Session 48: New Friends and A Stony Welcome Report

General Summary

There is a fiendish hag about to tear Roy to bits, after Boris freed him from the fiend's control, here in the long-abandoned halls of an ancient freehold of artificers and their allies. Cigfran , ever alert, immediately called upon divine favor to act before the others. Cigfran fired a bolt, but the hag conjured a mystical shield to deflect the bolt. Roy attempted to escape, and had to conjure a shield of his own to defend against the hag's claw, but escaped with a misty leap. Roy also fired a pair of eldritch bolts, one of which managed to penetrate the hag's shield. Roisin Marshfield used the distraction to move back, then ordered Roy to attack again. Roy managed one more hit, this time in the hag's face. The hag responded with "Ouchie, now you stop that before I have to take you over my knee.", then looked at Roisin Marshfield and said "You on the other hand, you're just a tasty snack, hee hee!". Boris also attacked in coordination, but missed. The Hag then moved to get better positioning, and fired a bolt of lightning which struck Boris and Cigfran , although Cigfran was able to use a nearby pillar to ground the bolt, leaving him unharmed. The Hag then walked over to Roy and said "Come now, dearie, you should help me!". Roy felt that he needed to help this old and valued friend in this. Boris attempted to banish this fiend back to Hades, but failed. Jeeves dashed down a corridor after hearing the sounds of combat, but was only just able to get into view. Cigfran again fired a bolt, and this time struck, but despite the poison on the bold the Fiend responded with "heh heh heh, tasty!". Roy , confused and trying to help this "old friend" without harming his other friends, used his momentary stasis abilty to place Roisin Marshfield in stasis for a short time, then took the Hag's hand. Boris summoned Cerberus to help. The Hag began to shift herself and Roy to another place, a place filled with fiends of all descriptions. The vision shocked Roy and he pulled his hand back. The Hag screamed "Willful child! Come with me!". The hag also tried to claw Boris, but missed. Boris summoned his spirit guardians, and the radiant gavels nicked the fiend. The hag said "Oh! You're a cleric... Your soul's worth a lot!", to which Boris replied "Yep" as he asked the Rainbow Lash to keep the spell going and Boris heard in his mind "Got it, we're burnin them all!". After Boris' actions the Cerberus he had summoned began licking the hag's hands, like a little puppy. Jeeves moved up next to Boris and Roy , and used his chiurgen's skill to dramatically heal Roy , then quickly administered a Morthinelin's Mending to Boris. Cigfran used his last poisoned bolt to fire at the hag, striking, and she said, slightly exhausted, "You'll pay for that, I'll sell you...to one of the...Yugoloth.". Roy , again falling under the hag's influence, magically accelerated the Hag, Cerberus, and himself. Roisin Marshfield ordered Boris to attack, but the hag again summoned a mystic shield, and Cigfran 's coordinated attack was also deflected. The Hag then tried to avoid the radiant gavels still swirling around, and after taking a few nicks used powerful magic to sicken Cigfran . Cerberus then turned and bit Cigfran , missing twice but striking once. Boris conjured a spiritual weapon, which hit, and then threw his hammer with the Might of Borelius, striking. The follow-up strike missed, and Jeeves rushed past the hag, who cast a spell, but Jeeves resisted, as he patched up Cigfran with healer's supplies. Cigfran disengaged and backed up, but one does not simply disengage from Cerberus. Cerberus missed the attack of opportunity, and Cigfran missed his attack due to the magical sickness, which then dissipated. Roy used the power from his ring, and touched the hag, who sank into the stone beneath her feet. Roisin Marshfield ordered Boris to attack Cerberus, and Boris did strike, connecting with the hammer. Cerberus tried to bite Roisin Marshfield, but missed with all three heads, and then disappeared. Boris chose to smack Roy for helping the hag, but missed, then the follow up was blocked by Roy 's magical shield. Jeeves pulled moved aside, then tried to figure out where the hag might be, but could see no indication of it's presence. Roy moved around Boris to get a better position, then used a powerful scroll to blast Roisin Marshfield, Jeeves , and Boris with magical lightning. Jeeves managed to avoid much of the damage, thanks to Roisin Marshfield's cries of warning, but Roisin Marshfield and Boris were both seriously injured. Roisin Marshfield used another herb to strengthen her resolve, and rallied both Boris and Jeeves to keep going. The hag began to rise from the stone, and Cigfran , ready for this, shot her. It would have been a powerful strike, but Roy magically knocked the bolt off course, preventing the hag's death. The Hag banished Roy to Hell, despite both the attack and the radiant gavels still swirling around Boris, and stood alone, facing Roy 's friends. Boris, feeling very ill, vomited up a large oil painting in an ornate frame, then threw his hammer at the hag, blasting through its face, then swinging back to tear out the spine on the return. The hag, dissipating into a foul black mist, said "thank you, I couldn't go home any other way, heh hee, now I have my prize!". Boris spiritual weapon then disappeared as Cigfran cursed Roy 's inability to resist external control.

Jeeves glanced into one of the side rooms, seeing a mechanical figure, standing inactive on a stone dais, and also noticed, finally, that the hall leading back to where they came from was blocked by a massive stone. The figure on the dais began speaking, and asked Roisin Marshfield to come close to "push" him. When Roisin Marshfield stepped close, this construct suddenly yelled "BOO!", and Roisin Marshfield pushed at it, but found it must weigh a literal ton. They discussed the date for a bit and determined it must have been a very long time, perhaps 6,283 years, since this entity was created, and it was never intended to be self-aware, so something very strange must have happened.

