Chapter 3 Session 4: Mages, Martyrs and Madness
General Summary
The session started with the party facing 3 Aist Mages wearing Freyfrost robes and black Sinmetal breastplates as they raised several undead and demons.
The battle proved to be a bloody and tough affair but Persicorum emerged victorious. Amrys proved to the party that he is a very capable paladin as he drew on his abilities to turn the undead away from him and smite the life from those in the area, he notably also made use of his paladin dread aspect, by speaking a prayer to a list of names, including Gwydion and Baralas, moments later the spectres of these allies were summoned forth to protect Amrys and the rest of Persicorum. Mimsi also proved that she now had some power over her cursed dagger and, as her eyes became filled with dark shadow, she managed to curse some of the enemies and attacked them in a feral manner... less like her usual style and more like a primal creature... like a stereotypical goblin. Meanwhile, Fen proved this first fight to be a good audition as he displayed his power over destruction magic with several fireball spells and a well timed counterspell.
Afterwards, Olympia found a letter on one of the mages from a signature she did not recognise. The letter stated that these mages were exiles of Freyfrost and could only return if they brought back something to support the war effort for the city, as decreed by Queen Frey. After that the party picked up some loot with Mimsi, Thordak and Olympia helming the search. As they searched, Kodo, Amrys and Fen headed to the shopping district to see if the final Aist mage had been dealt with, as they rounded the corner they noticed that Eb, Mary and Sue were at one side of the battle next to the summoned wights and dogs whilst Ellena Swarov slammed her Spell Slasher Blades into the wounded Aist Mage as he crawled away, killing him. Ellena acted brazenly in front of the party after the fight, expressing that this was the reason she hunted mages... to stop them reaching Edmonton and causing harm there. She again reiterated her desire for the party's assistance in hunting mages. As she stood and moved back to the mage slayers garb, Amrys and Kodo noticed that despite her talk and confident demeanour, she was nursing a wound but when she was offered aid she refused... too proud to admit she needed help. As Ellena left, the party acknowledged that, regardless of her morals or murderous intent she's still cool as fuck. At that point, Eb revealed himself to be of a thespian mindset as he dramatically overplayed his two shallow injuries, which Kodo bandaged and Amrys pretended to heal with lay on hands. Mary and Sue invited Persicorum to join them for drinks after... free of charge. Meanwhile, the investigation team found a few different things despite struggling with their investigation for the most part including some ring staves that the mages were wielding to cast spells. Blackwood quarterstaffs with iron rivets and with five rings hanging off of the shaft of the wood. Olympia, along with the letter, also recovered a charred and heavily damaged spellbook with a couple of spells within (noted below). The party got back together to go through their loot and findings, at which point Thordak investigated his Ring Staff and found it to be magical and glowing the more he used kinetic movements for it, however, he then decided he'd rather keep the rings and so he snapped the staff over his knee (taking 12 lightning damage in the process) and gave one of the rings to Olympia to act as a friendship bracelet. Olympia then decided to try and do the same thing, not succeeding in fully breaking her staff and so she took more damage from the impact, knocking her unconscious and forcing Amrys to use lay on hands to fill her with life. The party moved on then and spent the rest of the night in The Frosted Tankard after Lyren Killian thanked Kodo for his help again and said he thinks Amrys and Fen would make great additions if they'd be interested in joining the expedition. The next day, the party decided to use their first day of downtime to train and prepare for the expedition. Mimsi paid Bazzle Strum-Strum a visit with Olympia. Olympia purchased a spellbook Bazzle scavenged from the battle that Mimsi and Thordak didn't notice so that she had a spellbook to record her spells and gained a few more scrolls to use. After that, Mimsi sat down with Bazzle and talked with him about how she felt during the fight the night before. She fought like an animal and was truly worried that she, deep down, was nothing more than a savage goblin. Bazzle told her that she was much more than that and that he fully liked and believed in her, he also advised that she remember that she isn't doing this because she wants to kill and harm others, she's doing it to protect her friends. After that, Bazzle asked Mimsi about her psi abilities and revealed he could do the same thing, they manifested around 20-30 days ago for him and gave him the ability to cast magic and make his grinner deals with others. He isn't able to use it the way that Mimsi does but the fact they both have it can't be a coincidence, this led Mimsi to wonder out loud if they were simply an example of goblins evolving to climb higher in the food chain and 'be more'. Though Bazzle wasn;t convinced. Bazzle then told Mimsi about The Asker, an entity that lives in the The Cave of Longing and answers the questions people ask it. Bazzle believed it was the reason Freyfrost haven't invaded Edmonton yet, the Asker is also responsible for the ring of ancestor's... the ring that protects the town at night. Mimsi expressed her interest but Bazzle revealed he did not go as there are rumours that the asker 'takes something' in return, oftentime people do not emerge from the cave and the Asker has a habit of being far too simple in their answers, or far too complex. After their talk, Mimsi decided to spend the day getting wasted with Bazzle who, for his part, was either too shy or a gentleman but did not romantically make a move on Mimsi. They were soon joined by Fen who borrowed a book on Masked Magic that Bazzle had, on the condition that Fen tell no one that he borrowed the book from Bazzle. The Silken CoatNikolaus Wovenrambunctious The Mammoth Peaksmaneuverable material known as 'Gore-Tex'. As he took their orders, and agreed to personalise them, Olympia walked in to the shop and completed a series of actions I can't quite explain in prose structure. So we are going to go meta here and list off what she did in bullet point form:
