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FR - 5E - Betrayed

Page history last edited by Jon Goranson 4 years, 10 months ago

Betrayed

 

May 8, 2019  

 

The group is in the cave.  Maldar think about exploring when Hang reaches behind her cloak to the back of her belt and comes back with five circlets, each of gold and with a sapphire in them.  "This are from my goddess and will protect us," she says.  Tyrel reaches forward and takes one, putting it on faster than Hang can.  Maldar and Dorn put theirs on.  Jinn puts it on as well.  Maldar finds no other passages, so they have one way to go.  They climb down to the opening above the giant chamber Maldar saw.  At the signal, they all reach the ground as quickly as they can.  Tyrel casts dim door and takes Dorn, Jinn changes into an eagle and flies down, Maldar shadow jumps to the ground.  Hang.  Hang crazier leaps out and casts Meld to Stone.  She submerges into the stone instead of splatting into it and uses the magic of the spell to rise up out of the stone.  They look around and eventually find a creature.  Not nearly as big or scary as Maldar originally described.  

 

"You have come with questions, Mataa?" the creature asks.  Hang steps forward and replies.  "Yes, I come seeking that which my goddess asked me to seek."  

 

The creature moved to the side, one hand beckoning the group to follow.  It walks to a place in the cave and an orb rises up out of the floor, held aloft on what appears to be fog. Two of the creatures' hands rub the orb while the others beckon Hang forward closer.  

 

"Mataa, then let me explain the rules.  Mataa, once started, you cannot step from the path.  Mataa, leaving or diverting means you are done, found or not.  Mataa, you cannot rest.  Mataa, you must finish what you start in one go.  Do you understand, Mataa?"  

 

Hang nods.  

 

"Mataa, step closer and look into the orb."  

 

Hang does and sees three threads.  One leads into the cave itself but she sees nothing at the end of it.  Another leads to a cave with some figures but she can't tell much else.  The final one leads into an orc village.  The vision is quite clear.  Hang explain what she sees.  

 

"Mataa, that which is more clear would be easier.  Mataa, the choice is yours but all must be completed before that which is seek will be found."  

 

After a quick discussion, they decide to go to the orc village.  Hang starts them on the path and they soon find themselves on the outskirts of an orc village.  Hang sees the thread she followed go to a shrine where a sword lies on it.  They start to walk into the village but are stopped.  Even though several of them speak Orcish, and Tyrel calls upon his ability to understand languages, none of them understand the words.  The actions speak for themselves.  Who are you?  What do you want?  They say they need something in the village but the orcs gesture at them to leave.  Hang refuses.  Hang makes a fuss.  Several more of the tribe notice and are watching but none have their weapons out.  Eventually, the chief comes out.  His orcish is also off but understandable.  

 

"What you want?" he says, gruffly.  

 

"We need the sword," Hang says, pointing to the sword on the altar.

 

"No!  Is sacred artifact.  It protects us and our village!  Go away!"  

 

"How does it protect you?"

 

"It is sacred artifact!"

 

"We can protect you if you give us the artifact."

 

"Ha!  You stay here, become tribe, always protect?  No, think not.  Go away.  Ours."  

 

The group heads back the way they came to discuss.  They can't go too far back or they will head back and end the quest.  They decide to try and steal it.  Hang and Tyrel will dimension door there and the rest will come forward to back them up.  Tyrel and Hang do manage to get there but they took so long and spoke so loud that the orcs were suspicious.  As soon as Tyrel and Hang appeared, the chief grabbed the sword.  Soon, it was a fight.  Dorn ran to get to the chief.  Most of the orcs ran to help protect the chief.  Some orcs held back.  

 

"Garagosh!  Come to us, Garagosh!  Grevak, Garagosh!"  With those words, four arms sprouted from the chief, each with its own sword, and he then stepped forward to attack.  Jinn, seeing his chance, fireballed and wiped out half the tribe in one shot.  Maldar cut through those that Dorn left behind on his way to the chief.  Tyrel stabbed and slashed several.  Jinn readied more spells.  It was a slaughter.  The chief held on for a few rounds but soon they are all dead.  As Hang takes the sword from the chief, she feels the magic of it and concentrates on what she wanted.  The magic forms into the base and bottom part of the statue of Auril.  As this happens, the illusion drops and the group sees that it wasn't a tribe of warriors but of women and children.  All dead.  All at their hand.  

