Tag: demons

Death and Demons

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, NetherdeepLeave a comment

Poppa said we should trail the Champions when they left today. Not too close, people like that invite trouble, he said. They got themselves some new mounts, too. Some worgs and a horse. The weird little gnome looks even scarier on his big scary worg. Guess Poppa was right.

A couple days out we found a big dead Gloomstalker. Looks like they mighta carved it up a bit to feed their doggos, too. We stayed away from it though, lots of scavengers were tearing up what’s left.

Couple more days there’s the leftovers of a big fire. Looks like they set a wagon on fire with three people still sleeping in it! Wow! Musta been real bad people.

Few more days and there’s a whole Bunch of people all laid out with their eyes and guts being chewed on by birds. Looks like there was some big battle, too. They musta really made the Champions mad. Poppa says it looks like there was some big creature here, too, but it’s all gone now. The ground is pretty gross still where it melted.

We’re almost to the Emerald Loop Caravan Stop now, and there’s some dead Moorbounders, all carved up and skinned, with their heads chopped off. I hope we don’t run into the Champions, they’re a lot scarier than they looked back at the Festival.

~Netti

Of Satyrs and Shadows

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, QuillLeave a comment

The stone fort felt wrong from the moment we went inside. The darkness was wrong, a twilight that was not real. Our shadows disappeared, and they felt weak in the corners. Or my connection was weak, it was hard to tell. There was no life in here. A verdant forest outside, but not a weed among these stones.

Inside the main building, Red hears tapping upstairs, and in short order, we go. It is more wrong inside, even before we find the satyr on a throne of bones. Red starts throwing questions at him, and he turns to us slowly, like we aren’t really there. He does have the viola we’re after, though it has a blackness to it, too. Page starts playing music to counter the chord he struck, but Red gets bored and jumps him.

It’s a bit rough going, but when we take him down, he melts away, like those devils we fought just the other day. Nevi grabs the viola, but Page makes him put it in her bag. She seems afraid of its blackness, as we head back outside and around to the moonwell.

It’s a natural pool in this manmade fort, though surrounded with stacked stones. The water is dark, but with pinpricks of lightness, almost like sequins. Orange wants to drink it, and it takes all of us to stop him. Red takes him away to go patrol the area. I stay behind and patrol the pool edge to keep Orange from making a break for it. The rest of them study the pool of tainted magic. For a long time.

I tune them out for a while. Tempers are running high when I check back in. Page is playing angry music. Nevi is on about a unicorn again. The Big Guy is reading through a book and every time he suggests a spell that sounds helpful to me, Page just gets angrier. We give him a bunch of gems and magic things, but he just keeps reading for a while. Then Red comes back, confused why we haven’t started, yet, and the brothers add in some magic of their own. The Big Guy finally starts a cleansing ceremony, and we all try to give him what energy or focus we have.

Two hours in, the satyr comes back. Sitting on top of the fort, laughing at us. Those not involved in the casting go after him. It devolves into a game of tag on the roof, but we put him back down again, and get the viola back for Page, again. After another two hours, the Big Guy collapses, the moon shines down, and a geyser of water shoots up from the pool. When everything settles down again, it is purified and clear. The ground begins sprouting new life, and the viola is cleaned of the darkness. We finally let Orange drink, and it knocks him on his butt. He doesn’t seem to mind though. I pull some dinner out of my book and we camp there for the night, just to be sure.

In the morning, we windwalk down to the big lake to go fishing. Orange goes for a swim and Page starts shooting missiles into the water. Orange gets really annoyed, so she walks to another section of the beach. Altogether, they bring in five big rainbow fish. Then we windwalk the rest of the way back down to the Cat Lord. He is very happy with the fish and sent us back home.

Death and Necromancy

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, QuillLeave a comment

Mary Mouse and the Big Guy get rid of the skeletons, but then Red nearly kills himself on a ballista bolt trap on the next door. But he gets back up and we run down a bunch more hallways until he stops us. Says there are holes in the walls, and he doesn’t like them. After a while, he sticks a ladder is some of the holes, but then decides we can’t get the Big Guy and Buick across the trap, so we turn back.

Around a bunch of other hallways until we find another big room. This one has a bunch of ugly masks on the walls, and ten skeletons that we have to smash. There are shelves of destroyed books here, so I search the shelves for any that haven’t died yet. Mary Mouse finds a lever to open one of the bookshelves to reveal a big iron-banded door. It takes a couple tries, but the Big Guy and Orange lift it up to get us all through.

We move on down more hallways to a portcullis. The dark room beyond smells like an outhouse full of death. Nevi and Mary Mouse send light in, and we can see piles of bones, dirt, armor, and weapons. Orange and the Big Guy lift this door up, too and we head inside to investigate.

Big dead eye monsters rise up out of the muck. Two of them look like zombies and the other one is made of bones. These are the most awful things I have ever seen. Mary Mouse seems to like the skeletal one, though. It kills Buick and Orange, though, so we destroy it in a rage that would have made him proud. I might have run if I could, but the doors were all closed. I don’t like it here.

