Legion's End
Summary
Adventure: Legion's End
GM: William
Session: Autumn 813wk
Night: Tuesday
Location New Windsor / House DJ in Glen Eden
Level: Not so Low
Party:
- Sabrina - The Widow
- Braegon - The Coroner
- Bishop Velcanthus - The Priest
- Dalran - The Undertaker
- Pent - The Mortician
- Vychan - Deaths Representative
Employer: The Future Widow (and part-time Valkyrie - harvester of slain heroes) who wishes to divert fate (and possibly get fired)
Summary: Among the heroes of the Elves, Tarahell Alatáriël, is particularly famous. A survivor from the War of Tears and every other armed conflict of the Elves since, many of his deeds have faded to the point of myth and legend. Even the demons fear him, remembering a time when they faced him and weren't so immortal. He has always triumphed and his presence inspires others as they believe he cannot be slain. Sadly, that simply is not true...
Scribe Notes
Day 1
Upon going home early to her house Sabrina realised something was not right with Tarahell Alatáriël.
He had recently fired all the household staff and was acting a little strange.
Investigation revealed that Tarahell Alatáriël was actually an extremely powerful Doppelganger of an unknown kind from off plane.
Tarahell Alatáriël left 2 months ago to go to a council with the Queen but was replaced by the Super Doppelganger 1 month ago.
Travelled to the Queen via Verlenze on way home probably last at Ladlaugh.
He was stopped by soothsayers on the way to see the queen to warn him of his impending doom (however this is rather common).
Interrogated the Super Doppelganger under hypnotism at the guild. - found that 25 Super Doppelganger's from the plane of Ick were hired (they don't know what each other is doing). Five were at the palace to disrupt the monarchy.
This one seeks to have Tarahell Alatáriël die heroically in the war thus realising the prophecy of the 23rd legion (that after death and when the gates of hell are open they will march into hell against the Drow sorcerers (demons)).
The Super Doppelganger was hired by 5 individuals in deep disguise (though Super Doppelganger's could penetrate it).
- Malthus - Earl of Death and Havoc
- Botis - Ugly Earl
- Astaroth - Terrible Duke
- Foras - President & Lord of Seekers
- Eligos - Knightly Duke
You can detect the Super Doppelganger 's if you DA with a “Rune of Truth†on and ask the right question.
We travel to Seensplate - abandoned northern province of Alfheim and outside the magical barriers.
From there it is 50 miles to main settlement of Ladlaugh.
We were met at the border by a Farcharn guard (Red Cap Brownie and Fae oddities).
Ladlaugh up to its knees in toddlers.
Found a magical Hairbrush which can portal groups to the Plane of Ick. It has 8 charges.
It takes to a round room with a single door guards by two large strange creatures. They have crab like bodies 2 - 3 legs 3 - 5 arms (weapons) and seemed primed to attack anything coming in the portal.
We are thinking about attacking through here when Heimdall turns up asking Sabrina (and us) to report to Asgard.
Odin tell us that Sabrina is ordered not to stop Tarahell Alatáriël's heroic death as it is for-ordained. Also it is due in 16 days.
However he also tells us that Tarahell Alatáriël is on the plane of Ick and is being pursued by an army (only 4 hours behind him).
And we can Rainbow Bridge to near him.
New Plane - "Ick" - Squidgy ground "Tarahell Alatáriël" is about 2 miles away.
DA'ing the ground reveals that it is sientient - living human (bodies) with plan or origin "Ick"
Also revealing is they are "Imortal" ad have a primary attack of "Engulfing".
Then it briefly rained - Blood.
Deciding not to muck around we flew towards Tarahell Alatáriël, flying over some small hobbit sized creature eating a Super Doppelganger (they D.A.'ed as Human though).
We thought about stopping and recruiting them to help us against the Super Doppelganger's but as Braegon said: "The Enemy of My Enemy is still Ick."
We caught up with "Tarahell Alatáriël" and he said that the Queen (Elvish Queen!) had also been captured and will soon be handed over to the Demons. A quick and violent rescue is in order.
We flew for 6 hours and get to the prison tower (a tooth? tusk?) some 100' high. Tarahell Alatáriël says we can "Will" ourselves inside (this is a bit worrying for Dalran and myself). We fly up to it's roof to see if there is a way in up there.
Upon landing Dalran looks up into the sky to check if there is a "Top" tooth ready to decend upon us and crunch us up - he can't see any.
On top there is a pool of - err goop, which D.A.'s as Daemon with a main magical power of "Unity", a title of "All Encompacing One", we soon realise that this is the same Aura as the tower has.
