May 22, 2010 - The Stormhammers find themselves in the middle of a riot, and battle rampaging air and fire elementals.
Huron, Vico, Briggs, Gramps, Yggdrasil, The Champ
A few weeks have passed since the troll cave encounter. The Stormhammers have been resting, selling some treasure from their adventures, and inquiring about costs to armor their horses and carriage with heavy armor, and possibly a turret/ballista for up top. Cauldron is going through some turbulent times at the moment, as the Lord Mayor keeps introducing new taxes and tariffs for numerous reasons. Wealthy citizens, merchants, even common workers, all are upset and disgruntled about the constantly increasing fees. The Stormhammers are largely unconcerned with the matter...until the read in the latest Cauldron Chronicle that Meat on a Stick will be receiving a 100 gp tax as a new business. Upon hearing this, pretty much the entire party wants to go burn down City Hall. They refuse to pay it, and tell the messenger deliverer so.
Briggs: Nobody taxes Elmo the magnificent!!
The next day, they see a poster plastered up around town telling of a public meeting to discuss the government's inhumane taxing and possible corruption. Intrigued, they go to check it out. Some of the party goes in disguise - Vico disguises himself as a bum, while Gramps attends the hearing in his Demonskar Ball finery.
They arrive to find a large crowd, probably a few dozen people, milling about and quietly muttering to themselves about the taxes. The stage is empty. Across the road, nervous looking guards and archers man a few points at City Hall, and a block away Huron spots some more archers atop the barracks walls with bows ready. A few tax collectors walking down the street are showered with angry catcalls and insults, and they rush inside City Hall to safety.
A middle-aged man in elegant red clothes takes the stage and gestures for silence. He introduces himself as Maavu, a landowner and business-owner in Cauldron. The Stormhammers wonder where they've heard the name, before remembering that when the Umber Hulk attacked, it destroyed some warehouses belonging to a Maavu. Huron recalls a rumor he heard at the time - that Maavu kept the Umber Hulk as a pet and if you didn't like his prices, he'd sic it on you. Gramps chuckles and says that's a good way to do business. The Champ, standing at the back, looks for a better vantage point and nimbly scrambles up an alley wall to watch from a nearby rooftop.
Maavu starts speaking to the crowd about the city government and these unfair taxes, but most importantly, how they are corrupt and ignoring city law. He tells the gathered people that Alek Tercival has witnessed the recent unjust behavior, and believes that guard captain Skellerang is nothing more than the Lord Mayor's lackey. Maavu says that Tercival has formally challenged Skellerang to an honor duel for the position, as is his right as one of the original founding families in Cauldron, but the city government has not publicized the challenge, a blatantly illegal act. The crowd starts booing and angrily shouting and gesturing at City Hall. Huron sees the archers at City Hall grow increasingly wary, and makes his way to the back of the crowd nearest them. Gramps, right at the front of the crowd, throws an alchemist's fire on a nearby rooftop, which quietly starts on fire. He then throws a chair (!) at Maavu, who ducks and frowns at him. (As to where he got a chair...there was one in the bag of holding. Mindbender grabbed it way back in Session 12 - Through the Walls.)
Maavu goes on to elaborate on how unjust, unfair and even illegal the recent taxes have become. He tells the crowd that the government has been leeching their tax money away to pad their own pockets, not improve the city. He also argues that the mercenaries recently hired to enforce the town guard are nothing more than violent thugs who threaten and harass innocent Cauldron citizens for their supposedly-owed tax fees, which is nothing more than a criminal shakedown.
The angry crowd pauses momentarily as Maavu stops talking in surprise. They turn and see Skylar Krewis grimly walking up the street towards them, accompanied by four half-orc mercenaries. The crowd parts for them to approach, glaring at them.
