Chapter 4, Session 6: Battle, Blood and Bad-dads
General Summary
He was not a threat, he was incapacitated, but they have no control.The session opened with the battle royale officially starting as Amrys and Thordak jumped to action, notably each starting with small skirmishes and focusing on their preparation. Thordak was targeted by a human mage and a Tabaxi assassin known as 'Invisible Shadow' early on whom he dealt with with ease and irritation, beating the mage down and chasing off the tabaxi assassin to the mocking calls of Kodo before he surveyed the area once more. Meanwhile Amrys opened with a dazzling display of magical power as the sky opened to bring forth a myriad of ghostly figures (including Baralas and Gwydion) to surround Amrys as the ground became stretched, dark and covered in eyes and mouths before rising into a feywild mist reminiscent of The Thin Man this effect terrified a large quantity of individuals in the arena who immediately began to flee from Amrys, though Thordak was unaffected. At this point, the two Persicorum members REALLY entered the fray with Amrys targeting a competing group that were clearly working as a team to take down displacer beasts, Amrys engaged first by healing Thordak and then butchering the groups healer to rapturous applause from the crowd. In reponse to this, however, the group's leader, an assassin called Dirna, announced that they had further tricks to contend with meddling enemies and, with that, an Evocation mage appeared in the crowd and went to fire a spell at Amrys, however, before he could, Fen spotted him across the arena and counterspelled the mage. Uninterrupted now, Amrys and Thordak continued their fight as they engage the group known as 'Spinal-Column' whilst also each taking shots at the beholder signature monster in the centre of the arena. They both dispath the archer with ease and even (through Amrys being recognised as a temporary ally and Thordak being seen as an apex predator) manage to convince the displacer beasts to avoid them in the fight, soon after, the two of them were joined by an Orc who called Amrys his 'brother' and showed deep respect for his fighting skill and tenacity and, despite being slightly larger than Thordak, was shown to be more of a duelist fighter type than Amrys' barbarian ally. As they fought, the rest of Persicorum decided that they needed to deal with the mage in the stands before he could interfere any more. As a result, in a very short time, Kodo, Mimsi, Olympia and Fen all made their way to and cornered the mage, they stopped him from escaping but could not stop him from getting off another attack against Amrys, to which the paladin retorted by hellishly rebuking the mage and whipping the crowd into a frenzy with his gladiator like performance. The fight continued and soon enough Amrys and Thordak were facing off with the groups leader and her barbarian companion and they were clearly winning as the tide had turned, the barbarian was openly failing to leave so much as a scratch on Thordak whilst Amrys was easily beating back the assassin's assault, such was the strength of their teamwork, Thordak agreed to focus on these two enemies so that Amrys could begin his assault on the Beholder signature monster, seeing that it was injured already, at this point Amrys first hit the creature with Witch Bolt before revealing his Thin Man styled eye and blasting the Beholder with a strike of powerful black lightning (Guiding Bolt) that tore through and destroyed the creature. However, at this point, disaster struck as the rest of Persicorum continued to fight the mage, Kodo stunned and incapacitated the mage before laying him, humiliatingly, on the ground and requesting he receive aid, Mimsi then hit the mage to knock him out... then things spiralled out of control as Olympia used a dagger to remove two of the mages fingers in an attempt to make him suffer and claim a trophy for herself, as she did so, the mage did not wake up again as Fen used the Necromancy spell Chill Touch to tear the mages soul from his body, executing him in the middle of the arena and stunning nearby spectators into a terrified silence. Thordak, enraged as he was, did not see this take place, but the other competitors did and so the fight paused momentarily as their two enemies realised that they were related to the murderous band in the stands, in response, the assassin forfeited the fight by killing herself so she could go to aid her fallen friend but her barbarian ally continued their rage before being killed by Thordak. The orc supporting the pair looked to have lost his appetite for battle at this point and put his weapon away before congratulating Amrys and Thordak, and warning them to not visit the Spire of Knowledge the next day as 'something was going down' there and he didn't want to see them be affected by it. With that, as Persicorum fled the scene of their crime (with Kodo and Fen first handing over the