February 6, 2009 - The Stormhammers fight bandits, baboons, Last Laughs and a werebaboon at the Lucky Monkey.
Chancellor Alahind notices Jenya's distress and comes over to ask the party what's going on. After they tell him, he ponders it for a moment before telling the Stormhammers to meet him at Weer's Elixirs in 5 minutes. Alahind explains that since the Lucky Monkey is a day's travel from town, riding by horse would take far too long. He says that instead, Vortimax can perform a teleportation ritual to the Lucky Monkey (Alahind often goes there to drink and relax). He pays for the ritual and the party teleports to a crossroads just down the road from the inn. They rush to the inn, noticing once again the pack of wild baboons that stop foraging for food and watch them instead.
Meanwhile, Cram the Executioner and Yggdrasil meet in the Lucky Monkey stables, having fled their rooms after hearing fighting erupt downstairs. Cram looks for his horse and is horrified to discover that all the horses are gone, and some of the horses were apparently killed and dragged out of the stables to behind the inn, judging from the blood trails. He vows NOT to go out there and find out what could drag off a horse. Cram and Warforged spot the party heading down the road, armed and ready for battle, and decide to go out and meet them. They join the party to try to fight off whoever has attacked the inn.
Huron, Snake Eyes and Drrk decide to scale the wall and enter the building through an upstairs window. Meanwhile, Fraxx, Cram and Yggdrasil wait below. Cram peeks in a slightly-open shutter window and spots a number of people inside the main dining room, including a pair of burly bugbears, a mage behind the bar, and a dwarf with a hammer and shield. A few other bandits and thieves are also there. Everyone is drinking and having a good time, even though the furniture is all destroyed and blood and carnage litters the room.
Upstairs, Huron, Snake Eyes and Drrk sneak inside. Huron and Snake Eyes head to the stairs so they can ambush people downstairs, while Drrk heads the other direction to make sure there's no one who will follow them down.
Downstairs, Yggdrasil notes that the people inside aren't openly hostile, so he throws the doors open and walks inside. Everyone stares at him. He asks how much it would be for a room, to the mage. She looks slowly around the room at all the wreckage and carnage and says "I'm sorry, did you say you wanted a room?" Yggdrasil tells her that he has money, and upon hearing this they all draw weapons. Cram immediately tosses a lightning blast into the room, vaporizing a few minions and causing a huge amount of chaos and damage. They notice that two of the bandits have Last Laugh face paint on.
Upstairs, Huron and Snake Eyes look down into a courtyard and see a bunch of bandits, and some baboons being fed by a woman in black and white harlequin facepaint. They pass by and reach the stairs down and hear the muffled explosion from the front of the inn, and rush downstairs.
Meanwhile, Drrk is sneaking through the hallway when the floor beneath him suddenly creaks loudly and explodes. He manages to flip down nimbly and negate the fall, landing in the middle of the fight that has broken out. He immediately starts firing his hand crossbows at everyone in sight. Huron and Snake Eyes rush in from upstairs, but Huron is immediately shield-slammed by the dwarf and battered around a bit. Yggdrasil gets attacked by the bugbears, who are carrying wire garrotes. One starts to choke Yggdrasil. Fraxx puts a curse on the bugbear, but it keeps choking Yggdrasil, opting to take the full damage from the curse. In the back, the mage sends three arcs of lightning shooting at the party.
Dwarf: Ah, you're up from your nap? Huron: Now you're dead. (Brutal Strike)
The tables turn quickly. Cram hits the mage and her two bodyguards with a spell that makes them think they are falling to their death, and Huron gets up and crushes the dwarf with a massive strike. Yggdrasil unleashes a huge healing power and breaks free of the bugbear choking him, and Snake Eyes pursues the dwarf (who is trying to flee) and starts whittling him down. Bonesaw also appears, having missed the teleport ritual the first time, and enters the fight by chopping down one of the bugbears immediately. Huron leaps up on a table (and gets smashed by a bugbear morningstar crit as he does so) and cleaves down three of the bandits.
One of the Last Laughs, seeing the battle turn against them, whips out a hand crossbow decorated with flames and shoots a bolt of fire at a space in the middle of Cram, Drrk, Bonesaw, Yggdrasil and Fraxx, who all catch on fire. Even after the fight, the party members on fire flail around for a bit before managing to extinguish the fire. Drrk marvels at the hand crossbow and takes it.
Next, the Stormhammers decide to burst in on the people/baboons in the courtyard. Fraxx and Cram head upstairs for the small bridge over the courtyard, and Snake Eyes and Drrk also go upstairs, to snipe down into the courtyard from the windows. Bonesaw, Huron and Yggdrasil burst in on the ground level. They tell the people in the courtyard that they'll let them live if they hand over the priest and the wands. The woman in Last Laugh face paint tells them they're too late for both. Bonesaw dragonbreaths the left side, while Cram throws another lightning blast at the right side. Bonesaw then shoulder checks a female bandit into the wall.