Tarahell Alatáriël points out that this is a diffirent prison tower than the one he escaped from (they moved the prisoners?), this leads us to speculate their may be other prisons for the copyied victims of the other three other Super Doppelganger's we know were in the elvish capital.
So we took the direct approach and landed on top and tried to will ourselves in.
When I got to where the Queen was imprisoned on the wall there was already combat going on.
We fought our way out of there and released her - then found Lady Alais elsewhere in the prison , she had escaped and was fighting a giant "Brain". We helped Lady Alais get away and after we were gone Sabrina stabbed stabbed the brain with her sword resulting in a wave of pain for everybody (for miles around).
Aparently the captors had revealed their plan to Lady Alais (niether her or the Queen were Super Doppelganger's - we checked). For the elves they would undo the reforms of recent times, then return the elves to their decadence (then eventually invade).
We banished home and Sabrina fought Ick (yes the whole plane).
4 days pass until she returns.
Day 5
Later she said that Ick seemed to be able to sacrafice other planes (and all their beings) to heal itself so defeating it would be worse than withdrawing.
We plan what to do next.
We suggest the Queen doesnt go back but stay wither her uncle (in Bordesea) safe. Lady Alais can return and replace (and impersonate) the Super Doppelganger that took over from her, and thus attempt to discover more details of their plan.
In Ladlaugh we go and see the priestess of Chantress, who infors us that currently the Elves don't have a God of Knowledge.
She asked "How many Gods has Father Rowan created." (he didn't know!)
She also pointed out the he wasn't a good candidate for the god of knowledge.
She said she could curse the elves kindom such that we would know imposters - (seemed like a good idea to me). She said: "All imposters will have a small limp in their left foot."
The Beltan Command is in Ladlaugh, so we decided to check them for Super Doppelganger's and talk for some advice. They said in the past all the elves would have done is activate the purity stones reealing all Doppelgangers/Shapeshifters/Demons etc within a 5 mine radius. However they didn't know where these were now.
There should be one in each city - i.e. Ladlaugh but they didn't know where. We guessed it might be in the Clerk's Anghamerabad (really a dragon) hoard.
It was, but he was unwilling to let us have it - he did let us look at it and Braegon had a chat.
The purity stone knew the location of 4 of it's brothers.
- 1 Far to the north in a cavern full of ice - directions
- 1 at the northern corner of the world
- 1 in solid ground to the east 1/4 way round the world
- 1 at the bottom of the ocean in the rift between continents
The first of these stones seems easiest to get too - Only some Ice giants with hearts of ice to deal with.
A message to Father Rowan popped into his head (apparently this sort of thing happens) warning him not to marry Sabrina and Tarahell Alatáriël.
So we travelled up north following the directions to a valley in the land of Ice and Snow (Yay).
After landing in the valley we see a mist unnaturally approaching, after preparing defences we see a pack of Ice Serpents (8' high 20' long going about 20 MPH) chased by Ice Elementals.
We capture one of the Serpents and talk to the Elementals (one called "Freezing of Water"), mainly which are friendly. They are out hunting the Ice Serpents to get their "Hearts of Fire".
They suggest we go and see the local King who lives at the end of the Valley (close to where the Purity Stone is supposed to be).
After they go I see the shadow of a swooping bird and take cover, Vychan doesn't duck fast enough and is carried off by an Ice Dragon. Sabrina jumped on its back and Dalran, Father Rowan, and I shot it down and captured it. We offered it a deal (it didn’t have a name so eventually we named it 'Artic') - 1 Item from its horde each of our choice.
Back at its cave we discovered it had 21 Hibernated dwarves ("Mother" left them as snacks) which have been there for 70 years. We demanded the dwarves freedom as well.
Looking around be find the odd thing.
- Hammer of the Elementals.
- Ducks eggs with souls in them (Drow souls, sacrificed some 120-130 years ago). The Dragon remembers them - Drow tasted Yummy.
- Ausire made Staff - Staff of Od
- Some other items
We woke up one of the dwarves and he told us that they were from Tyrin - West of here (west of Drakensberg). As they were far from home we sent them to Alfheim to help the elves in the war with the Drow (Dwarves and Elves are allies).
Next we flew to see the King of the Ice Giants - Ulgram. They were surprised to see us travelling with one of the Valkyrie.
We were granted an audience and told them about the Super Doppelganger's. The King told us that last year two of them tried to infiltrate his court by impersonating his son and Scald (Advisor). They slew them as the "Heart Stone" (the stone of purity) revealed them.
We suggested that a strong Alfheim would fight the Drow better thus weakening both. He agrees and is willing to lend us the Stone (that was easy).