The party discussed their sorrow at losing a friend sent to Hell, and this constructed being said "Oh! I have emergency supplies for this", and pulled a scroll from a compartment in its torso. Boris took the scroll and read it, and thanks to additional divine favor, succeeded. Roy appeared, but died as his body was transported through the magical gate conjured by the powerful scroll. Boris reacted quickly and revived his friend, but it was a very close thing. The group spent an hour to catch their breath and bind their wounds. In the meantime they learned a little about their new companion, who apparently had some pre-set, one might say programmed, knowledge and behavior, but had somehow become self aware and was interested in joining their journey for a time, despite being a mere 15 minutes old, or perhaps an hour by the time they felt ready to move on. As Roisin Marshfield ended their rest with one of her trademark Rousing Speech™s, their friend, who had called themselves 6 of 18 of Chorus 9 (SixofEighteen for short), suddenly stood and began walking quickly, despite turning and looking back to say "I don't know what's happening...". The whole party followed, finding themselves in a vast chamber with many large statues, and one immense stone statue in the center of a raised dais above several large raised tiers. SixofEighteen walked up to this huge statue, then knelt in front of it as the rest of the group arrayed themselves nearby among the caryatid columns. Over the next several minutes more statues were lowered into the room around the outer edge.

Eventually, a bell rang, and SixofEighteen's legs began working again. At the same time, the huge statue animated, and spoke. "Your fealty is accepted. Servant, destroy the living things." To this SixofEighteen responded "Actually, I am not a servant.". Cigfran , conjured a shield of faith, then fired a bolt, chipping off a tiny bit of the solid stone. Roisin Marshfield then ordered Roy to attack. Roy fired two magical blasts, one abraded the stone, the other reflected back and almost struck Roy . Boris also attacked in coordination, and chipped the stone. Roy then conjured a ball lightning, which rammed the massive stone construct, scorching the stone slightly. Jeeves fired a couple of arrows, but discovered that stone statues could not be harmed by normal arrows. Boris threw his hammer with the Might of Borelius, striking very powerfully, and created a crater the size of Boris' head. Boris also conjured a spiritual weapon that chipped a bit more stone off. The stone statue walked past Boris, around SixofEighteen, and emitted a field of temporal disruption which caused all of them to slow down. SixofEighteen turned, extended a massive blade from his right arm, and attacked the stone golem, missing at first, then connecting. SixofEighteen surged with action, and struck once more. The statue turned to SixofEighteen and said "What? You Serve!". Cigfran fired at the creature, knocking off a bit more stone. Roisin Marshfield ordered Cigfran to attack again, and that worthy hit again, chipping off yet more stone, as cracks began to run through the statue. Roy fired an empowered phase bolt, which blasted the creature further, leaving it with massive cracks, and barely holding together. Jeeves then tolled the dead, and the creature lost what little magic held it together, crumbling into dust. Another of the statues then began to move, rushing toward the group. Boris struck with his spiritual weapon, missed with a cantrip, then hit with a follow-up strike. SixofEighteen rushed over to this new threat, but could do no more. Cigfran attacked again, but missed. Roisin Marshfield ordered Roy to attack, and Boris also attacked in coordination. Roy then fired more blasts of magic, striking once. Jeeves again tolled the dead, and the new statue reacted by moving into position then assaulting the whole group with temporal magic that left everyone except Cigfran slowed down. Boris then threw his hammer, but missed, and shook off the magical slowness. SixofEighteen launched magical missiles to knock a few more chips of stone from this statue, then shook off the slowness. Cifran took careful aim and fired, striking it in the chest. Roisin Marshfield ordered Cigfran to attack again, but he missed, and Boris attacked in coordination, knocking off more stone chips. Roy fired another pair of magical blasts, but neither hit. Jeeves again tolled the dead, draining further power from the statue, and shook off the magical slowness. The statue stepped on Boris, then moved slightly for better positioning. Boris struck with the spiritual weapon, missed with the hammer throw, and struck with the follow-up. SixofEighteen attacked with his sword, and hit, then struck again, knocking off several bits of stone. Cigfran took careful aim and struck, breaking through the outer stone, shattering the massive emerald in the center of the statue's chest, causing the construct to fall into a fine powder dust.

The group took a moment to collect themselves, then headed over to the anterooms to the East, where Roy opened a door without pause, and promptly sat down and began sucking his thumb, then screaming "I want my mommeee!". Jeeves stepped up and grabbed Roy , who tried to fight him off, but Jeeves managed to drag him back a bit regardless. SixofEighteen also grabbed Roy , but just stayed in place holding Roy from moving. Jeeves walked up to the door and began to look for traps. Not finding any traps, Jeeves walked in, found a large library, and grabbed a massive tome then brought it out to show Boris. Boris read the title, and promptly struck with holy fire burning the book to fine ash. The others went back in and found other books, some of which were acceptable to Boris. As Jeeves tried to deal with Roy 's problems, however, Roy resumed screaming and yelling, which seemed to attract some unwanted attention as the party heard a heavy thudding sound coming from off to the West.