Duendewood: Kill the Keep

 We’re considering how best to kill the forces of Vecna now that we’ve broken off negotiations for today. We definitely want to kill Kaz Drachma and Cassadia Kristiana, and rescue High Elder Kieshara and Krony/Sascha. 

We start by entering Sascha/Krony’s room, which has a nice entryway and which is where we’re supposed to be staying. Also, Sascha has asked us to retrieve his equipment -- his old equipment. Martini searches a cabinet but finds nothing interesting. However, someone’s moving around on the far side of the door. Azrael surprises a servant, who’s apparently loyal to Krony/Sascha. Apparently he’s being punished for not dying when everyone else did in the portal-tent. Also, the servant thinks the higher-ups are really mad about Drachma’s hideout being blown up. 

Martini, meanwhile, is invisible and guiding Ruin around on the second floor of this little section of the keep. Ruin opens the door for her, and she uses this moment to get all the way up to the balcony of Drachma’s room. Drachma is not immediately visible, but there are various book cases and whatnot in the room. There are also harpies lurking about on the walls outside. 

She can also hear something scuffling around downstairs, probably something big. She goes to look down the stairs. 

Drachma is writing and doing stuff at his desk by the downstairs window. Two golems are shuffling around in the room inside. She moves away and starts searching the scroll shelves. They’re trapped. She attempts to disable the trap… and succeeds. She succeeds so well that she actually steals the Phantasmal Killer trap. She takes the four scrolls. 

She moves over to the next case, the one that’s piled in less classy-looking scrolls. She checks for traps again but finds nothing, and just pulls all 60 scrolls and dumps them in a bag. 

Finally, there’s a chest. It’s covered with some sort of goo. Not a trap, as such -- just goo, which you can’t disable. She leaves it alone and goes back out over the balcony, and hangs below it to observe Kaz Drachma through the lower window. He’s at his desk and his side is to her. She considers him, studies his movements, his patterns, his profile… and then she hits him with Death Attack, because he’s an assassin. Mirror Images immediately appear around him… but Drachma is dead and Martini is visible. 

One of the archers happens to turn around, and immediately starts fumbling for his horn to sound the alarm. She runs back along the walls and into our rooms. The guard sounds his horn, and a couple of the Thoughts of Vecna in the dining hall move to charge out the door. Geddy casts Mass Suggestion in an attempt to keep the higher-level bad guys in the hall. “Everybody grab a partner and start dancing!”

Cassadia Kristiana does not grab a dance partner. 

Martini bursts into the room: “I need a new dress!”

The servant emerges and says, “Master doesn’t have any dresses…” She gets the impression that he’s lying. 

Martini makes a quick change into something more appropriate while the servant starts plating our dinners. The servant’s name is Gorf. 

Martini dumps her entire bag of scrolls in front of Azrael. “I brought these for you, brother. Find something that will help us out."

Teleport, undeath to death, mislead, and demand. Those were the more important scrolls. The common ones include: disguise self, cure light wounds, reduce person, color spray, blindness/deafness x12 each. 

Four guys come into the party and start trying to convince people to check on Drachma. Geddy: “Hey, everybody! This guy needs a drink!” He uses his song to fascinate them while the rest of the group is gathering drinks for them, and tags the four of them and Cassadia Kristiana.

Up in Sascha’s room, we eat and then Martini tries to persuade Gorf to let her into Sascha/Krony's bedroom… Gorf thinks Martini is trying to seduce him. Gorf goes into the bedroom and then starts posing against the bedpost; Martini casts Sleep and he collapses on the bed, snoring. 

 

The room is well-kept. The bed is neatly made. Everything has been dusted. There’s a nightstand, a chest of drawers, and a chest at the end of the bed. Someone has forced the lock on the chest. Inside, there’s a few coppers, and a sepia-colored dress and a trident of magic missiles with no charges left. Martini adds the dress to her collection. 

The chest of drawers contains Vecna-uniforms, which we take. The nightstand has clearly been searched as well; there are a purple quill and inkwell, along with two notes that were originally written by someone named Leira. Martini also extracts a set of letters addressed to this Leira, thanking her for saving his soul and also cursing his own weakness and vowing to kill her. Martini shoves them back into his pocket. As she turns to leave, she spots a sack tucked beside the door. She checks that, and finds a sack of old armor decorated with Helios insignia. 

We snag the bag; Geddy, the only one who really knew Sascha back before he was possessed by Krony, is still performing in the meal hall (and effectively locking down the bulk of the troops), but Martini figures we can always sell the stuff later. 

The back storage room is locked. One side is storage; one side of it has been turned into a Vecna shrine, complete with flagellation whip and human bones on the altar. 

We go to check out the Goo Box in Kaz Drachma’s apartment. It’s covered in Sovereign Glue. Ruin uses a chair to touch the thing -- it sticks immediately-- and then uses the chair to shove it down the stairs. The chest begins to wail at air-raid siren levels and the golems rush for the stairs and promptly glue themselves to the chest. They start stumbling around and breaking things. 

