 5 minutes
  • There are two buttons to interact with
  • One of them casts illusion and evocation magic to show a picture of a person (Arnini) and enable them to communicate
  • The other can help people get away by teleporting one person
• Meanwhile the others put out the fires
• Sylword tells us what the monks said
• The tulu(?) refers to a hierarcy role within the path of strength. It means watcher/spectator/judge
• Sylword gives Scribes the mechanical tooth
• Bucket heals the civilian for 3 hp and sends them on their way
• We go to interrogate the ghost of Azal
  • Sylword is about to cast speak with dead, but the corpse no longer has a mouth
  • Coty casts Heal on the corpse, to no effect
  • When Sylword start talking about getting bodyparts from other corpses, Scribes tells the group that she doesn't want the be a part of this and leaves for Veilhearth
  • They decide not to try, and Sylword gives the corpse to the palace guards to burn to prevent revival
  • The guards agree to go look for survivors in the rubble
  • Sylword convinces them to not report to Auren
• The party head back to Veilhearth to make dinner and relax
  • Sylword tries to talk to Scribes but remembers that she left earlier. The group chat is also down
  • They check out the study before heading back
    • There are several books with numbers on them
    • All furniture is gilded with the sun of the empire
    • On the table is a large book that emminates light, the book has been opened somewhere in the middle
    • Sylwords looks closer. It looks like an accountant wrote it.
    • There are columns, with a name for each row
    • Coty crits when examining it closer. She is a noble and has been doing a lot of paperwork recently
    • It is a list of royal actions/decrees towards someone. Each name has one or more actions towards them. A lot of them are decrees to be stilled
    • This is just the newest log, there are a lot of other books with previous actions
    • There are also recordings of if the people lost any possessions or recieved any communications etc.
    • Most communications going from the emperor (custodian Auren) are in this book
    • The first entry dated back to when Auren got the job
    • The visual description of the wand of stars is listed
    • Thunder and Cloud are mentioned, among others the failed tracking of Thunder and the stilling of Cloud
    • The name Perster Cherryheart (Wizard's Guild) is mentioned as a reciever and sender of frequent correspondence
      • They had frequent and heated arguments, but the topic is not mentioned in the logs
      • There is correspondence with the Dristwords(?), the Clovers, Lady Ashfield (the latter increasing in frequency lately)
      • There was also a failed attempt to contact Malagnim
      • They take the most recent book with them
• They go through the secret tunnel and enter Veilhearth
• The workers have modified the doors to allow others than Sylword to gain access. The workers can come and leave at specific times of day. The doors now open faster
• Sylword makes buttered boar with spices and hands it out to everyone except Bucket who gets a vegan version
• Bucket is not vegan, and is fine with the boar
• Scribes is given a plate which she politely holds
• Desa reports that Auren is awake. She thinks the empress is crafty. The empress has said she is thirsty but is not quenched by water. The empress tried to play mind tricks on Desa, but it supposedly didn't work
• Desa and Auren are also given some buttered boar (Sylword feeds Auren so he doesn't have to be freed)
• Coty tries to comfort Scribes
  • We talk about the collection of things similar to our party, and feelings
• It turns into planning with the group
  • Things that needs to get done:
    • Stop the disappearances and bring back the missing people
    • Stop Malagnim and Arnini
    • Finish Veilhearth
• We discuss changing the device to actually summon Arnini or teleport us to him

Plan