DFRPG Arden Vul Session 24a: Revenge on the Set Cult

Date: 

Mitrasday, 19th of Gerakios, 2993 AE 

Weather: 

Hot, dry

Player Characters: 

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)

Michael J. Dundee, Thorcin barbarian (Adam)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Significant NPCs:

Jador the Just, chief priestess of Mitra in Gosterwick

Audun Yellow-Eyes, logothete of the House of Sight ("Drome") in Gosterwick

Freydis the Stern, steward of Lady Alexia Basileon in Gosterwick 

Four Knights of the Azure Shield

Seven beastmen

Many Set guards

Several Set acolytes

Several Set sergeants

Sparky the goat, mascot of Alpha Sept

Apophis the giant lizard

Two boars

After the murder of Susarra, the Right for Riches company decided to head back to Arden Vul before the Trace spell on her head wore off.  Knowing that he couldn't sleep without losing the Trace, Vael first went to the Temple of Mitra to see if any of the priests there could cast Vigil to let him go a night without sleep without ill effects.  Unfortunately, nobody there was able to cast Vigil.

The party then went to the House of Sight in Gosterwick where they were granted a meeting with the logothete, Audun Yellow-Eyes.  Audun explained that he was appalled by the murder of Susarra, but could not officially endorse an attack on Set, or lend any resources to one.  Also that if anyone asked about the vial of Susarra's blood sent to Vael, it wasn't him.

They continued to the Azure Keep to try to arrange a meeting with Lady Alexia.  Unfortunately, she was not available.  They did meet with her steward, Freydis the Stern, who gave her condolences on Susarra and said that she would pass along any inquiries to Lady Alexia when she returned.

With no help forthcoming, they headed out for Arden Vul just after sunset.  A few miles from the Cliff Face, they heard riders coming south down the Imperial Road toward their lights.  It was four Knights of the Azure Shield, who asked them to identify themselves, they had questions about Michael's red scale armor.  They were satisfied with the answer that the armor had come off a dead Settite and there hadn't been time to repaint it before the Settites killed their friend and required a late night attack.  The knights continued their patrol.

When they reached the Cliff Face, they saw lights halfway up the cliff, west of the waterfall, at the site of the Set cult's basket.  Vael Levitated up to try improve his triangulation on Susarra's head.  He was surprised to see that she was at the same elevation as the Set basket, and somewhere west, rather than up at the level of the ruins.  Vael flew back down to confer with the group.  They decided to go up to the ruins of Arden Vul, then back down though the basement, around the halflings, and through the desecrated Temple of Thoth to reach the Temple of Set.

Everyone (except Vael, who was still Levitating) tied themselves together for the night climb.  About halfway up the Long Stair, they encountered a beastman patrol heading down.  The beastmen formed up into a hedgehog formation as their sergeant asked the group to identify themselves.  He then indicated that his group would back up to a wider spot on the trail and allow the party distance to pass, as they were not looking for conflict.  This was agreed, and the Right for Riches company passed by the beastmen as they stood in defensive formation.  They continued to the top of the climb, then north across the ruins.

They group passed through the basement without encountering anything, then went down the spiral stair, west through the illusory wall, south through the destroyed remains of a one-way door.  They discussed going through the catacombs to stay farther from the halflings, but decided the secret door behind the Thoth statue was faster.  They were lucky enough not to meet any halflings, and went down the narrow secret passage west into the desecrated Temple of Thoth.  At that point they heard the blaring of a horn from the secret peephole high on the west wall -- their bright lights had been spotted.

The party quickly went south through a secret door, carefully picked their way through a formerly trapped room, and set off the gas trap again, which had been reset.  Nobody breathed any of the gas, though, and they continued south to the corner, then looked up west to see the barricade had been rebuilt and there were a mass of guards in red Set scale armor behind it, commanded by a sergeant, and accompanied by a goat.

The guards threw Alchemist's Fire flasks at Michael, Vallium, and Ioannes.  Michael was directly hit and set on fire, but he was wearing the Serpent's Amulet and didn't mind.  While the others hung back a bit, Michael started up the stairs.  Meanwhile Vael cast Shape Fire and started moving the rest of the boiling oil up the stairs toward the barricade.  Vallium went up the stairs behind the fire, warning the others not to stand directly behind him.  Uvash trailed Vallium off to one side, and Vael and Ioannes stayed well back.

As Vallium made himself a conspicuous target, he took several shots from crossbows.  He dodged several, trying not to give away that he had an an Amulet of Missile Shield.  Up against the barricade, Michael took a point-blank crossbow shot and failed to dodge it, resulting in a major wound to the chest.  He responded by stabbing the arbalester with his long sword.  The Vael-controlled fire wrecked the Settite line, as half the guards jumped to the sides to avoid the fire, and a couple failed to dodge it, caught on fire, and had to stop, drop, and roll to put it out.

Michael went over the barricade and stabbed a couple more guards.  Vallium followed him over and joined in.  Uvash and Ioannes came up behind, and Ioannes reached over the barricade to heal Michael twice, first with Stop Bleeding and then with Major Healing.  Vael stayed on the stairs and just sent his fire around the room harassing the guards, who occasionally failed to dodge and had to stop fighting for a bit to roll around on the ground.

Meanwhile Sparky the Goat decided to help his sept by charging into battle to slam the invaders with his horns.  Unfortunately for Sparky, Vallium and Michael had shields and heavy armor, so his slams were not enough to knock them over.  Worse, Sparky was not wearing armor, so when he got hit by the fire, the room smelled of burning goat.  After a bit of fire damage and a stray sword or mace shot, Sparky went down and did not get back up.

