Sunday, July 1, 2018

[Pathfinder] Wrath of the Righteous, part 36: In the Name of Iomedae

With the half-orc mercenaries and the demon reduced to burnt and melted remains, the Crusader Knights paused to examine them for any useful items. The vrock carried a valuable necklace, and the mercenaries each had a fine quality bow and a strong healing potion in their possession. When these items had been removed, the Knights took a moment to decide whether they should continue further into the Citadel or retreat to the courtyard. Jiro's healing abilities were significantly depleted by their battles with the gargoyles and the vrock, but they chose to forge ahead into the chapel.

The chapel had two entrances, one a set of heavy double doors and the other a smaller doorway that according to Aron's map led into the rear of the small chapel. Beyond the chapel lay a larger chamber with columns, littered with scattered piles of rubble. It was currently empty of any visible enemies and Asami detected nothing magical within it. To protect their group from enemies coming through that chamber to attack them from behind, Asami drew a circle of protection against evil creatures in the doorway that led from the large chamber to the chapel entrance. With Runa standing guard over him, Shim disabled the lock on the main doors to prevent anyone from entering or leaving through them. Asami then cast a spell on the entire group to allow them to communicate silently with each other, mind-to-mind. Shim knew the language of earth creatures, and he asked the elemental summoned by the gem to tell him how many creatures were inside the chapel. The elemental told him there were seven creatures within.

The rear door of the chapel opened to reveal a room lined with two rows of stone pews. Along the opposite wall stood three statues of armored knights holding their swords point down, set into alcoves in the wall. At the far end stood a statue of Iomedae. Four men garbed as crusaders sat on the pews, deep in prayer. In front of the statue stood a woman, who took them all by surprise because she appeared to be the very image of the woman depicted in the statue behind her.

The woman greeted them, calling them "My children" and asking how they had managed to get to the chapel as she and the four crusaders with her had been unable to escape. Runa responded by demanding, "How did I break my arm?" The woman seemed taken aback by this and didn't reply to it, instead claiming that she was Iomedae. Runa clearly did not accept this. She asked, "What was the last thing you said to my father and I before you sent me to the Worldwound?", to which the woman responded that those words were only between her and Runa. This still did not convince Runa, who strode toward the front of the chapel and began to cast a spell, which her companions recognized would summon Iomedae's radiance to harm and blind evil creatures.

Suddenly from behind the statue a longspear stabbed Runa as a babau appeared in the corner. Rather than react to the demon with anger as the Knights would have expected from Iomedae, the woman paid no attention to it. Runa managed to resist the pain of her wound and her spell harmed both the woman and the demon, revealing that as she had thought this woman was no manifestation of the goddess but a creature of evil.

The impostor responded by casting a spell of her own, not at Runa but at Zosta, who had run toward her when Runa did. Jiro realized that the spell would dominate Zosta's will and force her to obey the woman, but there was nothing he could do to prevent it. The babau attacked Runa again as this was happening, and Runa drew her sword to attack the woman. Asami, who was hovering at the back of the chapel, attempted to dispel the spell on Zosta but was unable to overcome the impostor's magic. Under the woman's direction Zosta moved toward Runa with her fists raised. Jiro hurried forward and cast a circle of protection around himself, hoping to give Zosta an opportunity to fight off the compulsion, but the magic failed to have the desired effect.

Asami flew up to the ceiling to get out of reach of the four crusaders, who had all come to their feet and were moving to attack the Knights. The woman attempted to overcome her will and force her to flee but was unsuccessful. Asami flew above Zosta and cast a spell that would form a sphere of force around her, preventing her from striking Runa. But Zosta glimpsed the sphere forming around her and dodged out of the way, causing the magic to be wasted. Zosta knocked Runa down and began to punch her. Runa pulled her shield over herself and began to pray loudly to Iomedae for aid. Asami threw a spear at the woman, but it splintered when it met her flesh and did her no harm.

Jiro moved toward the woman. Two of the crusaders attacked Shim. Another man launched himself off a pew in an attempt to strike Asami flying above, but his armor weighed him down and his leap fell short. The babau tried to dispel Jiro's protective circle and failed. Then the woman cast another spell at Asami and this time succeeded in overcoming her, ordering her to fly back to the army. Asami immediately complied with the suggestion and flew out of the chapel. Kirara followed her, confusedly asking why they were leaving. Asami told her they needed to go.

After Asami left, Shim enhanced his strength and grabbed the prone Runa, sliding her under the pews toward the doorway though which they had entered to get her temporarily out of Zosta's reach. Jiro used Asami's spell to call for a retreat and headed for the door. The woman swung her sword at him as he moved away, and he observed that unlike Iomedae she seemed to be unfamiliar with swordplay. When he reached the exit where Runa lay he pushed her out into the corridor toward the magic circle Asami had left behind. Zosta ran after him to the doorway and the crusaders also swarmed toward that area. The protective circle surrounding Jiro was dispelled by the babau. The woman attempted to control Shim but he was able to resist.

Desperately seeking a way to stop Zosta from attacking her, Runa reached in her haversack and drew out Telendrev's scale, calling on its magic to transform herself into the likeness of Horgus Gwerm. She hoped the change of appearance would deter Zosta. Zosta meanwhile had been protected from new commands by the woman because she had earlier been the recipient of a spell to protect her from evil creatures. But the power of the spell wasn't enough to end the compulsion to kill Runa. She stepped toward where Horgus Gwerm had suddenly appeared, suspecting an illusion. As she tried to determine if Lord Gwerm was real or not, Jiro and Shim tried to shut the door and trap the crusaders inside the chapel. At the same time the babau dispelled the protective effect on Zosta, and the woman vanished from sight.

