EvilParty: So much for subtlety...

 

So last episode we wiped out about half of the local Solari by luring them down to Durest’s newly-implemented nest of ghouls and then, well, murdering them to death. There are three Solari remaining here in Garamond: Muriel the Druid, Samson the Ogre, and Maximilian the spymaster (rogue). There is also our one-armed prisoner Wolf, who was just sure he was being rescued until we came back in.

Chuck dominates him and he tells us about a safehouse that belongs to Maximilian. We decide to turn everybody invisible (including the undead) and go there. The guards outside the place notice when Bob drops the animated severed arm, and sound the alarm. The ghouls swarm them, but it’s too late. Wolf opens the door for them, and promptly gets a chest full of arrows.

This appears to be a low-level thieves’ den, and we move in and annihilate them.

Chuck drains Wolf’s corpse, and we give the other corpses to the ghouls. Durest heals Bob and Jenny, and then Durest and Jenny go to sleep.

About two hours in, Chuck hears some scratching at the window. He peeks out the window and scares off a smallish child. Jenny takes second watch, and about two hours in she starts coughing because the air in the room has gone bad. She wakes up Durest, and we manage to avoid being affected by the smoke. Durest yanks on the tube, and someone smacks their face against the window. Jenny yanks on it, and rips it out of the bag, which causes the nasty smoke to fill the whole alley outside.

Durest settles back to pray for new spells. Then he settles in to take watch, and notices someone trying to slide another tube in the hole in the window. Irritated, Durest uses Stone Shape to close the window around the hand; then he instructs the ghouls to take turns touching the hand and paralyzing the person outside.

A couple of hours later, Jenny wakes back up. She finds some warm water and puts the hand in it, thus causing him to pee himself. It’s about three hours until sundown, but nobody bothers us. Once Chuck is up and about again, Durest strolls outside to look at the person who got their hand caught.

We head out into the streets, undead following behind us. Jenny’s idly swinging her chain around. Chuck sees a couple of kids towards the back of the crowd ducking away, and pegs them with a Magic Missile. Five kids die; one kid escapes into the crowd. The crowd is parting around us anyway. Now they’re backing away and a few are panicking over the fallen urchins.

Chuck: “You will remember the day that I came to your town, but for me it was only another Tuesday.”

There are no town guards in evidence.

We head for the fanciest tavern in town, the three-billed duck: manicured hedges, outdoor tables with well-dressed waiters hustling between them. The patrons are well-dressed and elegant.

Durest sends the mummies around to the back to keep anyone from leaving by the back door; the ghouls spread out and start herding people inside. We find the maitre d’ trying to hide behind the podium. He’s terrified, and just sure that the great chef and the lesser chefs have fled, but… they tried, and found the mummies blocking the way.

Chuck: “Three things are going to happen here. We’re going to have a lovely meeting. Second, some of your friends and guards and whatnot are hopefully going to alert the baron. And three, the Baron and his Solari better get here by dawn, or I have some very bad news for you.

Jenny chases one of the rich guys off of a table, takes his monocle and his chair, and we settle down to try everything on the menu. The rest of the patrons are required to stay at their tables and eat with us. Also, just for Jenny, they make up a plate of tiny, fried duck legs and she really likes that. They also have really good umbrella drinks.

By midnight, nobody has come to rescue the nobles and we’ve had about a thirty-course meal. Jenny: “This was the greatest idea, I am so glad we did this.”

Durest finally leans back and belches. “Aye, at last a worthwhile meal. Still, we need to get moving before dawn, so my friends here will just wait long enough to make sure we have a head start.” He stands up and hands the bag of insanity mist to Chuck.

Chuck considers this, and then says: “You’ve been really good sports, so I’m going to do you a favor.” He starts turning people into vampires, which triggers a panic; by time he’s done a fair number of the nobles have died trying to escape. Armand the maitre d’ is spared; he stays human. The head chef Theopilis, we dominate and send back to our chateau in Springhollow.