The Set sergeant recognized that his side was losing, and told one of his unwounded guards to run north to the temple and get reinforcements.  Vael responded by sending some of his fire after that guard to try to slow him down.  Eventually, the Settites lost 6 elite guards and a goat, while 2 guards and the sergeant managed to flee north.

As Uvash ate some singed goat, Vael checked his Trace and found that Susarra's head was down and west.  The Right for Riches company quickly regrouped to discuss their next move.  Did they chase north through the temple, or cut west and try to reach the stairs?  Taking a quick look through the burned curtains, they saw some cultists  fleeing west and a giant lizard chasing a boar.  Deciding to avoid that chaos, they went back into the room to the south and grabbed a couple of flasks of Alchemist's Fire and a couple of maces that Vael thought looked nice, plus a few silver coins from a chest.  After leaving some rude graffiti and setting a few cots on fire, they went west through the passages between the temple and the prison, trying to outflank the guards in the temple and reach the stairs down.

Unfortunately for them, the Settites had thought of this, and there was a large group of guards waiting on the wide stairs.  It was a dozen guards, four acolytes, and a couple of sergeants, including the one they had just been fighting.  About half the guards had crossbows ready, and one of the sergeants was yelling "nobody use fire."

Start of the battle on the wide stairs

Vallium, with his Amulet of Missile Shield, led the way, trying to draw more crossbow fire.  Michael followed behind, drawing his boomerang.  He threw it into the clump of guards, missing one near the front.  Unfortunately for the guards, it was a target-rich environment, and the boomerang missed or was dodged by two more guards, before it plunked one in the back who had no idea was was happening.  He fell down, momentarily stunned, and dropped his mace.

Four of the six guards with crossbows fired at Vallium.  He dodged all of the shots (some legitimately, some with magical help), before critically failing one Dodge roll and starting to fall down.  Realizing that he didn't want to be prone next to a pile of enemies, he used Luck to reroll the critical failure and avoid the fall.  The last two crossbowmen held their fire, as the sergeant said something about waiting for a better target.  The guards in the back with maces and shields ready started surging to the front.

Uvash prayed for his Heroic Grace and got a great result, +7 to DX for 13 turns.  He decided to use this temporary blessing to go for aimed shots at the skull and try to knock guards unconscious with one blow.  Meanwhile Michael and Vallium just went toe-to-toe with the front row of guards and started cutting them down, Vallium with single Deceptive Attacks, Michael with double Rapid Strikes.

Vael considered coming around the corner to help, but realized he'd probably get shot as soon as he did, so paused to cast Missile Shield on himself.  As soon as he emerged, the last two crossbowmen used their Wait maneuvers to drill him, and missed due to the spell.  After laughing at them, Vael cast Grease into the swarm of guards.  Meanwhile, two of the acolytes in the back were casting spells of their own: Dispel Magic, trying to take out whatever buffs the PCs had.  Both succeeded by slim margins, and failed to knock the Bless off any of the four PCs in the area of effect, as Ioannes outrolled them.  They also failed to dispel Vael's Trace.

Michael and Vallium continued cutting into the swarm, aided by the defense penalty for Grease.  Uvash meanwhile started smashing skulls, failing to one-shot kill any unwounded guards, but knocking a few unconscious.  Vael, seeing the acolytes in the back casting more spells, followed up his Grease with a Smoke, trying to mess up everyone's concentration.

Battle after Grease (right circle) and Smoke (left circle) were cast

At some point the remaining Settites started fleeing west down the stairs.  All the sergeants and acolytes and a couple of the guards got away, while Michael and Vallium and Uvash cut down the stragglers.

Vael checked his Trace and saw that Susarra's head was still down and west.  The Right for Riches Company started down the wide stairs after the Settites.  There were realistic busts of (mostly) older men flanking both sides of the stairs, probably Settite priests.  Uvash wanted to spend some time smashing them, but the others pressed him to hurry up and pursue.  As they continued down, the stairs bent left, from west to southwest and then south.  And the busts were replaced by some stuffed heads of various creatures: reptilian humanoids, one with horns, a bat, even a frost giant.  The frost giant head was enchanted, and started swearing in several languages (some the PCs knew, and some they didn't) as they approached.  Uvash put some leftover goat meat into its mouth to attempt to shut it up, but it didn't work.

As the stairs debouched into a wide Forum, the party saw a passage running east to a portcullis, with a couple of guys in leather armor behind it.  At the bottom of the stairs were a mass of guards, including the ones that just fled plus some more.  Beyond the guards was a huge statue of Set in Set animal form, with several slaves chained to it.  It appeared they may have finally reached the Forum of Set.

We paused there due to time.

GM's Comments:

As expected, the Settites reinforced the guard post in front of their temple.  Not well enough though.  The PCs decided to continue down the stairs rather than retreating to Gosterwick after the second battle, figuring they didn't have enough exploration or loot to earn any XP, and that they should do some more damage or make some more progress.

Crossbows don't combine well with maces and shields.  Crossbows do great damage if they hit, but they take two hands, and it takes forever to ready a shield.  Without a shield, an unbalanced mace is a much worse weapon, as it can't both attack and parry in the same turn.  The cult of Set might consider swapping some maces for spears, or some shields for bucklers.

Sparky tasted better than he fought.

Achievements:

The PCs caught just a glimpse of the Forum of Set at the end of the session.  They haven't actually entered it or seen most of it yet though.

XP:

None until they go back to town.  So far they have only visited a couple of new locations, grabbed a small amount of loot, and glimpsed the edge of the Forum of Set.

Next Week:

The Right for Riches Company appears to be invading the Forum of Set.  Do they smash a major faction of Arden Vul, or get swarmed and make new PCs?  I have no idea.