Defense of Ssqua

Scribe Notes

Summary

Adventure: Defense of Ssqua
GM: Martin
Season: Autumn 798 WK

Party

• Bozo Crambelly - Party Organiser and Scribe
• Sabrina - Buxom bandleader with brash bravado (and a Pegasus companion called Ajax)
• Blitzkrieg - Battle boss with big blade and bigger boots
• Amber - Butter brained bone-setter
• Callas - Blast and boost babe
• Tomis - Bottled-up boat builder
• Turf - Big boy wannabe

Time on adventure

1 Fruit, 798 WK to 22 Fruit, 798 WK.

Employer

Bozo Crambelly

Mission

Investigate Apollyon's aims, and attempt to stop the spawn army onslaught on Terra Nova.

Places Visited

Arcadia - alternate plane to Alusia during the War of Tears

Ahriman’s Cave - Ahriman’s home in Bowcourt

Bowcourt - a northern Barony

Beliel’s Demesne - extra-planar area

Bozo’s Hat - portal to Beliel’s Demesne

Elven Isles

KinLu

Porto Damiano - Destinian port in Terra Nova

Sammael’s Demesne - replaced Beliel’s Demesne

Sassalinas - lizard city near Porto Damiano

Spawn River - Terra Novan river following from Spawn Lake to the Gulf of Pizarro

Ssquarinarass - lizard city about 20 miles upstream from Ssqua

Ssqua - Capital of the Northern Confederation of lizard cities, on Spawn River

Star Town - Elven port in Terra Nova

Terra Nova

Thend - Elven port in Elvish Isles

Xanadu’s temple - large cave between Seagate and New Haven.

People Involved

Anestasia, Countess of Borovia (Ex-Adventurer)

Apollyon, Demonic Emperor of Light, Lord of the Abyss (Solar Mage)

Ariman, Demonic Emperor of Dark (Dark Mage)

Belial, Demonic King of Fire (Fire Mage)

Beliel, composite entity of Belial and Sammael

Birdman, Lizard of Sassalinas (Air Mage)

Diego, Destinian General in charge of Terra Novan troops

Gyronwy, Prince of the Elvish Isles

Kokahn, Advisor to the ruling Triumvirate of Kin Lu (Greater Summoner)

Raphael, Archangel of Protection

Sammael, Archangel of Magic

Uriel, Archangel of Justice

Baal, the Highest of the High, father of the Demonic Emperors

Xanadu, father of all Dragons, and of Baal

Original Scribe Notes

Media:Snau9803.zip

Scribe Notes

1 Fruit

The party determines its initial steps and plans departure for 8 Fruit.

8 Fruit

Journey to Bowcourt. Visit Ariman, Demonic Emperor of Dark. His minion meets us and takes us to him. He gives us interesting information regarding his brother and his possible aims. He may be attempting to restore his father, which can only be done by all four demonic emperors. Stop in a pub for lunch on the way back, that is run by an ex-adventurer.

9 Fruit

Visit Xanadu’s temple and are granted an audience. Xanadu reveals himself to be Ariman’s grandfather. Ariman’s father is Vaal, the Highest of the High.

[Ed. Bozo's spelling of Vaal in place of Baal retained here.

10 Fruit

Visit Borovia and talk with Anastasia. She arranges a letter of introduction to the Kokahn the Summoner of Kin Lu. We walk the road to Kin Lu and visit him. We are invited to afternoon tea.

The Green Mage is also in attendance. Kokarn is a very polite and exact host. The Green Mage is a little crazy, and gets muddled between the past and the future. He is also rude, and fails to accommodate social niceties.

Turf unfortunately emulates him, and breaks a cup. He then ceases to exist as far as Kokarn is concerned.

Kokarn agrees to consider sending an army to aid in stopping the spawn. The Green Mage provides a magical jade fish to allow us to send them suitable intelligence gained in Terra Nova. The Green Mage lives in a floating castle off the coast of Kin Lu. There are special precautions to take when visiting him.

11 Fruit

A long days flight to the Elvish Isles. A nice hot bath and sumptuous dinner with Gyronwy, the ruling Prince. He pledges his help, and allows us use of the water path. He says that help from the Elven Kingdom may take quite some time to arrive (decades).

12 Fruit

Travel to Thend which now has a blockhouse and pier. Walk the Water Path.

14 Fruit

We fly from Star Town, which is also now well defended, to Sassalinas, the lizard city near Porto Damiano.