Mark: It's a lucky monkey! (after one of the baboons dodges the lightning blast)
Shortly after the fight breaks out, Snake Eyes and Drrk are attacked in the upstairs hallway by some club-wielding goons. Snake Eyes kills one and Drrk shoots his new crossbow's fire bolt at the other, setting him aflame. The thug runs away screaming.
One of the baboon leaps up at the walkway, trying to get to Fraxx and Cram. And completely fails. However, another baboon also tries, and climbs up next to them and starts wrestling with them, shoving them back. The door across the bridge also flies open and more thugs rush out, bashing Fraxx and Cram with clubs. However, Cram responds by grabbing his executioner axe and cutting the baboon in half.
Drrk decides to leap down and get out of the hall so he jumps through the window, sliding down the wall to break his fall. Snake Eyes remains upstairs and picks off one of the thugs on the bridge attacking Cram. Snake Eyes is then attacked in the hall by another Last Laugh, this one better equipped and spinning dual daggers as he rushes at Snake Eyes and....punches the wall, provoking an attack, and also fumbling his dagger out the window (two natural 1's in a row). Snake Eyes decides he doesn't want to fight this new rogue alone and flips backwards out the window, tumbling gracefully to the ground.
Meanwhile, the thugs on the bridge fall - and another bugbear choker rushes out of the doorway, slamming into Fraxx. Fraxx drops a darkness spell on the bridge, and Cram drags himself and Fraxx back down the stairs into the barroom. The bugbear rushes after them, but Fraxx escapes by leaping through a window into the courtyard. Cram hits the bugbear with a thunder spell which throws it back a few steps, and Cram leaps out the window too. He lands on Fraxx, who was just getting up, and knocks them both to the ground. The bugbear runs down, and looks at the courtyard battle. It decides to run away instead.
Bonesaw, Huron and Yggdrasil are battling the rogues and baboons, and Bonesaw manages to reduce the female bandit to zero hp exactly. He sees Snake Eyes land, who tells him "Go upstairs if you want to be a hero!" Bonesaw launches himself at the wall and starts climbing up. The rogue spots him and stabs him deeply in the arm. Bonesaw pretends that he is falling from the injury, but instead lunges forward and grabs the rogue by the throat AND LEAPS OFF THE WALL, CHOKESLAMMING THE ROGUE INTO THE FOUNTAIN COURTYARD BELOW. The rogue breaks one of his legs on the edge of the fountain and is slammed headfirst into the bottom of the fountain.
DM: The rogue takes...95 damage. He's bloodied. Everyone: HE'S ONLY BLOODIED??
The rogue quickly surrenders. Huron and Yggdrasil finish off the last few rogues. The last baboon starts cowering in the corner, so Drrk shoots it. It starts fleeing and limping away into the barroom...and Drrk pursues it and kills it.
They start interrogating the clumsy rogue, after tying up the unconscious female bandit. Snake Eyes kicks his broken leg, Drrk shoots him in his unbroken knee, and Bonesaw sticks a finger into the crossbow wound and starts poking around. They ask him where the priest is, and where the wands are. He fearfully tells them that the priest is dead and Triel took the wands. He tells them that Sarcem's body is in the basement, which is below the kitchen. They ask him who sent the Last Laughs to attack the inn - he says that his leader, who he knows only as "The Jester" told them to come here and help the bandits with the attack. Bonesaw takes some leather gloves with red stitching from the rogue, who tells him that the gloves let their wearer do extra bleed damage when wielding a light blade. Snake Eyes takes them. They gag him and tie him up. Bonesaw grabs him and they enter the kitchen area, except for Snake Eyes, who had run upstairs to the window to try to elbow drop the rogue.
As Huron reaches for the door, it explodes outwards and a snarling, ferocious ape-headed man rushes out and attacks - a werebaboon. It swings its greataxe at Huron, knocking him to the ground, and then kicks him in the side with a bladed boot. It then rushes forward into the middle of the group and screams loudly, dazing everyone except Bonesaw (who was out of range) and Snake Eyes, who shoots at the werebaboon from upstairs. Bonesaw drops the dagger-fumbling rogue and starts fighting the werebaboon, commenting on its nice boots. The werebaboon, whose mouth is red with fresh blood, spits out something it was chewing at Bonesaw, which hits him in the chest and falls to the ground - a bloody, chewed human tongue. The Stormhammers stagger around for a short time, but then gather their wits and team up on the werebaboon. Snake Eyes blinds it with a barrage of shuriken and Yggdrasil outlines it with a bright aura, making it an easier target for ranged attacks. They kill the werebaboon and Drrk notices the dagger rogue crawling through the kitchen window. He rushes to the window and shoots at the rogue as he fumbles with a ring, trying to put it on his finger. Both crossbow bolts hit and the rogue dies before he manages to slip on the ring. Drrk grabs it. Meanwhile, Bonesaw strips the werebaboon of the knife boots and puts them on.