body to the arena healers before leaving) the announcer introduced the 1v1 match between Amrys and Thordak. As Fne left, however, he noticed that Kodo would not look him in the eye and he also looked across to see that Erolith was seemingly speaking to an invisible space in the air, leading Fen to be confused about what he saw taking place. Thordak started the battle by rubbing numbing mist onto his weapon to stop Amrys from healing and ensuring each of them, both wounded and exhausted now, could fight on even terms. Thordak and Amrys began to exchange massive hits with one another with Thordak expressing a desire to 'pay Amrys back' for the shit he gave Thordak in The Feywild whilst Amrys desperately fought despite exhausting himself of his magical reserves. The fight ended with Thordak bringing Amrys down to unconsciousness and handing him over to the clerics to be healed which they succeed in doing before he died. Moments later, the announcer rewarded Amrys with the prize for the signature monster fight, a magical hand mirror, whilst he also gave Thordak the 1,000gp grand prize for winning the battle royale and the two, now on slightly friendlier terms in their rivalry, left the arena with Thordak carrying Amrys out on his back to rapturous applause. The two of them the stadium and found Magus Erolith Undergaige outside waiting for them with a look of deep sadness who, upon being asked by the pair of them what happened, told them that he had seen Fen execute another person with Necromancy magic. Erolith then asked them who 'changed' Fen. To which Amrys and Thordak did not claim responsibility and Erolith concluded it must have been 'that woman... she ruined my son.' He then told the two of them he would see them back at his home and that they should stay in his home for the night before perhaps moving on so that the party could still receive their meeting with the Oneiromancer . When Amrys insisted the party would only remain if it was convenient Erolith countered that the party had caused him nothing but inconvenience since they arrived, so one more night couldn't hurt. With that, Amrys and Thordak moved back towards Erolith's home, with Thordak looking at a variety of different jewellers on their way back and quietly deciding he would visit Moonmeadow Crystals as soon as he had the opportunity. The rest of Persicorum made their way back to Erolith's home at speed with Kodo refusing to speak to any of the others but allowing Mimsi to walk with him as he didn't see her as being at fault in the situation. Olympia, meanwhile, snuck off and removed the evidence of her crimes as well as disguising herself before going to Erolith's home and causing massive confusion with her appearance. Kodo had gone up to the roof to meditate to himself in an attempt to calm himself down, such was his rage at Fen and Olympia, whilst Mimsi tried to understand why Fen and Olympia did what they did. Fen revealed that he had no idea the man would die from his chill touch spell and that he lost concentration in that moment. Olympia didn't see how she was at fualt in the situation and revealed she wanted the man to suffer but agreed with Mimsi that they would work on her doing something less gruesome in the future... possibly branding... As Kodo and Amrys made their ways home they realised they were being trailed by a pair of people and so Amrys did his best to remain anonymous whilst Thordak instructed Mimsi to prepare to fight and then went out to speak with The Inquisitors, one was wearing a mask with a gem embedded in the forehead whilst the other was an amiable looking Inquisitor. When Thordak asked them what they were doing, they explained that they were a part of the team tasked with tracking Thordak's party as per the deal he made with Inquisitor Benicio and that they were very impressed with Thordak's performance in the battle royale, crediting him as 'fighting like a Moonbrook', Amrys soon joined the group and they further congratulated him before remarking that the Inquisitors would benefit from having warriors of their calibre. Upon looking more closely at them both, Thordak recognised the masked individual to be a tiefling with Grey tinted skin who was entirely silent during the exchange whilst the other individual had no mask and was a smiling Wood Elf. They each offered the pair of Inquisitor's a drink before they went back home. Upon stepping through the door, Mimsi punched Thordak out of pure instinct and fear before apologising profusely... a classic example of Persicorum communication skills... Thordak then left half of his winnings, 500gold on the table for the party to split up and share amongst themselves whilst he ordered an unseen servant to make a pot of tea and bring it to the roof so he could see Kodo. Upon reaching him, Thordak attempted to speak to the Firbolg who expressed their disgust with the immoral actions of the party and their stupidity in killing so senselessly, Thordak