Talk with the Birdman over lunch. He arranges a waters of vision with which we watch the mopping up at Ssquarinarass.

The spawn were sacrificing captives, using some of them for food, and raising some as zombies. Other captives were being employed in cleaning up. It looked as though the bulk of the army had already departed. Birdman transports us to Ssqua with windwalk under the cover of darkness. He introduces us to an adjutant.

We start talking our way up the order.

(3am)

Eventually, we get to meet a top advisor. As a provider of troops (ie us), Blitzkrieg is accepted onto the War Council, along with numerous other lizards. Amber discovers a plague rampant in the city. Do what we can and then get some sleep.

15 Fruit

Spawn messenger arrives at dawn and calls for the surrender. He also sows seeds of unrest. Some lizards depart. Surrender deadline is noon. Storm front arrives and it starts raining.

(noon)

The lizards decide to fight. Only the Necros were keen to capitulate. Amber determines that three different plagues were in effect.

Amber and Bozo set up healing camps. Organise the lizard’s Detect Auras to sort the sick from the healthy. Callas’s Strength of Stones and the rest of the party transferring Fatigue though Amber to Bozo, allows Bozo to cure 600 lizards in 6 hours (and do three ward rituals). Find one of the carriers, who under the effect of a Wiccan “Create Plague” spell.

Blitzkrieg organises the outer defences as best he can. Sabrina does sealing rituals to confine elementals to ground level.

(8pm)

Pillars of rock start falling, 3 every 20 minutes. Causes mass destruction and a further lowering of morale. Amber is required to resurrect a General, who collected some fragments of shattering rock, and a Water Mage who was drowned by his summoned elemental.

(10:30pm)

Head out on a sortie to sort out the Black Mages. Earth walk 15 miles into the jungle. Bush crash with an Earth Elemental to the edge of the storm (17 miles from Ssqua). Clear a space for take off. No sign of the Wiccan. Head for the recently captured city, Ssquarinarass, where we believe they are getting their ammunition.

Jumped by a squad of Eagle Spawn. Tomis takes a spear through the arm. Blitz and Sabrina take out a few. Turf almost falls to his death wrapped in a net. The Eagle Spawn withdraw.

We sneak up on the city, with Sabrina in front. She charges the top of one of the pyramids, so the party gets hammered when it arrives. Kill one Necro and capture another. Blasted by four Wiccan with high ranked Hellfires, Callas goes down. Sabrina’s gold brick takes out two of them. We depart. Chased back to our clearing. Earth Walk back to Ssqua.

(12:30am)

We discover that in our absence a huge hail storm has decimated the troops, all of the Generals (except the recuperating General that Amber resurrected) have been assassinated by Spy Spawn, the King has been killed and his head and the Queen carried off by burrowing Bug Spawn.

Blitzkrieg is now commander. We retreat to our underground bunker to discuss our next step.

(1 am)

A Flash Flood engulfs the city, and Eagle Spawn start the attack. We seal off our hole in the ground. Amber resurrects a dead Bug Spawn for a Compelling interrogation. Relate all information gained to date to the Jade fish and release it. Time to depart.

Callas backfires and sends me off on my own into the jungle. Get to meet a Yagwar close up (with big teeth like that VV).

Luckily the Party finds me pretty promptly. We retreat into Bozo’s hat for some much needed rest.

16 Fruit

Rested and Purified, we return to the jungle about noon. Use crystal balls to check on the state of Ssqua. A Naga directing the clean up turns and looks directly at the Crystal Ball.

We fly up Spawn River about 20 miles to find a place to Divinate it. We are interrupted by a water elemental attack. We head a further 80 miles upriver to a large sand bank on a river fork. The river is divinated. It is acting as a conduit for magic, but is not active at present so we could not determine which way the flow goes. We decide to investigate some pyramids in one of the riverside towns, to try to find out more about whether the pyramids are vital to the conduit, or are merely feeding power into it (from the many sacrifices performed on them).

(5 pm)

Just before arriving at the next town a Fireflighted Spawn passes us and lands in the town. We press on discussing our options. He re-alights and flies past us, seeing us. He returns to the town.

We fly in expecting a battle, but they form up a welcoming guard. We tread cautiously and discover that we have been mistaken for some Drow traders come to visit. Sabrina reviews the troops, and we organise an inspection of the pyramids. We manage to complete some divinations, but the Light Sphere Ritual fails.