Runa attempted to cast the protection spell on Zosta again, but Zosta doubted that Horgus knew any magic and attacked her, preventing the spell from taking effect. Then Bohgong appeared in the form of a giant white ape with four arms and grappled Zosta, throwing her over his shoulder. Angered by being handled that way, Zosta broke free. The babau had come after the group, teleporting itself outside the chapel, and it now tried to dispel Runa's disguise but it was unable to overcome the power of the dragon's magic. The party struggled to continue their retreat with the babau and the four crusaders on their heels. It occurred to Jiro that the four men had probably originally been dominated magically by the woman but had eventually accepted her domination and were now acting of their own volition.

The group backed up to the room with the ledge that they had entered just before encountering the vrock. Bohgong managed to grab Zosta again and restrain her. The babau teleported beind them and attacked the ape as the Knights moved toward the passage with the portcullis. During this time Asami was still flying as quickly as her magic would allow toward the courtyard outside. But as she did so she caught a glimpse of what she realized was a succubus, probably the same one that had been in the chapel though it no longer wore the guise of Iomedae. An instant later the succubus disappeared.

Jiro barred the door into the ledge room, locking the crusaders out and leaving them no way to reach the Knights since the portcullis was locked in the closed position. Freed of those four enemies the Knights only had to deal with the babau and with Zosta's compulsion to attack Runa. Zosta struggled free of Bohgong's grip again and knocked the babau off its feet. Runa backed away while her foe was preoccupied with the demon. Shim gave himself the ability to climb like a spider and scrambled over the spiked pit Zosta had fallen into earlier.

Asami reached the army camp and was greeted there by Irabeth, who asked her how the exploration of the Citadel was going. Asami was confused by why she had come outside. She scowled, and without responding to Irabeth's question flew back inside to rejoin her friends.

Zosta went after Runa again and knocked her down, which allowed the babau to get up . Shim slashed it severely with his sword. Jiro had created another magic circle and the demon tried to get rid of it but had no success. He held a potion out to Runa and told her, "Drink this." Runa got to her feet, grabbed the potion, and retreated again, using her enchanted shirt to grant her the ability to move farther than would normally have been possible. Jiro cast a healing spell on himself and began speaking to Zosta, attempting to persuade her to desist. Bohgong tried to grab her again but she slipped out of his grasp. The babau attacked Shim one last time and then disappeared, for it had been summoned from the Abyss and the duration of the magic had run out.

Asami arrived at the end of the long corridor her comrades were in, to find that Horgus Gwerm had somehow appeared and Runa was missing. Zosta was now trying to strike Horgus. She was about to try to dispel the compulsion on Zosta again when suddenly a voice in her head told her to attack Jiro and Bohgong. It was not the voice of Eldrazi. Against her will Asami summoned a ball of fire, not her normal sphere of burning wood nor Eldrazi's ball of acid, but ordinary fire. This she lobbed at where Jiro and his spirit animal stood together. Both of them were engulfed in flames, but when the fire cleared they were still on their feet. A third presence in her mind had somehow prevented the spell from being as harmful as it would have been under normal circumstances.

Runa gulped down the potion Jiro had given her without knowing what it was, and was surprised when she realized she had become invisible. That didn't stop Zosta trying to hit her. She was knocked down again and Zosta begun punching the area where Runa had been. When her blows connected Runa grunted in pain and felt her ribs crack under the violent blows.

The presence in Asmai's mind that had modified the fireball spell began to argue with the essence of Eldrazi, and this contention seemed to make it difficult for the other mind trying to control hers to have any effect on her. For the moment she was free of their influence. She called on her magic to dispel the compulsion affecting Zosta, and this time she was successful. Zosta stopped pursuing Runa and looked angry and confused as she realized what she had been doing. Freed from Eldrazi's control as well as the other mind, Asami called out, "Help me! There is someone in my mind!" When the others questioned her, she was able to tell them about the cursed spellbook, as well as the unknown entity that had forced her to attack Jiro and Bohgong. Jiro suggested that she cast a protection spell on herself while she was able, and she did so. They realized that the second compulsion had probably come from the same succubus that had controlled Zosta, and Asami mentioned glimpsing a succubus during her flight through the Citadel.

The Knights now withdrew from the Citadel and returned to the army camp, where they told Irabeth and Aravashnial about the cursed spellbook. To prevent Asami from harming anyone when her protective spell wore off, she submitted to being bound and gagged. The paladins were ordered to do everything in trios of people who were familiar with each other, to prevent the succubus from mimicking or compelling anyone else. The mages realized that to expel Eldrazi would probably require a ritual of some sort, and it was possible that expulsion might actually allow him to exist outside the spellbook. Asami also realized that the other entity that had helped to protect her friends must be a remnant of another evoker named Conshru*, who had according to legend sacrificed himself to prevent one of Eldrazi's spells from doing untold harm while the two evokers were engaged in a duel of spellcraft. She didn't think that Conshru was as whole a personality as Eldrazi, but she welcomed his aid. While she assured her friends that Eldrazi thus far hadn't tried to make her harm them, they were none too pleased that she was under his influence while they were trying to overcome the demonic defenders of Citadel Drezen.

*Conshru is the name of a character previously played by the GM in another campaign.

Note: Aegon's player has withdrawn from the campaign indefinitely.

Next: part 37, A New-Found Ally









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