Sunday Game
Aug. 30th, 2004 10:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothWe started what I'm going to call the 'demon game' at Tom's today. Since no one used their characters' names even once, I'm going to call them by their player's names and/or demon forms.
A group of experienced adventurers was invited to a party at a friend's castle. During the party, their friends acted a little suspicious, but not enough to really put them on their guard -- they were planning on checking it out the next day.
That turned out to be too late. They woke up in what they recognized as the dungeon of the castle, mysteriously transformed into various demons -- the bard was some sort of reptilian harpy, the sorceror has six heads, the paladin was a marilith, the barbarian a black energy-draining thing, the druid a barbed devil, and the ranger a succubus. They also had a death knight and another succubus with them, and a couple other random demons in other cells.
Of course, they started demanding to know what was going on, but the guard just told them to shut up. So they started screeching and hollering in abyssal -- which they all somehow knew -- until the guard got spooked and left for the next room, leaving the door open so that he could see any attempts to escape.
Whispering to each other, the party of demons found out from the captain of the guard (the death knight) that there was a secret passage leading out of one of the cells, but it was full of shadows. Since all the demons had on magic-nullifying armbands that kept them from using any of their abilities (which they somehow knew they had, although they didn't know how they knew), a tunnel full of strength-draining shadows that they couldn't even hurt didn't sound like an escape route so much as a funeral.
So instead, they started ripping the bars out of the cells to escape through the guards. The guard near the door saw this happening, of course, but too late to stop the marilith from leaping on him and constricting, while holding off the other guards with two cell bars wielded as quarterstaffs.
The demons slowly fought their way out into the guardroom, while freeing the other demons. They were able to let out all the demons except for one ostrich thing trapped in its own cell, but were hard pressed by the enemies and all the demons strong enough to rip off cell doors were needed to fight!
So the death knight pointed out the weapon cabinet, and they flipped up a table to block the guards, who'd gone for reinforcements, out of the guard chamber, fighting over the barrier with a lieutenant wielding a nasty holy weapon. Meanwhile, the succubi, harpy-thing, and six-headed hydra critter searched for some way to get the armbands off, since they were useless in physical combat. Adjoining the guard room was a torture chamber, with a forge -- since they were immune to fire, maybe they could melt the armbands off?
The energy-draining black thing was badly wounded -- he regenerated slowly, but knew (somehow) that if he was taken down he'd be gaseous for an hour -- not good. So he retreated to have two of his arms chopped off, the two with the armbands on -- they'd grow back, he was pretty sure.
He only got one off before his body -- a dwarven barbarian -- appeared to start kicking ass. He raged and leaped over the barrier, wielding his magic admantium waraxe, and was immediately dogpiled by the four demons at the barrier, and his axe stolen. Then, now having a weapon that should be able to cut through the armbands, they retreated into the interrogation room, which had a door they could shut and barricade.
They didn't quite get in before a mage arrived and sonic-balled the lot of them, killing several guards in the process, and the angry dwarf was quickly chopping through the door (and the oaken table they'd shoved up against it) with a backup weapon. Worse, some of the other demons who hadn't wanted to fight were trapped in the dungeon, doomed to be recaptured.
But they did have the admantium axe, and were able to carefully saw off two of the armbands before the door was breached -- and those two had 'dimension door' as a power, and were able to take the rest of the group with them (they'd already discovered, thanks to the sonicball, that the magic-nullifying armbands didn't prevent external magic from affecting them).
So, they were out of the castle, and rendezvoused in a nearby clearing, where they spent some time cutting off the remaining armbands while the succubus who'd been a ranger went back to the castle in her own form to charm some horses out of the guards. She had no trouble doing that.
Then they headed for the little known druid's hut deep in the forest, where they cautiously approached their friend, verified that he wasn't a demon in disguise, and told him who they were and what was happening. He was able to heal their wounds, but didn't really know how to help them -- he wasn't, for instance, going to follow them around and be a party healer.
While dimension-dooring, the succubus and hydra thing had gotten a flash of what they assumed was what their own bodies were seeing. The succubus had seen a tavern in town, so with the others that could take human form (the other succubus, formely a stable-girl, and the energy-draining ex-barbarian) she went in to try to find her body, without much success. They did charm some nonmagical equipment from the general store, and managed to capture a demon-possessed guard, who they dominated back at the ranch and interrogated.