Red is furious, and puts Orange in his bag to fix later because the Big Guy can’t fix him right now. We ask if Red wants to leave now, but he insists we go on without Orange. We do divide up some of Orange’s stuff. Catbard lets Gargoyle Lady take control of her, so we give her Orange’s weapons.

We run up and down a lot of hallways then, backtracking and going everywhere but back to that trapped hall. One last dead end, and Red is frustrated. Mary Mouse takes a look, though, and finds a false wall. Red gets it open and we creep in. There is a random armored woman in here, she says she’s from Chult and has been waiting her for a very long time. Her party came in here, but got separated. I don’t trust her. She says her name is Samantha Satessa from near Gold Dwarf Chasm. That sounds fake, I’ll have to ask Catbard later, when she comes back.

There’s no way out of this room, though, so we go all the way back to the beginning. Two pink toads have climbed up the tree. We try to get passed, but Nevi trips and a Redcap and some sort of demon pop out. Red is furious, but we manage to get rid of them. He insists we just shoot them if any more appear, instead of trying to get past them. We all agree and head onward.

We head down some more twisting hallways to a room with strange symbols. We avoid the symbols to get out another door, and down some more hallways. The next door is kind of cold, but we head in. The room is full of cold and spikes and weird swirling decorations.

The Battle for Maribeth’s Soul

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, TristiaLeave a comment

We weren’t there for the real battle, happening over in Hell with all the Demon Lords and her Grandfather. But what we did in that hellish mansion tipped the balance and saved my dearest friend, and her family.

We could see the ritual through the door, but when we tried to enter, an invisible force held us at bay. The wizard boys do what they do, and figured out that it was something called a forbiddance, and only Pumbleby blood was allowed to enter or give permission to enter. Okay, Porter, who about you invite us all in? I asked and the others agreed. So, he and Gerhardt set to work figuring out how to get us all inside. Without the two, not actually Maribeth nor Grandfathers on the other end just kicking us back out again.

While they pull together a ritual, two minotaurish demons took up position on either side of the door. The claw demon on the far end started pulling up darkness throughout the room. The cultists danced around an altar containing my brother and a succubus. Klyce, Remy, and Nat took a look at the ritual in progress, deciding that killing the cultists would only slow it down at this point, not stop it. They noted my brother magically chained to the altar, it would be more complicated than teleporting him out of there. I had my bands of balero to Klyce, in case he got close to one of the Maribeths, and Philomena cast protection spells on him. We’re going to have Gerhardt do some walls of force again. The two Maribeths stood laughing. Right up until the point where we walked through the door.

Someone put a globe of force around the cultists and the altar, Gerhardt put a globe around one of the minotaur demons. Remy slips into the center globe, and I take Klyce in after him. The succubus almost immediately surrenders, offering to help save Gerald. Klyce says she can come with us, and then turns Gerald into a cat and picks him up off the altar. I toss up my storm, careful to exclude everyone in the bubble, including the succubus. Spells, bullets, and swords start flying. Remy calls my name, but it sounds odd. I look up and he shoots me down. Again.

I wake up to Julian standing over me with an empty potion bottle. I start throwing shocking grasps, and the succubus teleports out with Gerald. Before I can start cursing, Klyce says he’ll explain after we’re through. I look up in time to see Philomena disintigrate the claw demon. Remy dimension doors out of the bubble with me, and we start attacking the Maribeths. They shoot out some black awfulness at Philomena and Nat, but I still have my Healing Word to get them back up. Porter banishes one of the Maribeths and Remy shoots the other one down. But Porter gets knocked unconscious and the first one comes back. Nat puts down the minotaur demon. Unfortunately, the Maribeth lets the other one free, and now have to put them both down. Which we manage with some more magic, bullets, and swords.

The ritual seemed to have gotten far enough, though. There was a big dark shadow growing more solid by the moment. Porter circles us all up to put it back. It’s slippery and strange. We can hear him, too. Trying to convince us that he’s the least of our worries. That we wouldn’t even know he was in our world. Then he tried bribery, offering us anything we could ever want. It would be so easy for us to just let him in and then deal with him. Wouldn’t it? Nat pushes us all harder, and we manage to focus down and seal him back in his Tower.

Time never ends. I am patient.

The mansion starts shaking and we take off, running out and up into the street. Time to head home and tell everyone that the demon threat is over. Maribeth and Dalish meet up with us just a little while later and we have a happy reunion. But Where Is My Brother???

Where Mortal Men Do Fear To Tread

On By ravonlockeIn Journal, TristiaLeave a comment

It took a little convincing that the fate of the world was on the line, but Julian eventually consents to waking up his father for us. We still have to wait for half an hour to go talk to him, but it is a fruitful discussion. He greets us politely and asks our names, figuring out who we are quite quickly from our past with the Magia. Remy starts explaining all our efforts to protect the city, but Klyce cuts him off to say he has something we need to wake up Porter. For some reason, Klyce has decided it’s a drug. I think it’s something to do with that business in Italy. Turns out we’re both wrong.