We are discussing options, when suddenly a large bright light appears in the plaza. A different Naga appears with some Demon Hounds, Spawn Mages and Troops. We depart.

Two lizards are sent after us on Fire Flight. The each succeed in killing themselves while damaging the legs of Tomis and Ajax respectively. Ajax limps off up the Rainbow bridge (to Valhalla from where he comes). We regroup, and decide to call it a day. We fly back to Sassalinas.

(10 pm)

Fill in the Birdman on the loss of Ssqua. Warn them of the plagues. Eat. Sleep.

17 Fruit

We briefly enter Bozo’s hat and test the healing circle and wedge concepts while fixing Tomis’s leg. We find that the best configuration is a circle with the healers in the circle passing their healing powers to the head healer who acts as a focus to apply the healing to the patient.

(11 am)

We head to Porto Damiano. Talk with General Diego to inform them of the current situation.

There are outstanding orders for the arrest of Bozo, but Diego decides to finish his glass, no, make that, bottle of wine before he bothers telling his Commandant that Bozo has visited. Meanwhile, we wing our way to Star Town, and walk the Water Path again.

19 Fruit

Fill in the Elves on our discoveries.

20 Fruit

Long days flight back to Seagate.

21 Fruit

Rest after our hectic fortnight, and prepare for a long day tomorrow.

22 Fruit

(3 am)

Enter Bozo’s hat, which is Beliel’s demesne. Sabrina does a ritual to oust Demonic Kings. Form a Healing circle to focus healing into Beliel.

(10am)

World starts to go a bit crazy. Dumped into Wonderland, “Near Whitfield”. Travel to Whitfield. Found it almost depopulated compared to last time (see “Around A Hat in 80 Hours”).

The ordered Whitfield and chaotic Rosewood clash on the bridge over the bottomless chasm continues as before. Find magic to be very chaotic being immersed in extremely high mana. Decide to not cast any spells. Make our way to the centre of the bridge. Find that the bridge narrows to 15’ in the middle. Turf lends Snickersnee, a sharp sword that was found here by Bozo on the last expedition, to Amber so he can use it to sever the bridge.

Blitzkrieg and Sabrina form a front rank and force the demons back in order to get Amber to the centre of the bridge. Amber foolishly tries laying hands on the bridge, even after being warned against it by Turf. Turf recovers Snickersnee from near the edge of the bridge where Amber dropped it, while Amber recovers himself.

Sabrina and Blitzkrieg continue to press forward, so we are almost at the centre of the bridge. Despite being specifically warned by Bozo not to draw Demonslayer, Amber does so (later gaining the Stupidest Adventure Award for it). He immediately charges over our front line to attempt to kill the teeming hordes of demons that are attacking us.

Sabrina and Blitzkrieg manage to carve their way to him. Sabrina’s attempts to knock him out are unsuccessful due to the nature of the sword. Turf plunges Snickersnee into the bridge and starts it convulsing. Bozo and Blitzkrieg are almost thrown off. While the chaos demons are recovering Sabrina and then Blitzkrieg jump on Amber and restrain him. They drag him kicking and screaming back to our side of the bridge as Turf completes the coup de grace.

The bridge disintegrates from beneath us. Bozo manages to get wings cast on everybody, and the party flies frantically towards the Whitfield side of the chasm. The chasm walls are no longer there. We fly through darkness towards a tantalising light in the distance. Eventually we get to a closing rift. Fly through it into Arcadia.

Travel through places travelled by the last party (see “Around A Hat in 80 Hours”), including the World Tree and the battleground. Arrive at the blockhouse. Proceed down to the basement. Find Beliel there, not well. Form a healing wedge and try to separate the two personalities of Belial and Sammael. Succeed.

Beliel splits into Sammael and Belial, who is no longer a two headed angel. We jump him. His chariot appears, and the steeds are Equine Efreetis who rip into us. We seem to be gaining the upper hand when Beliel spots Bozo. “YOU!!!” he screams. He then wades up a Web of Light to get at Bozo. He cops a lot of magic, and his steeds are dissipated. He turns into a comet and bugs out. Extreme disappointment all round.

Sammael slowly recovers. The other Archangel’s turn up and Raphael and Uriel give him strength. They bicker and leave. Sammael thanks us.

We return to the Guild and decide to donate Belial’s captured War Chariot to the Guild as a museum piece for the library foyer.