Session 95: After the Party, the cleanup work begins. Report
General Summary
Technical issues slightly limit the information available for this session, it also took over 8 hours to write up, some days you can't catch a break.
Arriving at the temporary safehouse near the docks, Jeeves considered, again, the presence of some biological elements within this mechanical being, and how such a thing might have been accomplished. Roy prepared to question this new associate, but was interrupted by a loud knock at the door. Roisin answered, and a timid voice outside asked "Are you...Are you, nice?". Roisin stepped out of the dome to answer, and quickly opened the door to answer the queries. A small, very timid, individual, perhaps mid teens in age, stood outside with many others some distance away. They asked if Roisin had killed "The Queen" and explained that someone had seen them leaving the "Queen's place". In halting and very stumbling speech this youth asked if Roisin wanted to continue the "sacrifices" and whether she desired his "sacrifice" now. Roisin asked him to give her the cursed dagger he held, and when Roisin held it she felt an immediate urge to destroy this thing. Dropping it, the dagger immediately rusted away. The youth asked Roisin what they should do now, and Roisin suggested they should live their lives, but the youth asked if he could bring back someone more knowledgeable and wise, and then did so when given that permission. An older halfling woman came back, gave Roisin another dagger, which Roisin promptly dropped, then began to berate the princess.
"Oy, I hear I'm givin ye the dagger?" and handed over the dagger, then, seeing it rust away as Roisin dropped it, continued.
"Aye, that's weird. Well whatta ye want Bitch?"
"What?"
"Just tell us who ye'r gonna kill, we know what ye are."
"I am not going to kill anyone"
"Oh, don't lie to us, c'mon. We know what ye ar, ye'r the daughter of the Queen, ye've killed thousands, ye eat flesh, I mean c'mon!"
"Those are lies."
"Ye've been the Princess ye'r whole life, c'mon! Don't lie to us, just tell us what ye want. The Queen lied all the time, we know what she was, we know what she was doin."
"You know she was a vampire?"
"Wait, what? We've seen 'er in the sun, she wadn't a vampire, she just."
"She was a vampire, we killed it"
"Wait, come stand in the sun... Aw hell, now we got vampires can stand in the sun?"
"I am not a vampire"
"Ye're the Queen's, ughhhh."
Bastion stepped out and asked for Kerellion. A man stepped forward and said "Bastion? What are you doing with these folks, I thought you were lost." A brief conversation continued between them as Kerellion explained Bastion could not become undead as he was of a type of creature created at the end of the War of Undying that could not become undead, being mostly mechanical.
The woman continued to complain to Roisin. "Ye're still Alathius heir, everyone knows ye've eaten the hearts of thousands, ye kill fer pleasure."
Roisin explained a bit more of the reality of the situation, how her father was monstrous, how she had broken free of him. The woman asked Kerellion if he could help, and the older man used divine magic to compel truthfullness, a magic which Roisin willingly embraced. The woman asked a few basic questions, and Roisin answered fully and truthfully. These included asking if Roisin had eaten people, if Siobhan was her mother, if Rionna was her mother, finally asking who her mother was (Theressa Bigfoot). Getting very different answers than expected, and still being rather crude in her choice of speech, the woman seemed to calm a bit, and finally just asked what Roisin wanted for the people. Roisin answered that she wished them to live free of oppression and in proper relationship to the land and The Source. They came to an agreement for everyone in the city to give their "sacrificial" daggers to Roisin so she could drop them and thus destroy them. There was a bit of confusion over whether Roisin knew a Wizard with magic of such power it could "make" time, but that turned out to just be an unfortunate misunderstanding. The woman asked if Bastion is alive, to which he answered "yes"; asked if Roisin wished to rule Triliobarn, to which Bastion confusedly answered "No, I do not.", but Roisin also answered that she did not wish to rule the city directly. Roisin was asked to appoint a duke or duchess to the city, then, and finally the woman just implored Roisin to try to pick a good ruler. The conversation ended with a suggestion that Roisin take up a proper residence, perhaps one of the smaller castles in the "High Ward". It was suggested that there was a tower that would have been perfect, but it fell over for some reason (Roisin realized that was the tower Roy accidentally blasted down while fighting Peddyr). The group stepped out of their shelter, and the people there clearly took note of them, particularly Jeeves as the woman exclaimed "Achk! It's an Ogre! What're ye doin with an Ogre!". A quick explanation calmed the woman again, and they moved to a more open space a short distance away to finish the conversation, as the alley outside the building was very small and crowded.
It was explained that the people knew who the worst of the old nobility, the ones who actively supported the Vampire Queen, were. They also could identify the cowardly who just let the queen commit evil acts, and the kindly who tried to help and opposed the queen, though most of the latter had been killed. After some further discussion, and taking a short rest to catch their breath, the Roses decided to go clear out a castle in the High Ward, owned by one of the nobles who fully supported Siobahn, as a base of operations in the city.