He told them that everyone in the castle was already swapped, using a machine located in the castle mage's quarters, and they were working on the town now. "Why do you want puny human bodies instead of your powerful demon forms?" "Oh, we were puny demons like you. We've been swapping for human forms of equal power to what we had, AND we can walk around in the open without fear! This plane is much nicer than the Abyss."
He couldn't really answer who was in charge, but was able to tell them that the ostrich they'd abandoned in the dungeon was the duke's son, and that the duke himself was in the salt mines. He didn't know where the castle mage was now. He also told them that without the armbands, the change would start to gradually wear off, although he thought it would take a long time and didn't know if it'd actually get them back in their bodies.
And something important was going to happen on the night of the full moon, nine days from now.
So then they let him go (still dominated for days and days, and so not likely to betray them) and went back to the druid, and told him to go into hiding, because apparently things were going to hell. Er, the abyss. The stablehand succubus decided to stay with the druid to 'guard' him -- she'd been brave enough to come with them that far (and consequently escape from prison), but she wasn't an adventurer. The death knight would stay with them.
The plan of attack was to first rescue the duke from the salt mines -- with him to promise payment more beleivably, they might be able to secure the help of the wizard who lived in the nearby tower, or at least rally the remaining townsfolk. Plus, the other demons they could rescue from the salt mines would give them a demon army to assault the castle with.
The salt mines were located adjacent to the gigantic petrified worm that the wizard tower, castle, and marketplace/bridge were all dug into, and they knew from stories that its digestive tract and circulatory system were open to travel -- just not used too often, because of all the monsters. So, that night, they snuck into the marketplace and located the tunnel heading towards the salt mines.
On the way, they ran into a trio of salamanders, but they were immune to their fiery aura. The salamanders were, in turn, immune to most of their attacks (they still didn't have magic weapons), but not to the aura of fear that some of them had, or to the energy-draining thing's magic admantium axe, and were quickly routed. next session
I was pretty useless the whole game -- I guess Tom decided that bard were useless, and gave me an equivalent demon, but jeez, I made a bard that was effective in melee, and got a harpy with a strength of 10 who wasn't even proficient with weapons! I picked up a crossbow to do some aerial sniping. I do have one decent at-will ability (area-effect harpy song, easy DC but if you fail it you're screwed), but the way Tom's doing the characters I'll lose it first, and be utterly worthless from then on.
A group of experienced adventurers was invited to a party at a friend's castle. During the party, their friends acted a little suspicious, but not enough to really put them on their guard -- they were planning on checking it out the next day.
That turned out to be too late. They woke up in what they recognized as the dungeon of the castle, mysteriously transformed into various demons -- the bard was some sort of reptilian harpy, the sorceror has six heads, the paladin was a marilith, the barbarian a black energy-draining thing, the druid a barbed devil, and the ranger a succubus. They also had a death knight and another succubus with them, and a couple other random demons in other cells.
Of course, they started demanding to know what was going on, but the guard just told them to shut up. So they started screeching and hollering in abyssal -- which they all somehow knew -- until the guard got spooked and left for the next room, leaving the door open so that he could see any attempts to escape.
Whispering to each other, the party of demons found out from the captain of the guard (the death knight) that there was a secret passage leading out of one of the cells, but it was full of shadows. Since all the demons had on magic-nullifying armbands that kept them from using any of their abilities (which they somehow knew they had, although they didn't know how they knew), a tunnel full of strength-draining shadows that they couldn't even hurt didn't sound like an escape route so much as a funeral.
So instead, they started ripping the bars out of the cells to escape through the guards. The guard near the door saw this happening, of course, but too late to stop the marilith from leaping on him and constricting, while holding off the other guards with two cell bars wielded as quarterstaffs.
The demons slowly fought their way out into the guardroom, while freeing the other demons. They were able to let out all the demons except for one ostrich thing trapped in its own cell, but were hard pressed by the enemies and all the demons strong enough to rip off cell doors were needed to fight!
So the death knight pointed out the weapon cabinet, and they flipped up a table to block the guards, who'd gone for reinforcements, out of the guard chamber, fighting over the barrier with a lieutenant wielding a nasty holy weapon. Meanwhile, the succubi, harpy-thing, and six-headed hydra critter searched for some way to get the armbands off, since they were useless in physical combat. Adjoining the guard room was a torture chamber, with a forge -- since they were immune to fire, maybe they could melt the armbands off?
