Fanaxia: Surgical Spell Strike

 Some background:

Fenrir and Millicent Wallington have eight kids

2 younger: roger & Gloriana

Older ones include Oliver, the rowdy Clifton, Fendril the fourteen-year-old with delusions of adulthood, Elizabeth the goth (whom we set up with the son of the other baron) Alice and Juliana the flirts.

Boris was one of the barons, Ginger his wife, and his son who’s a bit stupid: Amaroc.

Bishop Draughan, the other Baron, has adopted kids, Lucien being the most senior and also a priest in his father’s church.

Their army is strong in part because it has a lot of werewolves, both regular and the really huge and powerful ones. 

We recon the house in the morning covered by Invisibility and Pass Without Trace. There’s one human guard and three wolves patrolling the yard – clearly werewolves – and a pair of dire wolves in front of one of the doors. Ruin and Martini begin their approach while Azrael floats overhead. Azrael casts Detect Magic and starts scanning the house. There are several magic items in the family wing, and some in a room we haven’t been in on the far side. There are also probably six people in the conference room, which is probably why they have Dire Wolves guarding the door. 

Azrael keeps his attention on the family wing, sorting the different magical auras and their powers. There are multiple moderate magical auras, some of them apparently on a person. 

Martini and Ruin continue their approach. They’re now close enough to hear some talking from the conference room. Fenrir: “Come now! We must strike now, while the Queen is undefended.”

Amaroc shouts his support. 

A younger man’s voice says, “Father, will all due respect those pests can teleport around this island. They’ll be back in a moment if we attack.”

Another voice: “Richlieu still wishes to turn them to his side against the demons.”

Azrael continues detecting. 

Fenrir: “Oliver, patience is wise, but I fear this war is progressing too quickly for our patience to pay off. The army of Styre has declared for the queen, and she has offered a marriage pact for the Duke of Styre. 

Side conversation: “What are these demons, Lucien?” 

Lucien: “They are the scourge of Castle Fanax, and beyond Richlieu’s power to overcome. That is why he wants their help.” 

We wait for a few minutes. There are six people in there: Fenrir, Fendril (who’s being pretty quiet), Oliver, Clifton, Lucien Draughan (the priest) and Boris’ son Amaroc. Draughan and Boris do not appear to be in the room. They’re also still kind of piss about us leaving the traps in the basement. Fenrir mentions that they have their army in place and can move immediately; it sounds like Draughan and Boris are with them. They’re concerned about what we’ve done to unite the north, and feel like they need to take back the advantage.

Azrael, meanwhile, continues gathering information. 

We meet back and trade information, and then teleport into the room under the effects of Death Ward and Greater Invisibility. Fenrir looks up as we arrive, but Oliver puts a hand on his arm and calls his attention back to the discussion. 

Fenrir finally holds up a hand: “Did you all hear that?” They all start sniffing the air. “Fan out! Search the room!” 

Azrael drops Black Tentacles on the room. We, of course, are protected by Freedom of Movement. The tentacles spring out and begin grabbing people: everyone except for Amaroc is grappled. Ruin moves over and attacks Lucien, raging as he goes; Lucien is grappled by a tentacle and takes the hit. Oliver and Clifton immediately burst into their giant werewolf forms in an attempt to break out of their tentacles. They also start screaming for help. The other follow suit. 

Leira moves up and attempts to assassinate Fenrir; she doesn’t kill him outright, but she does a huge amount of damage. The tentacles continue squeezing, but in their larger forms they’re considerably more resilient and only Oliver and Fendril take damage. 

Azrael backs into the corner and casts Horrid Wilting. Fenrir, Amaroc, and Lucien shrug off the worst of it, but the other three – Fenrir’s kids – take full damage. Oliver and Clifton try to break free, but fail. The two guards outside throw the door open, then stand there and gape. Martini takes Fenrir down and changes locations. 

Fendril tries to break out and fails. Lucien heals himself, managing to grind the spell out despite being held by the tentacles. Amaroc, not seeing any obvious targets, rages and smashes through the table, attacking where he thinks the person attacking Lucien (Ruin) might be. He takes a mighty swing and misses. The tentacles actually do some damage. 

Azrael fires off an empowered Enervation at Amaroc, and Ruin attacks Lucien again, damaging him badly. 

Clifton finally manages to escape from his tentacle. 

The two guards at the door rage and try to attack into the space where Ruin is standing. One of them hits him, hard, in wolf form. More guards are moving towards the door, but there are tentacles everywhere. 

Martini leaves Fenrir to be torn apart by the tentacles, and attacks Clifton. He dies. Lucien manages to cast Invisibility Purge, and we’re all visible again. This is exactly what Ruin has been worrying about; Amaroc sees him, grins, and attacks as powerfully as he can… and misses completely. 

Azrael attempts to disintegrate Amaroc, who unfortunately manages to avoid the full effect; Ruin moves slightly and then cuts down Lucien in a massive series of attacks. The Invisibility Purge ends, and we’re invisible again. Oliver tries to break out of his tentacle again, and again fails. Martini moves over and finishes off Oliver. Fendril charges towards where he thinks Ruin is. But misses because Ruin is invisible. Amaroc tries the same, attacking more carefully. Two of them miss because Ruin is invisible, but one hits. He’s still on his feet, though. 

The tentacles grab for Amaroc and Fendril, but fail to grapple them; Fenrir takes more damage. Azrael moves up and drops an empowered Fireball on the guards outside the door, killing a couple and wounding the others. He follows it up with a quickened Fireball.

Ruin finishes Fendril and then moves, getting away from where Amaroc thinks he is. Martini moves up behind Amaroc and murders him with her magic super-dagger. Fenrir Wallington isn’t quite dead, so… we stabilize him and then begin stuffing bodies in bags while Azrael drops Incendiary Cloud in the courtyard, where the guards are pawing at the door. At least one of them dies in the fire, and the others are scorched. We continue stuffing bodies in Bags of Holding, and Azrael drops a quickened Fireball out the door, adding to the damage. 

The werewolf guards decide that they aren’t going to hang around for this, and stagger out of the fire. While we’re doing this, Martini notices a secret door, and doesn’t hear anything behind it; she opens it and slips through. Azrael: “Farta, what are you doing? We’re about to go, Farta.”

Ruin looks up and sees that Farta is gone; he follows, since the door is blocked with Incendiary Cloud. 

Azrael looks at the Incendiary Cloud and sees it go away. There’s a hybrid werewolf outside, a woman. 

Martini and Ruin step back out and Azrael teleports us straight to the Queen’s throne room. 

Queen: “Is that–? My goodness! Are those Lucien and Amaroc? But they’re dead… too bad. If we had a hostage from each of the families…”

Azrael: “Surely that can be arranged. Or we could hold them Repose, and promise to disintegrate one of them for every day the war continues.”