We Dimension Door back to our room and rush out onto the balcony, trying to look as confused as everyone else. The wailing sound is incredibly loud, but Geddy just plays louder and keeps everyone in the meal hall. 

Martini turns us invisible and we move into the room with the golems, this time a bit more subtly. The two clay golems have gone berserk. Ruin dimension doors us into the desk end of the room, and we arrive in the middle of a blade barrier trap that has already been set off by rampaging golems. Azrael’s Mirror Image contingency goes off and the images are immediately annihilated by flying daggers. Ruin takes some damage before ducking under the desk, and Martini takes none. She attempts to disable the trap, and manages to claim it for her own. 

The golems have still not noticed us. Ruin snatches a pen off the top of the desk and throws it at the outer wall; the golems immediately attack the wall and are now standing on the edge, possibly about to fall off the side of the keep entirely. 

+5 Weapon oil x2

+5 armor oil x2

Acid Cold Electricity Fire and Sonic resist energy potions +30

2 potions flying

2 potions haste

2 potions of displacement. 

Martini checks the desk for traps. The drawer is locked; but not to Martini. She finds a figurine of wondrous power, serpentine owl; a scroll of protection from spells; and dust of disappearance; and a journal, which we also take. 

Azrael whispers to Geddy: “Time to go. Gonna Coudkill.” 

Geddy: “Where are you going to be?”

Azrael: “Front door.”

Martini positions herself beside one of the guards at the door, Ruin beside the other one. They cut them down and Azrael flings the door open -- whereupon Geddy hops on his Ebony Fly and zips off the stage, still playing his music as he goes. 

Azrael casts Cloudkill into the dining hall, and Geddy rides out as the cloud expands behind him. All the low-level wizards die immediately. We close the door behind Geddy, to keep the cloud inside.

Azrael then attempts to disintegrate Cassadia Kristiana, and doesn’t even leave dust behind. 

One of the wizards cast Mass Hold Person, but fails to connect with any of us. Geddy sends Eva to detach the cage and take it down to the boat. Geddy then casts Haste. Two of the Vecna troops rush out and Ruin and Azrael hit them with attacks of opportunity as they rush by. 

All the harpies finally swarm us, but Ruin is still invisible and cuts up one of the escaping Vecna-ites. Then the harpies start singing. 

Everyone is captivated except Azrael -- including the Vecna guards all around us. Azrael drops Quickened Greater Invisibility, and then follows it up with an Empowered Fireball on the Harpy swarm, wiping out half of them -- including the ones who actually have us entranced -- and badly injuring the others. Geddy begins a countersong. The remaining harpies stop singing and attack, scratching Geddy a bit. 

Azrael blows up some more of them, and Geddy continues his countersong. The harpies attack Geddy, swarming around him and doing a little bit of damage. Azrael drops a fireball on the swarm, damaging Geddy a bit and taking out more harpies. 

The spellcaster in front of Martini tries to cast, and she stabs him instead; she fails to kill him, but a dagger in the kidney is not the kind of thing one can ignore. Geddy casts Dominate Person on one of the harpies that are on their way in to attack us, and sets it against one of its companions. Ruin, on the other hand, gets a bit of harpy poo on his head and instead of attacking his opponent manages to hurl his sword into the door.

The two mages that are standing both cast Phantasmal Killer on Martini, but she’s Death Warded. (We all are.)

Azrael drops a Fireball around Martini, and kills off all three of the wizards that were attacking her. Martini casts Greater Invisibility on herself and slips past the two fighter-types towards the trapdoor where the elder is. Ruin retrieves his sword and attacks his opponent, and is attacked in turn. (He's still invisible, but the guy is good.) 

Azrael drops Black Tentacles on the two guards threatening his sister, and the tentacles grab them. Martini, meanwhile, unlocks the trap door a climbs up away from the tentacles; she's standing on the ceiling to avoid the tentacles. “You can’t see me, but I’m right here. My name is Martini Duentlethar.”

The elvish elder: “Really? Of House Duentlethar?” 

Ruin, meanwhile, cuts down the barbarian he’s been facing. The tentacles, meanwhile, are preventing the guards from moving; one of the guards breaks loose and tries to attack Martini (who’s invisible) and manages to connect with his sword, injuring her. Martini drops Freedom of Movement on the Elvish Elder, who flees through the tentacles; meanwhile; Geddy is taking out Harpies with Tasha’s Hideous Laughter and Azrael drops Obscuring Mist in the middle of the tentacles. 

Ruin Dimension Doors up to the wall and addresses the elder, then takes her by the arm. Azrael uses Empowered Magic Missile to take out the last Harpies, and Geddy swoops down and grabs Azrael, and heads off towards the boat on the Ebony Fly. Ruin Dimension Doors Martini and Elder Kieshara down to our ship as it’s fleeing from the docks. 

 

The treaties aren’t signed, but Ruin thinks the negotiations went rather well.