The energy-draining black thing was badly wounded -- he regenerated slowly, but knew (somehow) that if he was taken down he'd be gaseous for an hour -- not good. So he retreated to have two of his arms chopped off, the two with the armbands on -- they'd grow back, he was pretty sure.
He only got one off before his body -- a dwarven barbarian -- appeared to start kicking ass. He raged and leaped over the barrier, wielding his magic admantium waraxe, and was immediately dogpiled by the four demons at the barrier, and his axe stolen. Then, now having a weapon that should be able to cut through the armbands, they retreated into the interrogation room, which had a door they could shut and barricade.
They didn't quite get in before a mage arrived and sonic-balled the lot of them, killing several guards in the process, and the angry dwarf was quickly chopping through the door (and the oaken table they'd shoved up against it) with a backup weapon. Worse, some of the other demons who hadn't wanted to fight were trapped in the dungeon, doomed to be recaptured.
But they did have the admantium axe, and were able to carefully saw off two of the armbands before the door was breached -- and those two had 'dimension door' as a power, and were able to take the rest of the group with them (they'd already discovered, thanks to the sonicball, that the magic-nullifying armbands didn't prevent external magic from affecting them).
So, they were out of the castle, and rendezvoused in a nearby clearing, where they spent some time cutting off the remaining armbands while the succubus who'd been a ranger went back to the castle in her own form to charm some horses out of the guards. She had no trouble doing that.
Then they headed for the little known druid's hut deep in the forest, where they cautiously approached their friend, verified that he wasn't a demon in disguise, and told him who they were and what was happening. He was able to heal their wounds, but didn't really know how to help them -- he wasn't, for instance, going to follow them around and be a party healer.
While dimension-dooring, the succubus and hydra thing had gotten a flash of what they assumed was what their own bodies were seeing. The succubus had seen a tavern in town, so with the others that could take human form (the other succubus, formely a stable-girl, and the energy-draining ex-barbarian) she went in to try to find her body, without much success. They did charm some nonmagical equipment from the general store, and managed to capture a demon-possessed guard, who they dominated back at the ranch and interrogated.
He told them that everyone in the castle was already swapped, using a machine located in the castle mage's quarters, and they were working on the town now. "Why do you want puny human bodies instead of your powerful demon forms?" "Oh, we were puny demons like you. We've been swapping for human forms of equal power to what we had, AND we can walk around in the open without fear! This plane is much nicer than the Abyss."
He couldn't really answer who was in charge, but was able to tell them that the ostrich they'd abandoned in the dungeon was the duke's son, and that the duke himself was in the salt mines. He didn't know where the castle mage was now. He also told them that without the armbands, the change would start to gradually wear off, although he thought it would take a long time and didn't know if it'd actually get them back in their bodies.
And something important was going to happen on the night of the full moon, nine days from now.
So then they let him go (still dominated for days and days, and so not likely to betray them) and went back to the druid, and told him to go into hiding, because apparently things were going to hell. Er, the abyss. The stablehand succubus decided to stay with the druid to 'guard' him -- she'd been brave enough to come with them that far (and consequently escape from prison), but she wasn't an adventurer. The death knight would stay with them.
The plan of attack was to first rescue the duke from the salt mines -- with him to promise payment more beleivably, they might be able to secure the help of the wizard who lived in the nearby tower, or at least rally the remaining townsfolk. Plus, the other demons they could rescue from the salt mines would give them a demon army to assault the castle with.
The salt mines were located adjacent to the gigantic petrified worm that the wizard tower, castle, and marketplace/bridge were all dug into, and they knew from stories that its digestive tract and circulatory system were open to travel -- just not used too often, because of all the monsters. So, that night, they snuck into the marketplace and located the tunnel heading towards the salt mines.
On the way, they ran into a trio of salamanders, but they were immune to their fiery aura. The salamanders were, in turn, immune to most of their attacks (they still didn't have magic weapons), but not to the aura of fear that some of them had, or to the energy-draining thing's magic admantium axe, and were quickly routed. next session
I was pretty useless the whole game -- I guess Tom decided that bard were useless, and gave me an equivalent demon, but jeez, I made a bard that was effective in melee, and got a harpy with a strength of 10 who wasn't even proficient with weapons! I picked up a crossbow to do some aerial sniping. I do have one decent at-will ability (area-effect harpy song, easy DC but if you fail it you're screwed), but the way Tom's doing the characters I'll lose it first, and be utterly worthless from then on.
