Session 63: The Green Grace Report

General Summary

The party's rest was rudely interrupted as someone, or something, stepped out of the tree nearby, and blasted their minds, leaving them all unconscious. They awoke in a stone room, some time later, and noted that their most powerful magics were missing. Roisin Marshfield's Scarf, Boris' Hammer, Jeeves ' Gloves, Cigfran 's Crossbow, even Roy 's Ring. They wondered what had happened, when the door opened, and they were ushered out into a hallway, and handed their powerful items as they stepped out. They saw nobody, however, only heard the voices. Stepping into a small sand arena, they were joined momentarily by four faceless beings in dark tattered cloaks, and two enormous spider creatures with two shortened legs that ended in claws capable of holding and manipulating objects. The arena was barely big enough for all of them to fit, as the spider creatures were fully 8 feet tall and required the space of two horses just to stand without squeezing. One of the faceless creatures a double-hand sized spider crawled out of the cloak, covered where the face should be, and formed a face that spoke. "Welcome to the arena, we haven't...eaten...in a while". After speaking, the spider reformed, and crawled into a mouth on the creature, dragging the face along with it, leaving the creature faceless once again. Battle ensued as one of the faceless stared at Roy , tearing into his mind, though he managed to avoid having his memories torn away, then clawed Cigfran , but missed. One of the spiders stepped forward and swung at Boris, missing, and Cigfran , also missing, then spit venom at Roisin Marshfield and missed that too. Roy examined the magical field enclosing the arena, and concluded it likely prevented teleportation, then consumed a magical herb. Cigfran fired his crossbow at the creature in front of him, aiming carefully to strike at a vital point; seriously injuring it. Cigfran suffered a psychic backlash, however, which set him on his heels. The other spider cast a spell, but Roy successfully countered it. The first spider spit in Roy 's face in reaction, poisoning him severely, temporarily blinding him, and nearly killing him. Jeeves took a green pill, and promptly grew green scales. One of the faceless stared at Jeeves , tearing at his mind, but failing to steal his memories, then clawed him tearing at flesh and mind both. Roisin Marshfield spoke an encouraging word to rally Jeeves and Roy , then ordered Boris to attack; Boris struck the spider with his hammer, and avoided the counter strike in reaction. Jeeves joined in by stabbing the faceless next to him, but suffered a psychic backlash that staggered him. Boris conjured an aura of purity with a few words of divine power to protect his friends from poison. Another faceless attacked Jeeves , but did only limited damage to his mind. The final faceless stared at Cigfran , draining away some of his memories in an immensely painful process, then accidentally clawed the upper spider before clawing Cigfran as well. The first faceless stared at Cigfran again, tearing his mind but failing to take his memories, then clawed him as well. The lower spider cast a spell to befuddle the mind, though only Roisin Marshfield succumbed and became thoroughly confused. Roy 's vision cleared thanks to a divine boon, and he conjured a starfall, striking all the faceless and the lower spider. One of the faceless burned to ash, the other three were blinded and knocked to the ground. Roy followed up with a pair of bolts of force, killing another faceless and severely injuring another. In reaction the lower spider spit in Roy 's face again; Roy survived and retained his sight only thanks to Boris' magic. Cigfran took aim and fired a bolt at the lower spider, striking in its abdomen, and also discovered its blood was caustic and toxic, but thanks to Boris' magic the harm was limited. The upper spider conjured a mass of dark webbing to fill the space. Jeeves quickly recovered Roy 's humour balance; then used Mystic Unity to coat two of Cigfran 's bolts with glowing herbal gel. One of the remaining faceless stood up and tried to claw Jeeves , succeeding once. Roisin Marshfield stood stupefied, unable to overcome her confusion. Boris used a magical herb to heal Cigfran at the cost of his own vitality, then conjured a spiritual weapon to strike the first faceless. That faceless then stared at Cigfran , again tearing away one of his cherished memories. The upper spider spit at Roy again, hitting directly in his eyes, but Boris' magic again prevented the worst of the injury. Roy delivered a pair of bolts of force to the two faceless, then tried to lock the spider in momentary stasis, but failed. Cigfran loaded the gel covered ammunition, fired at the lower spider, and delivered a terrific blow. The upper spider in a feat representing one in eight thousand, struck Roisin Marshfield with staff and spit repeatedly and critically; but Roy conjured a shift in the timeline, preventing one of the more critical impacts, but the combination of blows still would have killed the young princess outright but for a divine boon as the spider prepared to consume the body. Jeeves again used Mystic Unity to consume a powerful healing potion to heal Roisin Marshfield, and then patched Roy 's wounds. The faceless attacked Jeeves , ripping away some of his cherished memories, then clawing him viciously. Jeeves almost fell, but Roisin Marshfield cried out enabling her friend to remain in the battle. The creature then stepped up to Roisin Marshfield, and she saw her own face in the creature's visage. Roisin Marshfield ordered Boris to attack, but Boris' strike was deflected by the lower spider. Cigfran joined in, and thanks to the herbal gel on his bolt, struck once again with immense impact, nearly killing the horror. Boris conjured his cloud of spectral gavels which destroyed all the dark webs, killed both remaining faceless and the lower spider, and angered the upper spider. The lower spider, in a final act of ancient hatred, spit in Cigfran 's face, blinding him temporarily and wounding him. Roy conjured an orb of acid that struck the remaining spider directly in the eyes, but it shrugged off the acid, apparently immune. Cigfran fired blind, and still hit. The spider, after failing to dodge Boris' gleaming gavels, conjured a powerful spell to tear at the mind, and drove both Boris and Roy insane. Jeeves stepped across, bound Cigfran 's wounds, then conjured a longbow from his finger tattoos. Roisin Marshfield ordered Cigfran to attack, but he missed, then stepped back while dodging another spit of poison. Cigfran took careful aim and shot the spider in the head, and that spider also spit in Cigfran 's face in a final act of ancient hatred. After a full minute of insane screams and babbles, Boris and Roy finally recovered, although the Spider bodies were completely burned to ash in the interim.