Afterwards, Olympia found a letter on one of the mages from a signature she did not recognise. The letter stated that these mages were exiles of Freyfrost and could only return if they brought back something to support the war effort for the city, as decreed by Queen Frey. After that the party picked up some loot with Mimsi, Thordak and Olympia helming the search. As they searched, Kodo, Amrys and Fen headed to the shopping district to see if the final Aist mage had been dealt with, as they rounded the corner they noticed that Eb, Mary and Sue were at one side of the battle next to the summoned wights and dogs whilst Ellena Swarov slammed her Spell Slasher Blades into the wounded Aist Mage as he crawled away, killing him. Ellena acted brazenly in front of the party after the fight, expressing that this was the reason she hunted mages... to stop them reaching Edmonton and causing harm there. She again reiterated her desire for the party's assistance in hunting mages. As she stood and moved back to the mage slayers garb, Amrys and Kodo noticed that despite her talk and confident demeanour, she was nursing a wound but when she was offered aid she refused... too proud to admit she needed help. As Ellena left, the party acknowledged that, regardless of her morals or murderous intent she's still cool as fuck. At that point, Eb revealed himself to be of a thespian mindset as he dramatically overplayed his two shallow injuries, which Kodo bandaged and Amrys pretended to heal with lay on hands. Mary and Sue invited Persicorum to join them for drinks after... free of charge. Meanwhile, the investigation team found a few different things despite struggling with their investigation for the most part including some ring staves that the mages were wielding to cast spells. Blackwood quarterstaffs with iron rivets and with five rings hanging off of the shaft of the wood. Olympia, along with the letter, also recovered a charred and heavily damaged spellbook with a couple of spells within (noted below). The party got back together to go through their loot and findings, at which point Thordak investigated his Ring Staff and found it to be magical and glowing the more he used kinetic movements for it, however, he then decided he'd rather keep the rings and so he snapped the staff over his knee (taking 12 lightning damage in the process) and gave one of the rings to Olympia to act as a friendship bracelet. Olympia then decided to try and do the same thing, not succeeding in fully breaking her staff and so she took more damage from the impact, knocking her unconscious and forcing Amrys to use lay on hands to fill her with life. The party moved on then and spent the rest of the night in The Frosted Tankard after Lyren Killian thanked Kodo for his help again and said he thinks Amrys and Fen would make great additions if they'd be interested in joining the expedition. The next day, the party decided to use their first day of downtime to train and prepare for the expedition. Mimsi paid Bazzle Strum-Strum a visit with Olympia. Olympia purchased a spellbook Bazzle scavenged from the battle that Mimsi and Thordak didn't notice so that she had a spellbook to record her spells and gained a few more scrolls to use. After that, Mimsi sat down with Bazzle and talked with him about how she felt during the fight the night before. She fought like an animal and was truly worried that she, deep down, was nothing more than a savage goblin. Bazzle told her that she was much more than that and that he fully liked and believed in her, he also advised that she remember that she isn't doing this because she wants to kill and harm others, she's doing it to protect her friends. After that, Bazzle asked Mimsi about her psi abilities and revealed he could do the same thing, they manifested around 20-30 days ago for him and gave him the ability to cast magic and make his grinner deals with others. He isn't able to use it the way that Mimsi does but the fact they both have it can't be a coincidence, this led Mimsi to wonder out loud if they were simply an example of goblins evolving to climb higher in the food chain and 'be more'. Though Bazzle wasn;t convinced. Bazzle then told Mimsi about The Asker, an entity that lives in the The Cave of Longing and answers the questions people ask it. Bazzle believed it was the reason Freyfrost haven't invaded Edmonton yet, the Asker is also responsible for the ring of ancestor's... the ring that protects the town at night. Mimsi expressed her interest but Bazzle revealed he did not go as there are rumours that the asker 'takes something' in return, oftentime people do not emerge from the cave and the Asker has a habit of being far too simple in their answers, or far too complex. After their talk, Mimsi decided to spend the day getting wasted with Bazzle who, for his part, was either too shy or a gentleman but did not romantically make a move on Mimsi. They were soon joined by Fen who borrowed a book on Masked Magic that Bazzle had, on the condition that Fen tell no one that he borrowed the book from Bazzle. The Silken CoatNikolaus Wovenrambunctious The Mammoth Peaksmaneuverable material known as 'Gore-Tex'. As he took their orders, and agreed to personalise them, Olympia walked in to the shop and completed a series of actions I can't quite explain in prose structure. So we are going to go meta here and list off what she did in bullet point form:
- Nikolaus then explained to Kodo, Amrys and Thordak that Djeela is a former 'Blade of Freyfrost' a barbarian warrior who took the fight to The Elected Crown of Alturis. but who had been trying to be calmer and kinder... a better mother.