Skylar walks up to the stage and takes a deep breath before stating "Maavu, in the name of Captain Skellerang and the City of Cauldron, I must formally arrest you on counts of Treason and Attempting to Incite Rebellion" The crowd starts yelling and shouting threats at Krewis and the mercenaries. Before Maavu can respond, a youth standing near the stage slips a long dagger out from beneath his cloak and shouts "Let's kill these half-orc scum!" He leaps at the mercenaries, as do four or five other dagger-wielding people in the crowd, and the surprised half-orcs are murdered in seconds by the sudden ambush. The crowd screams for blood and grabs nearby rocks, torches and pitchforks and starts rioting. Nearby buildings go up in flames, and the angry mob closes in on Krewis. Huron quickly examines the face of the youth who attacked the mercs before he is lost in the crowd and memorizes his face.
Seeing the crowd start to riot, the archers on top of City Hall start drawing their bows, but Huron runs across the street and up the wall, surprising them and stopping them from firing. The mob starts attacking anyone nearby, and attacking Krewis mercilessly. He tries to drink a healing potion but they knock it out of his hands and it shatters on the ground. Vico and Briggs start wading into the crowd to rescue Krewis. The Champ tries to join them, but fumbles his leap off the roof and faceplants into the mob. Gramps runs up to the shocked Maavu and grabs him, and starts to drag him out of danger. Unfortunately for the party, the DM starts just brutalizing them on attack rolls, and the rioting mob crits them four times in the first two rounds of combat, including two crits on Gramps in a single round. The mob's torches start lighting more buildings on fire, and half the party quickly finds themselves on fire and/or prone & dazed, being trampled by rioters.
The mob continues to attack and pummel anyone nearby, which now includes The Champ, Vico, Briggs and Krewis. Briggs summons his "fart cloud" to blow away some of the rioters and buy them some space. At the same time, he and Vico sense palpable magic in the air, coalescing around them. Vico shouts out that "something's coming!" The archers at the barracks wall start loosing arrows into the mob and at Maavu, who is hit in the arm by one shot.
Briggs' cloud of air knocks back some more rioters, but then suddenly explodes into a towering, 30-foot hall hurricane of wind and whipping air - some kind of air elemental. At the same time, Gramps & Maavu's retreat down the alley is halted when a similar (but smaller) elemental materializes out of the stone before them, striking out at them violently. Huron shouts at the archers to show him where the mage is, but they look shocked and tell him they have no mage, this isn't their doing. He tells them to fire not on the people but the giant air monster, and they agree and start doing just that.
Yggdrasil, who had been with the party but in Healbot mode, suddenly awakens to find himself in the middle of a surging riot. He shrugs, not surprised or fazed in the least, and joins the fight and starts healing.
Vico, Briggs and Krewis all start getting blasted by the hurricane creature, while still being knocked about by the mob, who is somewhat fleeing now from the giant elemental. Somewhere along the lines the elemental's name changes...from hurricane to "whirricane". The name sticks, unfortunately.
Huron leaps off the rooftop and slams into the elemental, slashing whatever is solid at its core. Gramps maintains his grip on Maavu and stabs his grabbing trident into the other elemental, grabbing it too, and starts fighting it. Maavu doesn't fare so well though and is struck by three more arrows launched from the far-off archers.
Eventually, they manage to scatter the rioters and destroy the air elementals. During the fray, Maavu (badly injured by the elemental and the guards' arrows) flees, thanking Gramps for saving his life. He tells Gramps to come find him in Redgorge where they can talk further. The rioters meanwhile have spread down the streets and the party hears the sounds of the angry mobs rampaging around the city. Krewis also thanks the party and while catching his breath, hands them a magic healing poultice and some gold, then rushes off to join his fellow guards at the barracks. They head out and try to stop the riots, which are spreading out of control.
The party retires to the Tipped Tankard. Later that evening they hear the mayor's voice being broadcast through the streets imploring citizens to stop rioting and destroying things, and that there will be no taxes for three months. Eventually the riots stop and things quiet down, though a number of small fires burn into the night.