Arriving at the outer gates of the High Ward, Jeeves walked up and over the walls then down into the guardhouse where he easily drove off the guards present (they ran from the "Ogre walking up the wall") and released the gate locks, allowing the general citizens into the High ward. As the general populace spread out through the High Ward to rally the helpful nobles to begin recovering the city, the Roses approached one of the larger castles in the ward. Bastion flew up over the wall, down into the small bailey, and easily opened the double gate from the inside, reporting that there did not appear to be any guards present. Jeeves remarked that this seemed strange and Bastion agreed as they all walked into the bailey.
Jeeves discovered he was right to be suspicious as he stepped close to the buildings to the left of the gates and was inundated with boiling oil, which promptly ignited and burned away his clothes, backpack, and several other items, and would have burned Jeeves to death if he did not have magical protection. Finding himself naked except for his gloves, slippers, and intertial barrier, Jeeves looked up from the pile of smouldering coins and equipment scattered around him on the ground to see some well prepared guards atop the walls preparing to shoot crossbows and quickly grabbed a bit of rope nearby to form a makeshift belt. Another guard shot a couple crossbow bolts, but missed. Boris looked to see Jeeves with the flaming oil sheeting off his skin and looked up to see the edge of the guards' weapons over the crenelations atop the inner structure walls. Boris conjured a spiritual weapon and moved further into the bailey to have better visibility around the area and up to the battlements. Roisin prepared to order an attack, as soon as anyone became visible. A moment later a guard stood up high above on the main wall battlements, and Roisin ordered Boris to attack. Boris threw his magic hammer, and struck that guard, causing them to fall into the bailey thanks to the staggering impact of the magical forces. The guard manged to survive the fall, but was left groaning and lying on the ground not far from Boris. Another guard appeared atop the outer walls, and shot at Boris, but missed both shots. Bastion flew up to the wall tops and warned the rest that there were more guards atop the walls. Another guard rushed out of the buildings down next to Jeeves. Roy teleported to the top of the tower above the gate, and ducked down to avoid getting hit. Two guards rushed down stairs and flanked Jeeves. Another guard shot a pair of crossbow bolts, but one missed and the other was deflected by Jeeves' intertial barrier. Guards shot at Bastion as well, but missed. Above the chapel a guard dumped the other cauldron of boiling oil on Roisin, chasing it with a torch to ignite the mess. Roisin also was kept from death by her magical protections, but lost many of her posessions, including her fine clothing. Guards again shot at Jeeves, but missed, then the Guard Captain noticed Roy and shot him with a trio of arrows, surged with energy and shot three more. The combination staggered Roy, but fortunately his immunity to poison prevented the five arrows that hit from killing him outright. More Guards shot at Boris, and hit twice. Jeeves used alchemical dust to conjure darkness around himself, which his healing hands enabled him to see through, then used an even more powerful alchemy to conjure a large cloud of corrosive fumes high on the battlements where it began to dissolve the guards hiding behind the crenelations, then finally moved to block the door out of the barracks. One of the injured rushed down some stairs to get out of the horrid cloud of acid, emerging on the ground. Roisin gathered herself, moved to gain some cover behind a well, and ordered Boris to attack. Boris rushed up to the guard who had fallen off the wall, struck with his magical hammer, and crushed the guard's skull, then rushed back to the well for some cover, threw his hammer again at another guard, but missed, and then brought his spiritual hammer out of the darkness surrounding Jeeves. The guard next to Bastion shook with fear as he tried to strike, but missed with his wild swings. Bastion then punched the frightened guard, battering him with powerful strikes, but failed to push him over the battlements and off the wall. A Guard next to Jeeves swung desperately at where he thought Jeeves might be, managing to hit once, then stepped out of the darkness emerging next to Roisin. Roy then drank a healing potion, moved behind some cover from the Guard Captain, and animated an array of 14 coins to begin harassing his enemy, 10 of which struck home. Guards continued to attack, becoming ever more desperate as the fight turned against them, striking Boris twice (once with a poisoned bolt), and also striking Jeeves once with a poisoned bolt and twice with swords. Jeeves stepped back, then used more alchemy to conjure a fire elemental which moved over the guards next to him and began to burn them alive, and used his skill to reinvigorate himself.
As we turn away for now, Roisin is about to act, the guards of this castle are beginning to seriously rethink their career choices, Roy is considering a misty step to the opposing tower where he can duck down to avoid the guard attacks, Jeeves is on fire until someone puts out the flames, and Bastion is about to push his enemy over the battlements of this high wall before flying down to take out the remaining guards on lower battlements.