Jenny: “This was so much fun, we should do this all the time.”

We head for the keep.

Someone shoots a ballista bolt through one of Durest’s ghasts.

Chuck turns into a bat and flies up to the corner tower that the ballista bolt came from. Jenny just starts yelling. Durest uses Dimension Door to take himself, Jenny, and one of the mummies up to the tower with the ballista. There are archers up here; they try to attack and get Jenny’s spiked chain to the face instead. Jenny is all but undamaged by the arrows.

Chuck joins us on the tower, and one of the mummies kills the last of the archers that’s up here with us. Bob kills another. Durest casts Light on Jenny’s chain so that she can see, and moves a bit away. The archers target Jenny and again do minimal damage, because she’s a barbarian and resistant to damage. Our arrival has now set off an alarm spell, which is making everything very loud.

Chuck spots a group of archers on the wall, and fires off a Magic Missile to take out two of them. Durest heads further along and sets the thatched roof of the stables on fire. He also sends Bob and the mummy the other way along the walltop, with instructions to clear the wall. The archers take shots at him by the firelight, doing minimal damage.

Jenny leaps off the wall and down to the courtyard, landing in superhero pose. She moves out into the courtyard and runs into a bunch of the town guards. A bolt of lightning flashes out of the sky at Chuck, lighting him up for a moment. Durest continues along the wall away from the flames of the barn, looking to find the next tower.

Jenny takes another batch of arrows. “This is so fun! I am so excited to kill you all!”

Chuck regenerates, because vampires do that. Somebody drops a Fireball on Chuck, Bob, and the mummy. The mummy is vulnerable to fire and goes down; Bob is badly burned, but still functional. Chuck is really pissed. We’re having some real difficulties because our enemies can see us but we can’t see them.

Jenny gets hit with a Hold Person, and is suddenly paralyzed. Chuck retaliates by dropping a fireball into the bunch of archers. Jenny rages and manages to shake off the spell. She steps forward and takes out two of the remaining archers. Bob kills an archer on the wall. Durest drops a Fire Storm where he thinks the fireball came from. He fails to hit anybody, but sets the manor on fire. He hears a scream, but can’t immediately determine its source.

The archers fire on Jenny again, and again fail to do much damage to the raging barbarian. Another lightning bolt tags Chuck, but with the manor on fire he can now see some enemies; he casts Greater Invisibility on himself and moves to be out of the area where he was standing. Jenny moves forward and kills the last two archers.

Another bolt of lightning strikes right where Chuck was standing. Bob kills another archer. Durest casts Fly on himself and heads towards the center of the keep. The fire in the barn is continuing to spread; so is the fire on the manor. As the fire spreads, a wizard come into view on the roof of the manor... Just as he casts Scorching Ray on Bob. There are screams from inside the manor.

Chuck drops a fireball near the front of the manor, and… a lot of troops die. He makes sure to include the wizard, who survives. There wasn’t supposed to be a wizard here; it seems that Maximilian might have called in reinforcements.

Jenny, meanwhile, has found another batch of archers and wipes out everyone in reach of her chain, but takes damage from a bolt of lightning. Durest drops a Flame Strike on some soldiers in front of the manor as the undead come charging in through the gate. More soldiers charge at Jenny, and die.

Chuck continues regenerating, and a pair of trees suddenly animate and attack Jenny. Chuck drops a fireball on two treants and a bunch of archers, clearing some trees from around Jenny. Jenny attacks the closest treant, and absolutely murders it. Lightning strikes her again.

Durest drops another flame strike, taking out more archers as his undead charge in through the gate. Chuck is still regenerating. The Treants move in and attack Jenny; on misses, but the two others hit, one of them quite solidly. Jenny: “Finally!”

Chuck drops a fireball on two of the treants but fails to kill either of them; Jenny kills the first one, then the second one, then the third one. She has cleared the field around her. Another lightning bolt hits her, and Durest changes course and heads directly towards the Barbarian.

We’ll pick up on Sunday to hopefully finish the battle.