That night, the party is awoken by the loud ringing of city hall's bells - the sounds of a city emergency. They rush out and some guards rushing through the streets tell them that Minuta's Board, an inn, is on fire and under attack by huge fire monsters. The party rushes to the inn, remembering as they travel that Minuta's Board is where most of the mercenaries are staying in town.
The Stormhammers arrive on the scene to see two huge fire elementals smashing the inn, lighting it on fire and burning holes in the roof and walls, and a number of smaller fire creatures scattered about the property burning and lighting things on fire. At the rear of the property, a number of evacuated mercenaries are arguing with a middle-aged man about the inn, and carrying buckets down to the lake, though they look reluctant to go near the fire elementals. From the surrounding streets and buildings come hostile catcalls and threats directed at the mercenaries from racist townsfolk.
Huron immediately hurls himself into the fray, trusting in his red dragonhide armor to protect him from burns. Vico and The Champ run over to battle some more of the creatures, and are lit on fire by a fiery snake on the inn's roof. Yggdrasil approaches and hears someone crying for help / in pain from inside. He rushes in, and resists most of the heat damage due to his fire resistance necklace. Also, being a warforged he is immune to the smoke inhalation damage.
Outside, the party dispatches some small fire monsters, only to discover that they explode in death into fiery bursts. Huron is going to town, mostly ignoring the fire damage and dishing out some heavy hits.
Inside, Yggdrasil tracks the voice upstairs to the second floor, and starts searching amongst the flaming debris and rubble for the source of the voice. One of the huge fire elementals, a magma creature, spots him and starts wading through the broken inn, smashing walls and boards away from its path. Yggdrasil spots the voice's origin, a small human child, but is grabbed by the magma monster and burned/squeezed. This, combined with the increasingly hot heat on the second floor brings Yggdrasil to near death. However, he grabs the child, rushes past to the burning wall, and leaps through to the street below. Miraculously, he survives the fall with 1 hit point left. He puts the child down after ensuring he's alive, and heals himself.
Huron rushes over to deal with the magma elemental as Vico and The Champ finish off the remaining ground foes. Vico runs over to help Huron, the Champ runs over and runs up onto the roof to confront the fire snake. From below, Yggdrasil shoots the fire snake with his shoulderbow, and uses a Bolt of Transit to teleport up to the burning roof. Huron starts slashing into the Magma monster, whose hardened magma-rock "skin" starts crumbling off. Bloodied, it starts smashing the remnants of the inn, and brings the roof down, toppling Yggdrasil, The Champ and the fire snake into the burning second floor.
The magma monster starts reforming itself. Vico sees motion down the street, and spots a blue-robed human running towards the inn, leading a small patrol of mercenaries. The man runs up close and starts throwing magical cold spells at the magma creature, slowing it. Huron & Vico take advantage and pummel the magma elemental to death. Yggdrasil and The Champ finish off the snake and escape the inn before it complete collapses.
Sifting through the still-hot wreckage, Huron finds a pair of unburned, gleaming leather boots. They are boots that allow the wearer to burst fire at adjacent foes before teleporting away to safety. Vico takes them eagerly. They also find a fist-sized shining ruby that seems to have a burning flame in its center, which they realize is an elemental or magical gemstone.
The blue-robed human introduces himself as Zarn, commonly known as the Blue Duke, leader of the mercenaries. He is visibly pissed at the attack on his men, but grimly thanks the party for their work. He says that he intends to meet with the Mayor & city government first thing in the morning, as clearly the situation in town is unacceptable. He shakes hands with the party and gathers his men, and leaves.
The next morning is ghastly, as the extent of the riots become fully understood. Many buildings were damaged or burned, and the rioters spread throughout a good quarter of the city before calming. The Lord Mayor re-iterates that there will be no taxes for three months, but also angrily declares that Maavu is charged with treason against the city and willfully inciting a riot.
Justin (to Mike): I can't believe how well you do in this game now that you hit things!