Before we left we asked what the Super Doppelganger turned into when the purity stone was activated - an icky blob.
Then we left and got lost in the ways (seems a fast way to travel). In there we met and old woman (apparently this is impossible) named Esmeralda (she is connected to the one horned god). She says she was "Asked to check if Sabrina wants her beloved to survive". She (and her boss) wants us to "put one up on fate", thus weakening their influence. She is a witch and a representative of the younger gods which want the old order overthrown.
We talked about the 23rd legion and she told us that not all of them were actually dead. One - Carlaine, became a traitor to the 23rd legion and joined the Drow. Also it was he who created Tarahell Alatáriël's doom, many years ago.
We continued on to Elvandar (actually we never stopped moving as that is part of the travel magic), upon arriving we heard a loud rolling drum beat. Talking to the local revellers (elves) they said they were celebrating the 23rd legions about to come to its end and. This was a fairly violent party with naked dancing and doing a death dance wearing war paint. Very Primal.
We went to see the prince (not a Super Doppelganger - we checked, there should be one around here), ah there he is one of the advisors, Lord Velteyn. has been replaced a few weeks ago.
We surprised and fought the Super Doppelganger (it wacked me across the room and stuck something in Dalrans ear - trying to find his brain, also it seemed to be able to mimic our skill's or attacks used against it) capturing it and controlling it for interrogation.
It told us quite a lot. Lord Veltan was being held back on Ick in the "Tower of Shaping" where he was being "re-educated" (not school). It knew the approximate dispositions and tasks of the other Super Doppelganger's.(Dead or captured in brackets)
- 3(1) were focused on elven war leaders
- 3 were tasked with taking over the war leader of the humans
- 4 were after the mightiest air mage in Alusia
- 2(2) were in the Giants of the North
- 3(2) were in the Elven Court (Queen, Lady Alais, Marcell)
- 3 were involved with the Archbishop of the Western Kingdoms
- 2(2) were on Tarahell Alatáriël, Anghamerabad ate one.
- 4 replaced human lords - well known agitators
We asked for an expert on this "Doom" and were sent "Tangle bones". Tarahell Alatáriël is doomed to die bereft and alone, last of the 23rd legion (but he is not bereft - he is betrothed to Sabrina and he is hardly alone, he has Sabrina and his 7 yr. old son). Tangle Bones points out that Dooms are horrid and confusing, and they gain power as time goes on, and this one was set at the end of the War of Tears (there was more magic around back then and it was like 20,000 years ago - way to hold a grudge).
Tangle Bones summons the original commander of the 23rd legion, Mo-Challic (Sabrina met him 15 years ago fighting the Callamar). He was banished from the 23rd legion and exiled for marrying a Human.
Tangle also tells us that if a Doom fails it will rebound on its placer (Carlaine) and his race (hopefully this means Drow not Elves or both).
Suddenly we realise we have to protect Sabrina's son (Bel Garian) and ensure that some trickery (these are Demons and Super Doppelganger's after all) from convincing Tarahell Alatáriël that he is alone and bereft. So we rush to Ladlaugh. Everyone is OK.
Day 6
Sabrina pops back to have a word with Odin (who told her not to interfere with the death of a great hero) and tells us what we learnt about the doom, he laughs and thinks it is a fantastic joke that the doom might rebound (he did not know that might happen?) and approves of Sabrina doing that.
Mo-Challic's wife (I didn’t catch her name) is going to baby site Sabrina's son (don't know his name either) while Mo-Challic and Tarahell Alatáriël go back to Elvandar to the great big party and have a great time (again as far away from bereft and alone as possible).
The best thing to rebound the doom is if its terms apply to Carlaine and not remotely to Tarahell Alatáriël. So preferably Sabrina should kill him once he is bereft and alone (so we should find out if he is married?).
As we know most of the details on what the Super Doppelganger's are doing we decide we had better go to Eldilon and see how Lady Alais is going. When we arrive we find everyone has retreated to the lower city. Apparently a giant moster has taken over the upper city and currently is covering over:
- The Ministry of War
- The Ministry of Foriegn Relations
- The Ministry of Progress
We go to the Tent that is the temporary HQ of the Ministry of War in the lower city. They give us some intelligence on the situation.
- The upper city has been taken over by a giant monster fungus complete with multiple eyes, tenticles, and spitting stuff (sounds familiar).
- The Queen is fine (down here) but the prince and princess are both out of Eldilon on a diplomatic mission.
- Trouble started when they realised that there were two Lady Alais.
- Marastell - the Privy counciler is solving this issue by drinking, as are most of the Elven Court.