- As he said this, Djeela flew into a rage and chased Olympia out of the Silken Coat. With Olympia turning invisible in the hopes she could escape.
- Olympia then ducked into an alleyway and used disguise self to go back into the Silken Coat with a Franco-Russian High Elf disguise where she proceeded to buy a long dark blue ankle length coat from the store as Nikolaus recommend she join another local expedition as they seemed like solid peeps. He explained that he would need 1 or 2 days to complete the order but that the party can pick it up then.
Rewards Granted
- 3 Ring Staves: Only one of them remain now which Mimsi is keeping in the bag of holding. The other two were broken by Olympia and Thordak respectively.
- 10 Bronze and copper rings: taken from the two broken ring staves, Thordak has four whilst Olympia has 5 (and one on her wrist)
- 50gp which Olympia found on one of the Aist mages and pocketed.
- Two spellbooks, both taken by Olympia, these spellbooks included the spells: Dimension door, animate dead, Summon Greater Demon, Hellish Rebuke and Hold Monster.
- A letter of banishment found on the body of the lead aist mage.
- A red leatherbound tome on Masked Magicka's origins, dangers and famous mask makers. Bazzle gave this to Fen as a gift and as a way to extend his friendship to the rest of Persicorum.
Missions/Quests Completed
- Protecting Edmonton from the Aist Mage assault
- Prepare for the trek to the Mammoth Peaks by purchasing Winter gear (mostly completed)
Character(s) interacted with
- Ellena Swarov : Ellena killed the remaining Aist Mage and seemed both brazen, younger and more at peace in combat. Though, despite her bravado and seeming confidence, she limped away with several bleeding wounds. As she left the party she extended her offer to hunt with her if they were interested. As she expressed her contempt of Aist Mages, Kodo asked if she knew who they could be referring to as the 'Mask Maker' and she explained there weren't many Mask Makers but they often did it wrong which left with physical and emotional scars. She was concerned that they were referring to The Spectre. She expressed that she hoped it wasn't a member of Persicorum who was responsible for this as she didn't want to kill such nice people.
- Lyren Killian : Lyren supported the party in the fight against the mages as it became clear that he was the 'Mask Maker' they were referring to fairly quickly. He refused to get into the main fight as he still did not have a mask and so couldn't hide his scent at all. The party commanded him from the sidelines, notably making him haste them, harm the enemy and use life transference on one of them. Leaving him bleeding from a self-inflicted wound on his body. He explained that he was going to continue to lie low as he didn't want to run the risk of being noticed using Aist magic with Ellena Swarov in the area. He also expressed his happiness with Amrys and Fen as potential allies.
- Nikolaus Woven : The owner of the Silken Coat, Nikolaus was a fairly serious tailor and cold weather preparer who was passionate about his trade whilst his wife did the actual sewing, embroidery and design. He got along with Persicorum for the most part and especially seemed to take a liking to Thordak for the Half-Orcs fashion choices. He also seemed to half know Amrys from their time in the town and they seemed to get along. Olympia however... well... refer to the bullet points.
- Eb, Mary and Sue : Eb, Mary and Sue assisted Ellena with dealing with the aist mage and their summoned minions and, whilst they seemed to be capable fighters and warriors, they all seemed rather roguish and notably, Eb was the only injured one of the group... a fact he insisted on reminding everyone of as he had two shallow flesh wounds that he treated like mortal injuries.
- Bazzle Strum-Strum : Bazzle notably watched the party fight and scavenged from the battlefield after but did not assist them. The next day he explained to Mimsi that he wasn't a capable fighter and so would have possibly caused more harm than good. Mimsi visited Bazzle to confide in him, he reminded Mimsi that he liked her and thought she was a good person and a good goblin. He also told her about the Asker, their shared psionic abilities and the fact he was planning on moving on soon as The Grinners never stayed in one place for long. But he promised he would see her again as fate has a way of keeping people together. He also invited Fen to drink with them and read, giving Fen a large, personalised and heavy tome that commented on the origins and methods of Masked Magicka. He also notably sold Olympia the spellbook he scavenged with the additional spells inside, though he did make a grinner deal with her, holding her to the fact that she said she would not implicate Bazzle if she got in trouble for those spells.
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