Once he finds out that Porter is in trouble, he is much more forthcoming. Klyce asks what he needs from us in exchange. He mentions that his family is in the mana trade and they’ve heard about these Machines… All our hackles raise, but then he goes on to say he wants us to ensure they never go into production, nor ever made legal. We are More than happy to do just that. We don’t have a lot of political power, but what we do, we will bring full force against these Machines. Deal? Deal.

Then we head downstairs and he takes a look at Porter. He pulls a serpent ring off his finger and puts it on Porter’s hand. It shrinks down to fit, and in short order, Porter awakes, albeit still in some pain. Excellent! Now we have to figure out how to find Grandfather. Porter can’t track them wherever they are with the magic he was using for the sacrifices. But maybe we can track their teleports, now that we know which teleports to track. This time, instead of Porter’s people, we can track the demons who attacked my house, and stole my brother.

I ask about my sling, that I stole from Porter’s hideout. Apparently it does extra damage to demons. Remy starts talking about Phil, in vague terms, and I’m surprised at Klyce’s restraint, when he simply says that man is not available for this mission because he says so. Klyce leads us all to the one succubus that teleported away from Phil in the mad chase from my house. We get a direction from there. Then we head back to my house, and up to my brother’s room, and the room where everyone’s staying.

I get that feeling again. I know what I did wrong the first time. I was trying to go two places at once. I can do it now. I ask if everyone is ready, and count heads to make sure I’ve got enough power. Philomena agrees to come with us this time, since we’re down Marybeth and Dalish. Everyone grabs hands, and I teleport us. Into an empty stone room, without mishap.

There’s a hallway behind us with stairs up to the street. Nat finds an instability in the center of the room. Remy looks closely and can just see the entrance to a Magnificent Mansion. Except, this one’s a little different. It seems to not really be here, on our plane, more like it goes into the void a bit. How do we get inside? What happens if we dispell it? It could eject them, or, if there’s another entrance, we would just be barred from getting in, or it could kill them all, my brother included. Remy and Gerhardt look a bit closer at the magic while Klyce skitters off to make sure we’re alone.

Gerhardt decides that if he overcharges, he can get the door open for us. It’ll take a ritual, so while he’s at it, Nat rituals up a telepathic bond, as well. It works! We step through the door into one of the most disgusting places we’ve ever been. It reminds me of the dead king’s body. Only, these fleshy walls have faces moving through them, and they’re all screaming and wailing. There are twenty small demons waiting for us in this foyer of the damned. but they fall quite quickly to the simplest spells and we move on. The next room has a fountain of blood and buffet tables of body parts in various stages of rot. There are stairs going up, doors to either side, and a hallway under the stairs. Remy and Porter run forward super fast to scout, but Porter finds something first.

There’s someone hiding in the study. Klyce skitters forward and can sense three beings in there. Remy comes back down and Gerhardt goes up to look as well. Remy sees one hiding by the liquor cabinet and calls out to him. He threatens to shoot him if he doesn’t show himself, so a slightly larger than the entryway demons comes out to talk. Remy asks where the prisoners are? Down the hall, there’s only one left. Who else in our way? Bull demons, Galabrazu, and a large fear shadow fire demon. A what now? Nevermind, how do we get in without passing all these demons? No way he knows around them. How do we stop the ritual? Kill the two masters. Grandfather must have more puppets or clones. Then it tries to get Remy to take it on as a familiar and Ceres is not amused. What help can you be so we don’t just kill you? Don’t go in the succubus room upstairs, never there. Maybe the demons have weapons you could use against the master? He doesn’t like being stabbed. The shadow, fire, fear monster though, he has no weaknesses. Not even magic. Okay, if we have to leave, what’s the password to get back into this mansion? He tells us, but I wouldn’t even begin to know how to spell the infernal word.

We head down the hallway, wondering if we should have just killed those demons, too, but we need all our magic for what comes next. We make plans about what spells to use, and how to use our Iron Bands on Grandfather’s duplicates. We push through the first set of doors to find an ante chamber full of smoke and darkness at the far end. The Balor peers out at us from the smoke.

Then it grabs Gerhardt with it’s whip and drags him across the room to stab him a couple times. I storm up and spells start flying. It pulls me in next, but manages to somehow not drop me in one round. We mange to keep running away from him, and Gerhardt heals me enough that we put him down without dying ourselves, but as he falls, things go a little sideways. You’re too late! I have slowed you down enough! DIE! Then he explodes and I wake up to Gerhardt treating some pretty nasty burns on my arms.

We head forward again, and open them on the massive fleshy ritual chamber. In the center, Gerald is chained down with a succubus keeping him occupied. Cultists dance around in a circle. Two images of Marybeth, Grandfather’s work, are on the far end of the room, incanting the ritual. And I will fall over again if a soft breeze touches me.