We approach the pavillion that holds the elvish court now and find the first 6 people all D.A. as Super Doppelganger's. Inside there are 80 - 100 people all apparently Super Doppelganger's (apparently only a few days old)?
We took one aside, knocked them out for questioning (Seagate times headline: Guild party Mugs Elivsh Court, discovering that the Super Doppelganger's had put their own blood in the wine (the wine tried to take over Father Rowan). Next we took them somehwere secure and tried to cure them with the stone of purity. This didn'y work so well a the elf convulsed and the part of his body (mostly internal organs) that had been replaced by Super Doppelganger's. bits stopped working. Braegon managed to save them but they need a lot of rest and healing to recover (and there are 100 like this!).
So we gassed the Elven court.
The few that were being taken over by the Super Doppelganger's had to be knocked out or beated unconcious. Then we hibinated / stoned them all as a temporary measure and went back to the Minsitry of War's tent (I am pretty sure not only has no-one moved since we were here but the same guy is still talking). We hand over the bodies to them for safe keeping and for some of their healers to get to work on.
Also out of this fight we get:
- An angry "Eye of Delran".
- A mattock of "Ick" Slaying.
- A hand and a half of "Ick" Slaying.
- The Evlish crown and regalia - (No Delran you cannot keep them).
Next the upper city. The Ick was still spread across several buildings but had created a huge eye to stare at a doorway. Apparently this was a major entrance to the Elvish "Ways". Out of this door was a black tenticle of "Avatar" strength (D.A.ed as "The Destroyer").
Well Sabrina got all big and whaled into it while the rest of us flashed of light the eye and rained damage down upon it. Eventually we banished it's "Brain" back to Ick and killed the body. This released [[Alfheim#Keeper.2C_Mistress_of_Assassins|Lady Alais] and her "Destroyers" (good hard Elvish warriors usually kept asleep except for special occasions).
When in the fight there was a little colateral damage on the buildings in the upper city. The ministry of war was completed destroyed / subverted by the Super Doppelganger's, however we turned it's body back into stone and with a little moudling by Braegon and Sabrina they replaced the building for the elves.
We spend the rest of the day healing a helping the senior people in the elvish court.
Day 7
Next we plan to go and reascue Blitzkreg (havn't seen gim in a while - but I guess he has been busy with the war and all).
He is entrenched with his army in southern Aladar and we spend about half a day finding him. It is pouring with rain (not caused by our side) but this apparently is helpful.
Blitzkreg did encounter a Super Doppelganger's and killed it, then found and purged two more from the camp.
He also knows of Carlaone as he is some osrt of lich and a general of the opposition - he points out hte camp he is in.
We talk to some elementals and discover that a group of "Elves" (Drow) and eight elemental plus anonther big monster are creating a large tunnel going East deep underground.
So we tunnel down after them.
The obviosly spot us and send six fiery earth worms after us which attempt to eat Vychan before we kill three of them then control the other three.
We follow the path of the "tunnel" (not really a tunnel as they melt their way through the rock and it re-solidifes after them) till we intercept the major tunnel being dug. The minors have moved on and we are about half a mile behind them. Some scouting reveals thier numbers and disposition.
- 8 Elementals
- 25 Drow - a couple look like earth mages or at least are directing the Elementals
- A Elemental Lord of some sort - looks a bit like the Balrog "Shape of Fire"
I have a cunning plan. The three worms return up the tunnel and we hide behind them following them in, once with in their lines the worms will roll sidways over the Drow squashing them.
It works amazingly well. The drow open their ranks in the middel to let the worm through then they squash most of them. Good thing too as these guys are tough but now they are split up and delat with. many of them go crazy trying to get to Sabrina (who they recognised). We took one Drow prisoner and killed the rest (it was quite quick), then Sabrina said hello to the Elemental Lord and Named dropped a few Balrogs she had met (and generally was friends with) and he didnlt seemed inclined to attack us.
His name was "Rage under the Waters" and he was completing the underground highway from the ocean an the elvish "Winder Palace" Eldialon where all the lay lines meet. He is doing this cause he was asked to do it by an elvish (Drow we think) princess "Lady of the Ashen Stars" as he an his kind owe the elvish people some favours and boons. Normally he lives deep under the ocean between the contienents.
He is quite chatty and friendly and tells us a number of useful things:
- Carlain is a general of a Drow Army - he is skelletal and floats above the ground.
- Also there is the "Eye of Astronia" (Seir), an avatar, human shaped - unusual not supposed to be here? Rage describes him as a scurolas and tricksy knave. The Eye is waiting for something and has a sense of anticipation.