Roisin Marshfield began to hallucinate, seeing all her friends without faces. She also heard another communication from Zcorthrin , even as her hands transformed into spiders that began to eat their way up her arms. Another spider crawled up her chest, into her mouth, and down her throat, dragging her face in with it; leaving her faceless. Roisin Marshfield also found herself staring at a vision of utter horror staring her elder siblings engaged in horrific acts, and now could not close her eyes or turn away. Even as she observed acts of unspeakable evil, Jeeves and Boris acted quickly to chop off her spider hands before they could consume Roisin Marshfield, unfortunately the shock left her unsconscious, until Cigfran brought her back around with a bit of healing magic. Waking up Roisin Marshfield found she was still seeing the horrific visions, even as a twisted floating tentacled horror began to approach from the south. The group fled, although Jeeves had to carry Boris as a beam of energy from the creature stunned the halfling. Roy conjured a massive stone wall to block the way, even as Boris recovered and Jeeves put him back down. Rushing away, the group soon found their way out of the underground complex, exiting the tree they had rested by however long before, and finding it was early evening. As they exited, they encountered an Illithid waiting for them. Cigfran called upon divine boons to destroy the creature's armor, then fired a flurry of bolts that peppered its abberrant flesh. The Illithid stepped back, and blasted their minds, then stepped up to Roisin Marshfield, its tentacles wrapped around her head, and its inner toothy maw ground open her skull, and extracted her brain, before it stepped back while swallowing its meal. Roy blasted a hole in its skull in retaliation, and the street was quiet once again. Jeeves stepped up to Roisin Marshfield's corpse, but it transformed into a swarm of spiders that attacked Jeeves . Jeeves magically electrocuted the swarm and the spiders fell away, fried. Jeeves , confused about such things, tried to gather up the dead spiders, thinking he would need them to bring Roisin Marshfield back. Roisin Marshfield woke from a nightmare across the street, and walked up asking why Jeeves was trying to gather dead spiders. After some short discussion, the group asked a bystander where the inns might be, and traveled South to the Gorge Over Louk Inn. Asking for a room and meals, Roisin Marshfield handed over a bag of 100 platinum crowns for the night in the Starlight Suite. Cigfran noticed a familiar figure, the leader of his former Clan, eating at the bar, pulled out his crossbow, took careful aim, and fired, striking the man with a solid blow. Instantly, an array of individuals turned and fired back, knocking Cigfran unconscious. Jeeves revived the rogue, and the man Cigfran shot walked over and said he and Cigfran should have a talk. Cigfran asked if the Puppetmaster was still in control, and the man shrugged; at exactly the same time everyone else in the inn shrugged as well. The man said "you're not in the clan anymore, you remember the rules?". Cigfran answered "No one leaves the clan alive, I remember". The man said "Do you want to come with us, Cigfran , or do we kill your friends with you?". Cigfran went with them a short walk, the rough looking men in the common room went with them, and while most of them picked up Cigfran and threw him over the edge of the gorge, two others stepped to the side and blasted him with Lightning as he fell. The Inn, in apology, gave them their room on the house for the night. The other patrons of the tavern room turned back to their meals; almost seeming to have immediately forgotten what just transpired. Walking upstairs, the group found the starlight suite well prepared, and dealing with their grief, each in their own way, they eventually found sleep.