The Execution of Lamont, the Priest of Artem-hiss, and the Assault on Wellfort.

We head for the Teleportation Circle, retrieving one of Martini’s traps and disabling the other. There are four elite guards in the room. Marshall: “Dwarves, you’re up.”

Head dwarf: “So everybody else in building is dead. So here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going t’pay each o’ ye 1,000 gold to walk away.” 

Guards: “Done.”

So we put the blood on the braziers and the teleporter opens up to what appears to be a small room in an isolated cabin. In the corner is the teleport circle, carefully etched on a raised platform between a pair of candelabra. There’s a table with 6,000 platinum and two chests. Martini checks for traps; neither are trapped… or locked. Marshall opens the first chest, and at that point we can hear creaking in the boards overhead; maybe two people. We don’t hear anybody in the next room over, though. The first chest contains piles of official papers, delicately prepared and suitably decorated. They appear to awards of land rights to the followers of Appollyons, who were driven out ages ago. This, presumably, is how Lamont has bought their loyalty. This is being presented as reparations, which is not entirely inaccurate historically. 

The second chest contains a shining orb that appears to be made of flowing liquid mercury in a crystal globe; whatever it is, it’s immensely powerful. There’s a folded note lying next to it. It’s from Almonda, Lamont’s minister of the Arcane. Apparently this was written from the dungeons of Janbridge. “Good news, lord! We have determined that this orb can not only control dragons, but also on their bastard spawn. It should guarantee your victory against the Pretender. I admit I am somewhat jealous.” 

Marshall immediately tucks it away. We take the land allotments, too. This is going to be a bit of a sticky issue. Martini checks the door for traps and finds nothing. Martini and Ruin sneak into the next room. There are two plates of food on the table and two chairs. Outside the windows, is… nothing. There are lights in the difference that might be stars, glowing clouds shifting through the void… Apparently the cottage is extradimensional, and they added windows to see it. 

Martini immediately sits down and starts eating. There’s wine on the table; it’s extremely high quality stuff. It’s probably from a winery in Springhollow. There’s also a cabinet with a little magical chamber for warming food, plus the usual run of eating utensils. We stroll upstairs; Martini is still carrying the chicken leg. 

One side of the bedroom is constructed with balconies looking out into space. There are two men standing there. One is Lamont, and the other looks like another Cardinal carrying a very large flail. 

Martini: “Hello Reynard.” 

Lamont: “Cathemar! Do your duty! Protect me!”

Cathemar looks from us to Lamont and back. Lamont is still holding the scepter. “So, you did it the hard way.”

Ruin: “Was that supposed to be hard?”

Cathemar: “The demon? The ice devil? Cardinal Cyrus?” 

Marshall pulls out Cyrus’ head. 

Martini: “Satisfied?”

Cathemar, to Lamont: “You know my order only respects strength. Yours has run out.”

Lamont: “So, I think this is all a big misunderstanding.” 

Ruin: “I have here a confession. We took it from your torture chamber. We’re going to need you to sign it. It outlines that every piece of land you took was stolen, that every bit of land and title that you awarded is invalid. After that, you’re going to lose at least one finger. If you don’t sign, it’ll be worse.”

Lamont: “Very well. Make it quick.” He drops to his knees. 

Martini… emasculates him. Forcibly. While he’s busy screaming and howling, Martini says: “This is what happens when you hurt my brother.”

We get him patched up and Ruin throws him over his shoulder. Cathemar wants to tell us the story of his people, and we reluctantly assent. Apparently his people were badly discriminated against, forcing them to emigrate. Eventually many of them settled on the island of Nameless, where they were claimed by Friar An’Drow. Unfortunately, their population has long outgrown the island. Lamont offered an exchange of ancestral lands in return for their military assistance. Would we be interested in the same deal?

Ruin: “Could you convince your people to stand aside while we finish our business with Lamont?” 

Cathemar: “I would have you take word to your king that we are not ruled by the devils; we rule them. I realize that an army of devils might not be your king’s preference…” He pauses. “But we do have Lady Dreadflail, who might be willing to try herself against the warbear queen.”

They have an avatar. Of Appollyon.

Of course they do. 

We leave with Cardinal Cathemar. We return to the castle, and Cardinal Cathemar departs to return to the island of Nameless and there prepare his people for a possible return. 

We teleport to Janbridge. There we are greeted by four guards who lower their halberds. “My king! Put him down!” 

Ruin: “Look, we already murdered everybody in the castle.” 

Martini: “I’m good. Who’s going to hold Lamont?” 

Ruin hands him over to the head dwarf, who promptly holds a knife to his throat. “Drop yer weapons or yer king dies.” 

There’s a sudden clatter of weapons hitting the floor. 

Dwarf: “See? Earning m’keep.”

We march Lamont outside despite the violent opposition of his Solari, who are now thoroughly murdered. We leave the pile of bodies in the square in front of the gate. We walk outside. 

Martini: “Dearly beloved, we have gathered you hear today to announce that we have freed you from the tyranny of the false king in the north. And now, we do the king’s justice and execute him.” Martini’s skill at diplomacy is absurd, and by the time she’s finished there’s a full on celebratory festival going on. There’s a full-on scaffold in the middle, and also a stake for burning witches. Marshall carried Lamont up onto his own statue, and Martini casually flings a dagger into his throat. His blood drains over his statue. 