Whilst chatting to Rage we loot the bodies of the tough elves looking for useful things.
- At the other end of this tunnel (over 60 miles away) is a mining camp with about 100 people guarding it.
- 20 miles to the south of that is the major camp of the attacking drow army.
- At the major camp there are Drow, Orcs and Lizrd people (not from this plane).
- One of the Drow we killed down here was a sorceror who communicated with his master one a daily basis (his master is called the "Wizard of Time and Fear", who is a follower of the Willing Prince).
We asked Rage to slow down his digging while the elves decide what to do about the tunnel.
We also interrogated our prisoner.
- He was a silk shopkeeper who signed up for the army but is not in favour of the invasion.
- Senior most lord with similar views is "Lord of the Blasted Sands".
- 14 lords in favour of the war - unlikely to survive if they return defeated.
So armed with all this info we returned to Blizkreg's camp to see what he would like to do, He would like to keep the tunnel and take / garrison the mining camp at the other end. So we fly nearby and scry the mining camp - all signs of the defenders are underground.
Everytime there is a flash of lightening Delran gets the impression the Sier is looking at him. He also has a quick scry of the fortified city the drow army is in.
Delran gets the impression that Sier is trying to contact him. He refuses, we tell him not to talk to anyone as he always blabs our plans to them.
Quickly the smash and capture the small mining camp then ferry in defenders.
Again we question our prisoners.
- The have contact with the main camp (20 miles away) every couple of days and their are weekly supply runs.
Everytime there is a flash of lightening Delran AND Vychan gets the impression the Sier is looking at them.
Day 8
We have a few days before the doom happens so we decide to try and clear out a few more of the Super Doppelganger's.
We decide on investigating Mordeaux first which has the primary target of The Arch-Bishop, so we get lost there there via a stop near Sanctuary from whence we take flight.
That evening we get to the Cathedral. We note that both the Gargoyles outside are Super Doppelganger's and after entering all the flukies are too but the guards seem normal though. After knocking out the flunkies the guards come rushing in to see what the commotion was. Sabrina shreeked spider and pointed (I was looking for the 100' wide arachnid of doom in the sky), this confused the guards and we knocked them out to.
We found the chambers of the bishop and the Super Doppelganger had spread all over them. Had a nasty fight with this one as it was enclosed quarters and on consecrated ground so magic didn't work as well, the ex-bishop enveloped us and tried to crush us. Eventually we beat it down and Braegen dropped in in a hole, then we buried it under the cathedral.
So 1 week in we have this summary of the Super Doppelganger's.
- 3(1) were focused on elven war leaders
- 3(3) were tasked with taking over the war leader of the humans
- 4 were after the mightiest air mage in Alusia
- 2(2) were in the Giants of the North
- 3(3) were in the Elven Court (Queen, Lady Alais, Marcell)
- 3(3) were involved with the Archbishop of the Western Kingdoms
- 2(2) were on Tarahell Alatáriël, Anghamerabad ate one.
- 4 replaced human lords - well known agitators
SGT Snippets & Gossip
Buffs and Mil Sci
- Command Ring (Sabrina Mil Sci Rank 10)
- +10 IV +10% SC +10% Def +1 End of Pulse Pass Action in melee.
- Hair Braiding (Rk 7 Skill)
- Sometimes (takes 30 mins per person per day): +50% resistance vs Charm (Demonic, Spells, Bardic Voice). -25% melee damage from attacks from behind. Enhance Duration of one 2+ hour spell until next dawn.
- Rarely (takes 1 hour per person per day) +3 AG (or +2 over racial max).
- Anti-scrying (Rk 21 Spell)
- Braegon + 3 hex radius while on the ground. Undetectable to scrying (including Wizards Eye); Blocks Rk 20 (or lower) Locate, Telepathy, ESP.
Procession Route
Funeral Guests
Bereavement Donations
Calendar
Autumn 813wk: Fruit (4) | ||||||||||||||
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Moonday | Duesday | W'ansday | Th'rsday | Frysday | Reapsday | Sunday | ||||||||
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Lugnasad | 1 | Guild Meeting | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | ||||||
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7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | |||||||
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14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | |||||||
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21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | |||||||
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28 | 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |||||||
Autumn 813wk: Harvest (5) | ||||||||||||||
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5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | |||||||
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12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | Equinox | 16 | 17 | 18 | ||||||
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19 | Harvest Moon | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | ||||||
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26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | |||||||
Autumn 813wk: Vintage (6) | ||||||||||||||
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3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |||||||
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10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |||||||
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17 | Blood Moon | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | ||||||
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24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | Beerfest |