Session 67: Bluto's Guardpost
General Summary
As the ghouls continued to mob Lins, Trislee erected a fiery wall to protect her new friend. The flames failed to deter the ravenous undead at first, but after being badly burned, the creatures began to back off. They picked off two as they retreated, but the third escaped around the corner. The party heard a quick series of scuffling sounds, followed by a splat.
After investigating the room they were in and discovering a hidden ghoul-storage chamber which could serve as a secure resting site later, the two mages decided to continue. They climbed the stairs out of the flooded room, emptied the cloudy water from their boots, and peered into the next chamber.
A long passageway, with two ten-foot-wide pits at either end. The bottoms of the pits were full of rusty, razor-sharp spikes, which had been the end of the last ghoul. The floor between the entrances and the pits seemed normal, but the floor between had a silvery sheen.
Confident in her long jump, Lins gave herself a running start and leapt over the pit. She reached an impressive seventeen feet, but had no time to celebrate as her feet failed to get purchase on the floor. She was completely absorbed in trying not to fall prone as she slid at a frightening pace toward the opposite pit, but managed to collect her wits in time to speak the magical command of Misty Step, and transport herself across to the opposite doorway.
Seeing all this, Trislee decided there was no need to reinvent the wheel. As an Eladrin, her people also had the fey ability to fold space and step through it; she leapt the gap with little trouble, intending to cast her Fey Step as soon as she was within thirty feet of the exit.
But the distance passed quicker than the eladrin had accounted for, and it's hard to measure distance when you're sliding across a surface so smooth one couldn't even stand still without losing grip. She missed her timing and landed in the spike trap, where the rusty points cut her limbs.
Fortunately, she'd had her tetanus shots, and even more fortunately, both adventurers were equipped with ropes. Getting Trislee out of the spike pit was a simple affair, and they moved on into a hallway with a T intersection.
They decided to go north first, and found a peculiar chamber. A stream ran through the air, its bottom about two feet off the ground. Its current moved the water from west to east at a swift pace, and hemispherical channel moved through a six-by-six hole in the northeast corner. Along the wall on either side of the door they entered through were six two-man kayaks.
Hoisting Trislee in a kayak onto the surface of the stream was a simple matter; Lins positioned herself on the side of the vessel and raised it in a deadlift. The challenge was getting in afterwards.
The kayak took off like a shot as soon as it was placed in the water, and it took enormous effort for Lins to press herself parallel to the side of the vessel to avoid being flung against the wall as the kayak hurtled into the tunnel. Meanwhile, her weight was unbalancing it, and Trislee had little room to counterbalance. It took several minutes to heave Lins up into the vessel, and the effort capsized it, tumbling both heroes into the water and against the rough tunnel sides as it twisted and turned through the tunnel
They struggled to keep their heads above water and to stay together; Lins had some help from her Ring of Swimming and her athleticism, but Trislee inhaled half a lungful of water before they saw light ahead.
Trislee used her fey step to teleport to the first solid ground she saw, but Lins, more worried about being dropped off an abrupt end of the flow, had prepared no such movement. The four knights who were waiting on either side of the stream, warned by their runaway kayak, threw their nets over the war mage, and dragged her out, entangled in the ropes.
The fey magic of Trislee's landing charmed the nearest knight, but another fellow stood in the south corner, levelling a crossbow at him. He looked familiar, but the wizard had other problems. Quickly, she set up a massive illusion of swirling lights around the knights. They dropped their ropes and ceased restraining Lins, staring at the hypnotic patterns and smiling faintly.
These threats neutralized, Trislee faced the remaining enemy.
"Who are you, why do you look familiar?" she demanded.
"None of your business," the armoured man replied, levelling a heavy crossbow at her.
But Trislee didn't need his answer; now that she had time to look at him properly, she answered her own question. From between the ropes of her entanglement, through the cloud of charming magic, Lins knew his face as well. There were few living in the Greyhawk area who hadn't at least heard of him.
Sir Bluto Pike was once a renowned knight of the realm, but that wasn't why he became a household name. That happened when he ritually murdered eight noble children in the Greyhawk city gardens. He voluntarily confessed to the crime, utterly remorseless, and was taken into custody, but famously escaped the best security Greyhawk could offer, never to be seen again.
Until now.
Trislee had only a moment to act before the bolt would fire, and she used it to trap Bluto in a Forcecage before crawling under the floating stream (which continued through this room to a hole in the southern wall) to free Lins of the charm.
Together, they got Lins out of her entanglements and tied up three out of four of the remaining henchmen. Defeating the unbound one was quick thanks to a powerful blow from Lins' magical sword, and Trislee shut down the remaining three underneath a Dome of Force.
Unable to escape these magical restraints, the enemies pounded the walls, then slumped, then withered under the effects of a sustained sickening radiance.
As his life force drained and exhaustion shut down his muscles, Bluto began to bargain. Surely, he reasoned, there was benefit to letting him live; he knew a lot about the evil forces in this land, he could give them power beyond their imagining; whatever they wanted, a thousand times any bounty they could collect.
But Trislee was not to be swayed. "This is justice," she told him as she continued to smite him with radiant sickness, "For all the people you killed."
If what they wanted was justice, Bluto argued, surely they should turn him in to a court of law; surely he should be subject to the justice of Greyhawk. He noted that whatever she might think, Trislee was behaving the same way he would; back-alley murder in a cave.
That stung, but not enough to stop her cold. Still, Trislee wavered. "He might be right," she worried, "but I don't know how else to contain him."
Lins looked back from where she'd been inspecting the walls for secrets. She regarded the murderer coldly; word of his gruesome slaughter had reached even Diamond Lake, and were still the stuff of horror stories, even though his crimes occured ten years before the warmage was born. She moved to stand behind the wizard, carefully avoiding the spell's perimeter.
"His name doesn't need to be heard again." she said.
Within the Dome of Force, the knights fell, then stopped breathing. Bluto offered to submit to any magical bonds they cared to put on him; they could hobble him, bind him, anything but this!
Trislee closed her eyes and pushed forward. She heard a thud as the ex-knight's muscles gave out, his breathing ragged. Knots formed in Trislee's stomach; not much longer now.
Bluto turned his head to look at them; prone as he was, the effort was enormous. His eyes were reddened and swollen from the cloud of sickening magic. "Don't do this" he gasped. Then he choked, spasmed, and became still.
Trislee fell to her knees, shaking. She dismissed the radiance, the walls, the cage, everything. The room was quiet except for the rushing of water.
Rewards Granted
- Mysteriously-clean/good-condition boots (from Bluto)
Report Date
13 Feb 2023
Primary Location
Related Plots