Marshall then turns into a snake, and tosses the body up into the air and swallows it. 

The square goes silent. As Marshall flies around overhead, Martini launches into an impromptu, totally inaccurate speech on the glories of Artem-hiss. Marshall has serious notes to follow-up with Martini on, but he also has a couple of thousand new followers. 

Ruin looks down as a True Elf child tugs on his sleeve. “What do you turn into, mister?”

Ruin: “...”

We return to Caristhium, and Vigo comes running out. “You’re back! How’d it go? Did you get Lamont?” 

Marshall vomits up Lamont’s body, which lands on his very expensive bed which Marshall has also vomited back up. Vigo: “This is good! Were you quiet about it?” 

Ruin: “Very discreet.”

Vigo: “Excellent. Excellent.”

Meanwhile, Tavros and Geddy and Liera were packing up to go kill Giles Bouvier. The primary delay here is separating Leira and Sacha, who are in full kissy-face mode. 

Ezra Cardon returns (after his earlier hissy-fit) and consults with us. Kaz Drachma, Maodeus, and the Hierophant were all there before Bouvier took over. Kaz Drachma was their head researcher. 

When last we were at Welfort, we noted that there was a tunnel down at sea level, which comes up in the laboratory; so we come up that way, and we can collect any research, notes, and whatever that the dark army left behind. Ezra seems to have a serious interest in whatever information might be there. So he’s basically sending us to get information on the dark army, which means he’s really not giving us anything we wouldn’t have found anyway. That dude is definitely not going to end up as a state religion. 

We creep in through the tunnel; Geddy hears a flapping sound up ahead, like a bunch of birds flying around. Tavros creeps up the passage, surprisingly (to him) quietly. He now hears loud flapping charging down the corridor towards him. 

It’s not a flock of birds; it’s some sort of abomination made of hundreds of wings. It sweeps past Tavros, stops in the middle of us, and releases a horrid, heart-stopping shriek. Leira and Geddy immediately die, as does Eva. 

Tavros races past the thing, taking a hit for minor damage along the way. He scoops up Leira, and the thing moves right up next to him and wails again. Tavros ignores it, and takes a step over next to Geddy, and picks him up. The monster follows, and attacks with wings and tail, doing quite a bit of damage. Tavros takes another step and scoops up Eva as well. It moves after him and mauls him again. 

Tavros takes off down the beach. It follows, and it’s far faster than Tavros. As he’s running, Eva’s body tumbles loose from his shoulder. The beast falls on her immediately. 

Tavros comes up on the Renfall side of the world, and Tavros talks his way into the guards helping them. They lead him to Wendy’s Tavern. He pays her a silver to hide the bodies in a back room, and a half-silver for each of the guards. Wendy catches on to the fact that they’re dead, and Tavros pays her a whole gold piece. She wanders back off, muttering. 

Tavros sets off for the nearby Temple of Nepthys. Meanwhile, Cletus and five guards come with him. Tavros pays them off and collects a priest, then brings him back to Friendly Wendy’s House of Repute. He hands off the scroll, with the understanding that the man can’t brag about casting a ninth-level spell for at least three weeks. The man resurrects Leira, and Tavros makes his donation to the temple and has Leira teleport us back to the temple. We get Geddy resurrected and pick up a couple of more scrolls of resurrection. Then we load up with Death Ward and return to the beach. Eva has been east down to bone splinters. 

Leira throws up. 

Geddy, who has now added a level of cleric, uses one of the scrolls to resurrect Eva. We add an additional death ward for Eva, and get set to fight again. Geddy throws haste on us, and Tavros steps back into the tunnel. He’s trying to be quiet again, but he’s… not. 

The thing comes tearing around the corner again, stops in front of Tavros, and shrieks; but this time we don’t care. Leira hits it with a meteor swarm, but made of ice. (Leira has added a level of Archmage.) The thing’s spell resistance protects it from a lot of the damage, but she follows up with a pair of ice balls. Eva casts Displacement on Tavros. 

Tavros attacks but loses his grip and drops his sword; he dodges past the thing and gets over to his sword. The beast follows him again, and attacks; its primary wings miss, but the lesser wings and the tail all three hit. This is… painful. And the tail attack drains a bit of Charisma as well. 

Eva tries another Meteor Swarm, this time converted to acid. This time three of the meteors get past spell resistance, and hits the thing for a bunch of regular damage and some acid damage. Tavros is caught in the splash, but he approves of this approach; as long as he doesn’t die, he can be healed later – plus, he’s able to avoid the worst of the damage. She follows it up three Scorching Ray spells, but each with three rays of acid. Only three rays get through, but they do a decent amount of damage. 

Eva drops a fireball, and fails to get past the thing’s spell resistance. Geddy fires off a power chord from Lichenbacher’s Electric Lute. Tavros swings at it and misses, and it batters him again. He loses more charisma, on top of everything else, and he’s in pretty bad shape. 

Leira drops more acid meteors. Tavros again mostly avoids the worst of the splash damage, but Leira still does a lot of damage. Tavros is staggered and swaying, but not down. Leira follows up with more rays, and then magic missiles, and the thing goes down. 

We burn through some Cure Light Wound wand charges, and get Tavros back up to spec. We get Tavros restored, and purchase a bunch of Restoration scrolls while we’re at it.