Inside the kitchen they find a large crate full of various valuables and treasure that the bandits have looted. In addition to the mundane valuables, they find a leather bag that emanates magic. Fraxx identifies it and finds a staff of fiery might and a set of rune-etched leather armor inside. Cram takes the staff and Fraxx takes the armor.
Crate of Loot (weighs 250 lbs)
Silver candelabra with etched ivy leaves curling up the candlesticks (40gp)
Extravagant evening gown decorated with black silk roses (50gp)
Small wooden chest carved with a dragon in flight (30 gp) containing trade bars, 3 silver (10sp each), and 3 gold (30gp)
Deck of silver-plated tarot cards in a mahogany carrying case (30 gp)
Bottle of fine dwarven stoneblood spirits (30gp)
Butterfly tapestry - 6’ x 5’ silk tapestry with an embroidered scene of giant butterflies swarming a castle, a young maiden riding one of the butterflies. (125gp)
Set of four decorative ornamental swords (45 gp each)
A platinum belt buckle with a crescent moon insignia in black pearl. (70gp)
10 brass lamps with “The Lucky Monkey” engraved on the sides (1 gp each)
A large bowl in good condition, made of hammered gold, worked in a design of leaping dragons fighting warriors armed with spears. (100gp)
Small coral statue of a pair of lizards (90gp)
410 cp, 96 sp, 79 gp in coins
On the wall is the severed head of an older man. His tongue has been ripped out. They assume it is Sarcem and head downstairs, where they find his battered and headless corpse, which still clutches a broken mace. The mace handle still glows with power, so Yggdrasil takes it. They find no wands of control water, but do hear ragged breathing coming from down the hall. Drrk notices some fine red crystals covering the hall and tell the others to wait so he can disarm it - but Bonesaw just steps directly in the crystals, which ignite and burn him. They go to the room at the end of the hall and find Shensen, who is bleeding from multiple wounds and unconscious. Yggdrasil heals her and she jumps awake, but notices the party and recognizes Huron and Snake Eyes, and starts weeping in relief. She tells them that the inn was attacked by bandits and she and Sarcem fled to the basement, but were overrun. It was all she could do to escape to this back room and trap the hallway so they didn't pursue.
The Stormhammers glumy use the ritual scroll of sending to tell Vortimax to start the return teleportation. Shensen comes with them and promises to seek them out in a few days so she can thank them for rescuing her. They bring the unconscious bandit woman with them. Upon their return, Alahind sighs upon discovering they couldn't save Sarcem, but tells them not to beat themselves up over it since they tried their best. He asks if Yggdrasil and Cram are also members of the Stormhammers, and after some quick discussion they answer that yes, they are. He presents them with invitations to the Demonskar Ball and leaves.
They deliver the bad news to Jenya, who mourns for a moment before steeling herself - she's now the head priestess of the church. She asks them to return in the morning so they can discuss what to do now, since the wands are missing and the rains are still coming down heavily. She presents them with a dragon-styled helm made out of dragonscale and bone, which Huron gratefully takes and immediately puts on.
They head back to the Tipped Tankard to eat and rest. Artem welcomes them and notices them carrying the invitations. He tells them to open them, and they are all intrigued about the ball. Bonesaw mentions that he should bring Cora. Artem notes that some of the invitations have different pictures on it. They compare the invites, and sure enough, Cram, Drrk and Snake Eyes have a picture of a crater, while Bonesaw, Fraxx and Huron have a picture of a mountain. Yggdrasil's invitation has a picture of a mountain with horns. Artem thinks about the symbols and tells them they likely indicate what type of costume they have to wear to the ball. According to what he's heard about the event, the crater represents going to the ball dressed as a member of the demonic army, while a mountain means having a costume representing a member of the army that opposed the demons. The horned mountain is a special, unique invitation, and represents attending the ball as the leader of the demon armies. Artem says that they should go to Rhiavadi's Fine Silks, where they can rent the costumes and get more information about the ball.
Huron remembers that he said if he got an extra invite, he would give it to Artem, which he does. He also discovers that all the nobles and notable people in town get to attend automatically, including the Stormblades. This gets him worked up and mad that they were trying to win the Flood Festival contests even though they didn't need the invitations.
LEVEL UP - PARTY IS NOW LEVEL 5
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