did his best to cheer Kodo up. Including asking the Firbolg to be the best man when he got married, Kodo responsed by saying he would be the best man and the chef at the wedding if Thordak wished and then saying he just needed time to meditate and find clarity before returning to the group. Meanwhile, downstairs Fen expressed that he would wait for his father to return home so that they could come to a conclusion of what to do next but he advised the rest of the party to rest for the night as many of them needed a rest. Before they went however, Amrys showed his prize from the Battle Royale to his allies and learned that it was a gazing mirror that originally belonged to The Menagerie a gazing mirror could be used to, once per day, learn the darkest secret of an individual that looks into it. Amrys expressed his unease at having such an item as he believed individuals should be free to keep their own secrets, though with much goading, he agreed to let Olympia stare into the mirror. Amrys then learned a secret that he refused to tell Olympia out of fear of upsetting her or the rest of the party, despite Olympia pestering him to tell her. After this point the party, with the exception of Fen, went for long rests, with Kodo remaining on the roof and Olympia sleeping with Mimsi for protection whilst Thordak was in his own room and Amrys likewise. As they slept, many members of the group dreamed. First was Mimsi who had a truly strange experience as she dreamed that she pulled a strange individual out of a two dimensional playing card after they begged her to help them. As Mimsi woke up with a start, she saw the same figure, now in Goblin form, standing over her bed and staring down, they proceeded to calmly tell Mimsi that she had nothing to worry about and that they would always watch over her now as she was their patron. Mimsi found them deeply off-putting but went back to sleep regardless upon learning the creatures name was Grendel , Thordak then had a dream of his body becoming lighter and lighter to the point that he was floating, unburdened by material possessions now. Little did he know that all of his non-magical items had disappeared, along with his battle royale winnings. Finally, Amrys had a dream in which a scythe wielding spectre was summoned from a circle of stones and announced 'Death Comes for Amrys Falanae'. Meanwhile, Fen, after having the unseen servants bring blankets up to Kodo, nervously waited for his father to return home. Eventually, after around an hour, Erolith returned looking tired and with a deep sadness in his eyes. He looked at Fen and declared that he had spoilt his son and clearly allowed him to leave home too early as it was to Erolith now that Fen could not be trusted and he needed to be fixed. With that, Erolith ushered in four Inquisitors and told Fen that they were going to take the wizard away to be 'fixed' an allusion to the mind control and memory modification that the Inquisitors make use of to force Aist Mages to forget all their illegal knowledge. He then announced that Olympia upstairs would no longer be allowed to poison the family AND that she was the one responsible for murdering the mage in the arena. Prompting the Inquisitors to take note of that and deal with it as Fen was left to face his father and the inquisitors with the rest of the party asleep.
- Kodo in a conversation with Thordak about both Fen and Olympia.
Rewards Granted
- Amrys came into possession of a Gazing Mirror from the Menagerie.
- Thordak won 1000gp for the battle royale that he promptly lost.
- Mimsi discovered the nature of the card she drew from the deck of many things which turned out to be the Knight card and gifted her the loyal character of Grendel.
Character(s) interacted with
- Erolith Undergaige: Fen's father was put THROUGH IT during this session as he watched Fen and the rest of Persicorum butcher a mage in the stands, he also contacted the Inquisitors to apprehend Fen and Olympia and he seems to have flipped in his view of Olympia, seeing her as the one that 'poisoned' Fen. It didn't take much for the boy to realised this is a DEEPLY out of character way for Erolith to be conducting himself.
- Spinal-Column: A party that were assisting one another in the arena before Amrys broke them up, they were all women apart from the mage whom they had stationed in the stand. They notably reacted VERY NEGATIVELY to the killing of their ally to the point that they forefeited the tournament and were later spotted by Amrys and Thordak consoling him.
- The Inquisitors in a variety of ways.
Created Content
The deck of many things has been modified via homebrew to be longer term to activate with SLIGHTLY different and less immediate effects to make it less game breaking.
Grendel should be a lvl 4 Goblin Fighter but is instead a lvl 4 warlock to reflect their link to their saviour.
The Gazing Mirror is a homebrew creation.
Report Date
10 Jul 2021
Primary Location
Comments