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[16
Neth 4707 continued]
The adventurers go over their plan for assaulting the Shadow Clock one
last time, and settle on the idea of Kang ferrying his companions, one by one,
onto exterior scaffolding one story below the roof, hoping that they can then
advance en masse upwards to take Xanesha by surprise. The plan goes surprisingly well at first, as
a loud flock of birds masks the sounds of Kang setting his companions onto the
creaking wooden scaffolding. But Arnald,
the last to ascend (as the two archers of Erastil he recruited have been
instructed to wait below and secure the exit), lands with a heavy thud that
alerts Xanesha that someone is nearby.
“I don’t know why you’ve come,” she hisses, peering down at the
adventurers, “but you’ll rue the day you trespassed on my domain!”
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| Xanesha |
Kang
reacts to Xanesha’s appearance with lightning speed, hurling a pair of
explosive concoctions onto the roof. The
first strikes to devastating effect, but the second is a dud, and the alchemist
realizes some of his preparations have gone awry. Bey and Arnald advance up the scaffolding to
do battle with Xanesha, but the lamia matriarch’s wicked longspear jabs
repeatedly into the axeman before he can close, and his attempt to entangle her
in a net fails miserably. The group’s
other hardened warrior, Briza, is pinned down at the scaffolding by the
appearance of a trio of Faceless Stalkers who emerge from the bell tower and
climb up after her. Artemis takes
shelter just inside a room a level below the roof, waiting for an opportune
moment to strike. It comes when a
section of the roof collapses under Xanesha’s weight, and she falls through
into the hole, plugging it like a cork in a bottle! Artemis begins releasing arrow after arrow
into her lower half, with one such volley striking an artery!
But
despite this early momentum, things quickly turn against the adventurers. After cleaving one of the Faceless Stalkers
in twain, Briza is knocked off the scaffolding by a lucky blow from another one
and plummets 160’ to the muddy alleyway below!
Somehow, the hardy Shoanti warrior survives the fall, and even manages
to stand up with the aid of the newly-recruited archers. Back on the roof, Arnald is impaled again by
Xanesha’s longspear and barely manages to stand upright. All seems lost. Believing that her long-prophesied fiery doom
has come, Bey bursts into flame and tries to tackle Xanesha—as the two
struggle, the ancient, partially wooden clock tower starts to burn! Xanesha moans in outrage about being unable
to free herself from the hole and promises a swift death to her enemies.
Salvation arrives from above. Kang lands on the roof just in time to drag
Arnald out of the flames and then successfully mixes together another bomb to
throw at Xanesha. Although the throw
misses his intended target and explodes on Bey’s chest (injuring her severely),
the resulting concussive burst is large enough to finish off the burned and
bleeding Xanesha! The northwest section
of the roof gives way, dropping her, Bey, and one of the Faceless Stalkers to
the level below, where Artemis is standing.
The adventurers above still face the difficult task of escaping before
the entire clock tower becomes a raging inferno!
Down
at the base of the tower, unaware of her allies’ success or the fire above,
Briza throws open the doors to the ground floor and charges in with the archers
at her heels. She reaches the staircase
and starts climbing, but from out of one of the back rooms a hideous
abomination sallies forth: a veritable giant of a “man” made from stitched
together human, horse, and cow parts armed with a massive scythe and drooling
obscenely. With one mighty sweep of the
scythe, one of the archers is killed outright.
Briza knows she can’t defeat such a beast in her severely injured
condition and continues running up the stairs, with the surviving archer
following.
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| "Scarecrow" |
Back
on the roof, Kang flies the grievously wounded Arnald down to street level,
and, soon after, Bey appears having bent lent a magic ring of slow falling by
Artemis. For his part, Artemis is
determined to recover at least some of the enormous wealth that Xanesha could
have stashed away. He pushes her body
off the scaffolding so it drops to the ground far below, and then adroitly
climbs up to the roof. With only seconds
to spare before the lamia matriarch’s nest of silk sheets and pillows begin to
burn, he manages to knock three of the seven chests off the roof and then
escape himself. Kang acts as a one-man
rescue operation, flying his allies safely to the ground below.
For the space of a few seconds, complete victory seems at hand. But Arnald, ever unpredictable, can’t refrain
from trying to sneak a peek at the scythe-wielding monstrosity that is still on
the ground floor of the tower. As he
sees it, it sees him! Arnald tries to
run from it, but it catches up to him and with another single sweep of its
flashing blade turns life into death.
The creature then searches for more prey and spots Briza, who is
hurriedly gathering up the contents of the three chests that broke when they
were pushed off the roof. She also wisely
makes a run for it, but, despite her greater speed, the creature knows the twisting
alleyways of Underbridge better and manages to get her cornered. Still, the swordswoman is resourceful and
climbs up and out of the dead end, shouting for help. Once again, Kang swoops in and lifts her to
safety. The surviving heroes of the
dramatic battle on the burning Shadow Clock flee and manage to escape the
relentless creature.
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| Arnald's Tombstone |
Thus
ends the second chapter of an epic tale.
Although not without cost, a murderous cult and its leaders have been
soundly defeated. Yet there are
machinations at play in Varisia, and the tell-tale seven-pointed Sihedron of
ancient Thassilon continues to manifest, bringing with it portents of doom . .
.
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Director's Commentary
This was the epic end of Chapter Two, and it really was epic, lasting the entire evening and with memorable twists throughout. The PCs' excellent plan of flying to the top of the tower to surprise Xanesha was (partially) foiled by Arnald's terrible Stealth check--it seems like there's always one bad roll in a party when it comes to Stealth. The battle on top of the tower was exciting and could definitely have gone either way. Xanesha falling partially through a hole in the roof was caused by a deft use of a plot twist card (I gave the players each one to use per chapter of the AP). We were all amazed that Briza not only survived the 16d6 fall, but was able to get up and try to rejoin the fight! I knew, going into the session, that it would be the last one for Bey's and Arnald's players, so I wasn't completely surprised when Arnald did something dumb and got himself killed. Still, it was a fantastic session, and the best ending of the three chapters of the AP we've completed thus far.
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