Enemies Of My
Enemy
My Charon-err
As those with planar skills began to wonder about
spare underwear, having realized that a very cheesed off lord of the underworld
was headed towards them, the party forgot what they were here for and completely
ignored Shami Amourae, until the universe pointed out she was still there.
Swiftly asking her what they should do, they learned that distracting Demogorgon
with multiple attacks on multiple fronts was the way forward, as his split
personality could be brought to a standstill if there was too much going on for
him to take in. The lady then left, since she had several personal agendas of
her own to deal with, most of which were likely to be short and untidy. She
asked Sancho to come with her, but for once his brain did the decision making
and he politely refused, seeing Charon as the safer bet.
Charon finally arrived, and asked in a sepulchral
voice "What have you done to my river?" As one, the party said that it was
nothing to do with them, it was not their fault, they hadn't been here when they
made that mess and anyway, it was all Demogorgons fault! They also swiftly
apologized for any inconvenience and hoped that Charon wouldn't take it
personally. This robust apology was appreciated by Charon, who was pleased to
meet enemies of Demogorgon and offered to help by taking them to see Iggwilv,
who could further advise them of possible recruits to the cause. They boarded
the skiff and set off for the Grey Wastes.
On arrival at Niflheim on the Grey Wastes, they
were a little surprised to see the Sea Wyvern at anchor, with the mark of Charon
upon her figurehead - allowing them safe passage on the Styx. As Charon left
them, he told them to whisper his name in the figureheads ear when the time came
and he would return to help them one last time - quite an unnerving turn of
phrase, considering when he normally meets people for one last
time.
They set about reassuring a rather confused crew
that all was perfectly all right, and started to disembark, whereupon
a wolf headed humanoid advised them they were not welcome and instructed
his two stygian linnorms to attack, as he promptly ran away. The two
stygian linnorms attacked the first onto dry land, Sancho. After a hectic
combat, involving much jumping to shore and climbing back on to the ship,, the
party realized that those on board ship had not been attacked, probably because
of the mark of Charon upon it, and then ignored this useful piece of
information. Eventually, the linnorms were driven off and the party made their
way ashore and climbed the cliff path to a mansion at the top (initially scouted
by Mr P).
Moving in to the mansion, they found themselves in
a well-appointed drawing room, where Mr P noticed an invisible arcanoloth just
as Iggwilv seemed to turn up and asked the group to leave. When they did not do
so, three arcanoloths attacked and a truly messy combat began, with spells going
off all over the place as they tried to cone of cold the group in to oblivion.
After several rounds of this, Iggwilv turned up again and told the other three
(or two, as it now was) to stop being rude, causing them to leave rather
nervously. Iggwilv then revealed herself to be yet another arcanoloth, who
apologized for his brothers behaviour and advised the party to gather at the top
of the manor stairs in their best finery in an hour to meet his
mistress.
In The Court of the Crimson
King
Our happy heroes gathered in their best clobber
(especially Mr Prestidigitation Sancho) at the top of the stairs, where the
friendly arcanaloth collected them and directed them to a well-appointed room,
where Iggwilv sat reading. After a minute or so, she greeted them and offered to
advise them of their options in recruiting Demogorgons enemies, as follows
(suitably paraphrased):
Charon - She congratulated them on his recruitment
to the cause.
Graz'zt - Forget it - he's a nutter.
Orcus - Worth the effort, but watch it, he's a
violent nutter.
Gwynharwyf - Easy to get to help, but a bugger to
find. Watch out for her bit of stuff, Morwel.
Malcanthet - She's been playing you for suckers all
the way through this campaign, but don't hold that against her - it's part of
what she is. She may give you some charms as aid if you ask nicely.
Obox-ob - Watch it, he's a nutter - just point him
and shoot and hope he does something useful.
Bagromar - One of Demogorgons twin generals, his
jealousy of his brother may be a weakness.
The party decided (after a not inconsiderable
discussion) to visit Orcus first - Iggwilv gave them a letter of introduction
advising Orcus to test them in the arena prior to aiding them, asking him to
send them back to her if they survived. Setting off on the Wyvern, the party set
off for the perils of Thanatos.
On arrival, they cast spells to resist the draining
effects of the plane and swiftly recruited a Dustman as a guide - ignoring the
blandishments of several vampires to 'lend' them a pint as they passed. With the
dustman's aid, they soon arrived at Orcus court and sought an audience,
presenting Iggwilvs letter to the guards. They were soon before Orcus himself,
who took Iggwilvs advice and requested they present their champion to do battle
with his, a mighty death giant. Keth was chosen and prepared - buffing spells
causing him to virtually blind Mr P with their radiance. Battle was commenced,
with Sancho deciding at the last second not to use his bardic abilities to aid
the barbarian, as this would have given Orcus an excuse to declare the challenge
void and join in himself. Keth won initiative and basically brutalized the giant
into submission before it had a chance to act.
Orcus congratulated them on their victory, told
them he would help (once he had got his act together) and then told them to
leave before he changed his mind, which they wisely did.
Their next target was Gwynharwyf and the Court of
Stars. On arrival, they found themselves in dense forest and could hear
movements around them. Shortly after, several moon dogs burst from the
undergrowth and surrounded them, shortly after joined by and Eladrin, who
brusquely told them to go away, especially Sancho, who he claimed 'reeked of
pomposity'. As they pressed their claim to talk with Gwynharwyf, he challenged
them to prove their worth. Analesia chose riding, which she won easily, since
the Eladrin, although mounted on a pretty awesome horse, had never really
bothered to learnt to ride too well. Mr P sadly declined, as did Laureli. Sancho
cast freedom of movement on himself and a boring wrestling match took place,
which was somewhat inconclusive. Keth chose jousting and won easily, while Arry
won a wrestling bout.
Finding Angels In Unusual
Places
As the competition came to an end and the Eladrin
continued to be a stroppy old hector, a new voice appeared on the scene (is that
actually possible?), telling him to grow up and go tidy his room (or words to
that effect). With that, a female eladrin appeared and introduced herself as
Celeste. She lead them to the court of stars, to the lady Gwynharwyf
herself.
After a bit of chat, in which Sancho rather missed
the point of being asked what you are here for, the lady agreed to aid them,
provided they prove their worth be killing a dragon which had been eating her
people. She requested they free the stars that it had eaten. Telling them that
the dragon lived at the root of Yggdrasil, the World Ash, she offered to
transport them straight there. Fortunately (for me) they agreed.
They found themselves at the base of a gigantic
tree, with two caves leading into its root system. Mr P immediately warned them
that the entrances were illusory and that the area was trapped with pits - so
they all decided to fly. Moving in to the cave, they soon found the dragon as it
hit them with both cold and fire breath weapons and a massive combat ensued,
Keth and Arry finding it really annoying to fight an enemy with both mirror
image and displacement in effect. After many minutes of magic, sword play and
general faffing about, Sancho dispelled the displacement and the dragon finally
started to take damage. A long time later, the dragon was in deep doodies and so
teleported away to collect its hoard and bog off to a safer location.
Unfortunately for the dragon, the party found it
first and damaged its kneecaps (the only bit of it they could reach) so badly
that it fell to the floor, an ex-dragon.