Week 36
TL;DR - The battle finally ends, the party restored. Excellent weather speed the boat to the destination quicker than expected, Evershale finally reached, but is it friendly?
Jaxzon moves to the party boat to do something about the Carpenter who is trying to strangle Rohindel. An attack with a lance with added Smite Power does a decent amount of damage, but doesn’t kill him. “Calm down and surrender like the rest, fool!”. A snarl is all he gets in response, so Jaxzon attacks again, once more with Smite Power. Still not dead.
— ROUND SEVEN —
The druid pops out from being a hawk, and holds their action waiting for the diamonds to be delivered.
Zer0 remains dead (9 turns left).
Shebrum moves toward the druid, collecting the diamonds along the way, handing them off when he gets there.
FM is still unconcious.
The accountant restates his desire for Zer0’s body, Iliqua continues to decline.
Rohindel stabs the Carpenter and tries to shoot, missing due to short range.
Iliqua commands URA to help Rohindel with breathing.
Jaxzon tries to remove the Carpenter from Rohindel’s throat, just failing, so he whacks the Carpenter with his spiritual weapon.
— ROUND EIGHT —
The druid takes the diamonds and casts Revivify… cue coma dreams of Zer0.
He hears Captain Knadgers talking about claiming revenge for two fallen brothers, then with those two hits, the last of his core energy flees. The dream has Zer0 lying on a slab, another Warforged nears in white and gold.
"What is your name?" "My name is Zer0." "Nice to meet you."
"You are back where you belong, back to where all warforged began. My name is Adeptus Prime." *crowd gasps*
"Who are you?"
"I am a being, not created by the dwarves, used as a base for a new design. That design became what you know of as warforged."
"Is your body still at the Nagaroth battle ground?"
"Yes, it does still exist there. I can feel the necrotic damage continuing to decay my core. I remember that I have some guardians, but I cannot say wether they still live."
A tug from the revivify spell compels Zer0 to return, but before he goes, Adeptus Prime mentions that he only has a short time before his sanity fails and he loses himself.
Zer0 stands, slowly turns to check out the pirates, the bows to the druid as thanks. He offers help to return the favour, but the druid declines for now. He turns again and warily watches the pirates.
Shebrum drinks a potion, and remains where he is.
The accountant, on seeing Zer0 stand up, changes his request to leave the FM or face further combat.
Iliqua says he has no desire to keep the FM, so he asks other party members to help Rohindel.
Zer0 moves to the party boat, Shebrum collects various bits like spears and lion skin and follows. Rohindel finally gets free of the Carpenter, and tosses him overboard.
— COMBAT ENDS —
Iliqua checks out the FM, finds out the knots aren’t that great. He puts a blade to her neck, dumps a health potion down her throat. When she wakes, he asks what she did to Jaxzon’s lion, then lets her go after an offer of future combat. He uses the last of his rings power with a Misty Step back to the party boat.
Jaxzon tries to go after the FM, but Shebrum manages to hold him back. Iliqua explains the situation, including what she did to his lion.
Some time later, the party boat is finally detached from the enemy boat, the fire extinguished.
Jaxzon recalls his lion, finding the hand shaped patch of necrotic damage still remains. “I have been touched by a foul entity” “Can we heal this?” “I do not know, you will need to talk to [Jaxzon’s God]”
As the ship sails away, large amounts of damage can be seen, continues heading towards Evershale.
Jaxzon asks his goddess for guidance - she healed his lion as best she could, but another goddess (loretta) is blocking further effects. Contacting her is the only way to fully heal. A final warning to not make more deals with demons before Jaxzon is returned to the real world.
Travel continues, contact with some kind of water based creatures, with the ship absorbing some of their energy. A blue/green film appears on the bottom of the boat, permanently increasing its speed, and allowing the party to get to their destination in half a day.
A city can been seen in the distance, seeming to be white and beautiful. As they get closer, the white appears to be more like spider webs, with a large mass hanging between three of the spires. Jaxzon uses his spyglass to see that it’s a large chrysalis.
Iliqua asks the druid to use beast sense on a seagull to use as a scout and find out what is happening in the city. The seagull heads off - most of the city has been taken, with a resistance in place at the fort holding off the insects. Most of the insects are maggots with some spiders.
Zer0 asks for options further west, with Iliqua saying that a fishing village is a better option, preferring to avoid combat.
Iliqua gets a sending from Alarielle - “Hello Iliqua, I hope your group is doing well. Have you made contact with Evershale, what is the situation.”
“How’s it going? Haven’t quite made it to Evershale yet. Once we get there and scout it out…”
“Alright, let me know when you get there.”
“We’ll let you know. Met a genie, killed a pirate captain. Robot friend died, then came back, win/win?”
A consensus to find a safer place to make landfall is made. A last night on the boat, with bathing and talk of taking drugs, Iliqua and Shebrum partaking.
Iliqua survives his body feels like it’s melting - speed reduced to 15ft, Freedom of Movement effect applied.
Shebrum ends up addicted, gains superior darkvision but has disadvantage on physical attacks. Needs to take a dose or gets stacking exhaustion.
Zer0 stands on the deck, looking towards where he thinks Nagrath is. Jaxzon stays in the bath long enough to clean up, but then leaves.
The morning arrives with Shebrum still in the bath, Zer0 still on deck.
Iliqua gets another message from Alarielle, asking about Evershale. “Evershale is lost. They’re holding out in the fort, trying to kill big cocoon. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.”
“I will be there in a few days, having removed the Skaven from the underground area.”
Jaxzon asks the captain to take the party further up the coast. The captain offers the dinghy and two crew to drop them off, then they will be returning to Gaensvale for repairs.
A few hours later, an abandoned fishing village is found, the party disembarks and the dinghy returns.
LANDFALL! For the first time in many days, the party finally touches earth. The party has a quick look around, most of the houses are in disrepair, but no sign of blood, assuming that the villagers made it out.
Jaxzon resummons his lion, the scarred area remains. Jaxzon gives Iliqua a ride in part to offset his speed debuff.
The party set off up the path, looking for the main road. Finding it in a couple of hours, the party continues until night fall, picking a rest stop to camp at.
Iliqua walks a short way off, casts Iliqua’s Tower (oooh!), opens the door and walks in, beckoning the rest inside. A living space with couches and a fireplace, along with a ladder that leads to the second floor.
Jaxzon reads more of his book. Iliqua shows some of the party to the rest of the tower. The second level has a bathing area (of course), the top level has a place to keep watch.
Zer0 offers to take first watch. The sounds of the forest is peaceful, but Zer0 finds that he’s spent most of it looking inwards rather that out.
Shebrum takes the next watch. He notices some maggots crawl from the forest towards the warded area, stopping at the edge. Shebrum tries to avoid taking more drugs, taking a point of exhaustion.
Iliqua takes third watch, Shebrum updates him on what he’s seen. More maggots have arrived, around fifty, smelling of dampness and undulating creepily.
Jaxzon takes the last watch, the maggot count has reached several hundred. A quick turn about the top, he can see the other side of the road also has a lot of maggots hanging around. He takes a torch from the Stasis Bag and throws it at the maggot pile - it hits and catches fire, but others put it out.
The day dawns…