Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 87 [RPG]

[Sunday, 9 Arodus 4708 A.R. continued]

 

Poised on the top of Castle Scarwall’s War Tower, a trio of brave explorers are preparing to magically fly across to the keep’s central tower.  But before they can depart, a cry rings out from below in the unmistakeably shrill voice of Eldritch, Anorak’s familiar: “My master, my master awakens!”  The vast, echoing corridors of the castle make it difficult for those on top of the tower to pinpoint the source of the shouting, but eventually they locate Eldritch on the opposite side of the smashed entrance to the castle’s donjon.  Anorak is there, and no longer stone!

But there’s no time for explanations: The Reckoner is in a hurry to track down and destroy another spirit anchor before his protective magics wear off, and he shouts for the dwarf and his reptilian/birdlike familiar to hurry up.  The two know that leaving the donjon will subject them to a protective ward designed to keep all but the purest of souls trapped within, but there seems to be no choice and they brave the doorway.  The pain is intense for Anorak, but the dwarf survives.  Unfortunately, Eldritch’s frail frame is wracked by an intense burst of magical energy and he’s killed instantly, falling to the ground, his body a smoking corpse.  Anorak screams and goes white.  But in a world of magic, death is not always the end, and so the dwarf wraps Eldritch’s body in spare clothes and places it on a newly-summoned floating disk of magical force.

Leading the group on toward the War Tower again, The Reckoner explains to Anorak what happened while the dwarf was turned to stone from the curse of Zev Ravenka.  The vigilante says they’re about to fly over to the castle’s central tower where they think the devil referred to in the Sun Shaman’s song must dwell.  Anorak worries that his reserves of magical energy are low, and says he should rest to regain his strength.  The Reckoner replies that dozens in Korvosa are dying everyday due to dark blood magic, and that if they don’t hurry, the demilich they just destroyed could reform.

Once at the top of the War Tower, Lorien’s key role becomes apparent.  With a brief prayer to Cayden Cailean, the war-priest grips the strand of prayer beads rescued from the unholy altar in the shrine of Zon-Kuthon below.  Suddenly, he, The Reckoner, and Yraelzin begin to float into the air, their bodies becoming as insubstantial as mist.  Anorak, preferring a more traditional flying spell, launches into the air to keep pace with them as the group start to float across the hundred feet and more that separate the two towers.

But then, disaster strikes!  Emerging from a cupola partway up the tower, a ghostly elven woman, her face contorted with rage, points a spectral finger at Lorien and flies out to attack!  Immediately recognising the foe as a banshee of a nature similar to the one that gave him a near-death experience in the Black Tower in Korvosa, The Reckoner prepares to swing his hammer before realising something even worse: in his insubstantial state, there’s no way for him to fight!  He calls for a retreat and begins to fly back to the War Tower to begin the process of transitioning from immaterial to physical form.  Meanwhile, the banshee must have a particular hatred for orcs and half-orcs, or perhaps worshippers of goodly gods, and it initially focuses all of its anger on Lorien.  Fortunately, the warrior-priest had the foresight to put up a protective ward against attacks from certain undead creatures, and the banshee is unable to harm him.  Nonetheless, Lorien also can’t fight or cast spells, and flies away in the hopes of escaping.  Yraelzin does the same.

That leaves Anorak as the sole combatant to face down the dreadful foe, and the dwarf goes to it with relish, combining his dwarven waraxe with a powerful burst of electricity to weaken the banshee.  But when the undead plunges its hand into the dwarf’s chest, he’s not protected by the same abjuration as Lorien and finds his very lifeforce draining away!  The dwarf fights on valiantly, but what he told The Reckoner earlier seals his fate: he has little magic left to combat such a dire threat!  Supernatural fear overcomes Anorak and he drops his axe in terror before instinctively trying to flee.  But the banshee’s rage is not appeased by mere fear—she seeks death, and finds it by plunging another ghostly hand into Anorak’s heart.  Killed instantly, the dwarf’s body plummets to the ground, crashing into the roof of the guest wing far below.

Regrouping inside the War Tower, the stunned survivors decide to recover Anorak’s body and see if they can find a way to the base of the central tower from inside the keep so as to avoid the banshee’s wrath.  By staying low and in the shadows of the ever-present gloom, the survivors are able to recover Anorak’s body.  They retreat to an inner chamber near the War Tower where they’ve often camped during their time in Scarwall and place Anorak’s body respectfully on a table.  With few options other than to press on and complete the task of breaking the link between Scarwall and Ileosa’s crown as quickly as possible, the survivors set out to find the lower entrance to the central tower.

 

The Reckoner’s keen insight into architectural design allows him to traverse the maze of passageways and chambers of Scarwall relatively quickly in order to get near where the entrance to the central tower should be.  A careful search of nearby areas finds multiple balconies, a portrait room that fills The Reckoner with sudden anger so that he destroys all of them, a damp old library, and more.  When The Reckoner puts his ear to a door and hears movement on the other side, suspicion that the group is getting closer to their target grows.  Bursting into the room, the survivors see a sparsely furnished guardroom with a bonze gong hanging above the table.  A pair of devilish creatures, bristling with barbs, are surprised by the attack and quickly fall before The Reckoner’s hammer.

 

The way forward now seems clear, and Hell itself might tremble at the vengeance of the Harrowed Heroes!

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GM Commentary

One of the things I've talked a lot about in these recaps is not forgetting about giving personalities to animal companions and familiars.  I had a lot of fun role-playing Eldritch's paranoid homicidal tendencies.  Alas, the forbiddance/repulsion effect just inflicted too much damage for the familiar--a risk of a lot of area effect/field type spells that GMs often forget about in higher level play.

Windwalk is one of those spells that seems super awesome until you stop and read the details carefully.  The time it takes to transition between the gaseous state (where you can be hurt but can't fight effectively) and a solid state is a real vulnerability, as the PCs found out in this session.

The sense of the rest of us at the table was that Anorak's death was essentially self-inflicted, as he had plenty of opportunities to escape and fought (uncharacteristically) to the death.  It happens sometimes that a player wants to introduce a new PC and effective has their current PC commit suicide, but I hate to see it as I think it undermines character progression and the import of genuine loss that should accompany the death of a PC.