 

"What did we do?" laments Jinn, looking around at the carnage.  

 

"What we had to do," replies Hang, leading them back to the cave.  Jinn displeasure is apparent but he reluctantly goes to the next path.  When Hang looks at the orb, the second path takes them to a cave with giants in them.  As they appear in the cave, Jinn says, "I'm not fighting anymore."  

 

"We had no choice," replies Hang.  Jinn doesn't think she cares.  

 

Hang steps forward and greets the giants.  They also give greetings.  They say that they are followers of Helm, and Dorn moans.  He gives greetings to fellow followers of Helm and shares a prayer with the others.  Hang says that he needs their altar, as that is where the magic goes.  They say it is sacred and cannot be moved.  Hang steps forward and says that she will have it and melds into the altar!  The giants are not happy and question the others, who do manage to show they know of Helm.  If it had stopped there, it might have ended but the altar cracked as Hang grabbed the magic and created more of the statue!  The giants are not happy.  Jinn refuses to fight and runs back.  The giants inflict a few hits but the group runs back to the main cave.

 

"I really don't know about this," starts Jinn.  Hang goes and activates the last path as it is in the cave itself.  The figure and the orb are gone and plants fill the cave.  Soon, huge chlorofiends rise up and attack!  Jinn decides that this is something that can be destroyed, and soon the group is fighting like a team again, tearing into the creatures.  The creature absorbs Tyrel into his body but they are able to rescue him before he is crushed within.  Soon, the chlorofiends are gone and Hang again pulls on the magic to be the complete the statue!  

 

When this happens, Auril makes Hang her High Priestess.  Her health increases, she becomes immune to cold, and her spells are more effective.  Even the others are blessed by Auril to resist cold and are marked by a streak of white.  They realize they are back in the cave.  The creature nods to them and disappears.  

 

Jinn is not happy with Hang.  At all.  Had they been able to get back to Daggerford fast, it might have gone away.  Several things happened on the trip back, for they had no easy way back to Daggerford.

 

On the trip, they pass through the orc village that they slaughtered.  As they are there, Kelson and his apprentice show up and ask what happened.  And are shaken the group admits that they did it all for an item sacred to the orcs.  Kelson and his apprentice flee the group.  

 

Then, hoping to see Orlbach, they head toward his tower.  And never find it.  They are no longer invited.  

 

They make it back to Daggerford and Hang immediately goes to her temple.  The others didn't even realize she had followers but a half dozen kids and an adult are there, tending to it.  They don't go inside and instead head back to Maldars.  Hang had already cleared out all of her stuff, as if she knew she wasn't coming back.  

 

12000 xp

 

GM Notes

  • I hesitated with the Meld Into Stone idea, on many fronts.  
    • I thought about bringing real world physics into it and saying that Hang is still falling, the stone just didn't stop her. 
    • I thought about the fact that it has to be a solid piece of stone and that the ground could be littered with pebbles or rocks.  Or the stone itself could have fractures.
    • In the end, I went with it because it was a crazy, fun idea and I like the idea of establishing that it allows for controlled movement in stone as well. 
  • I wanted the keeper of the way to be different.  I pulled on a Doctor Who character who had to say a certain thing before and after their statements.  In this case, before a statement, and after a question.
  • Jinn was hot happy with the slaughter of the orcs.  I thought that was good role playing.
    • I think he refused to cast offensive spells on the giants.  He just wanted out.  
    • Against the chlorofiend, he knew he had to help and he did so.   
  • I thought it might be interesting, and push myself, to have the orcs not understood.  There were magical things happening from the circlets that they accepted, so even Comprehend Languages didn't work.
    • I don't think it worked as well as I wanted.   I think things were communicated okay but not sure it worked as well.  
    • I think I still spoke or explained too much.  I think ambiguity would have made the slaughter worse.   
  • The giants were interesting.  I like how the others were still trying to help Hang but were questioning it.  However, time pushed them forward possibly in ways they wouldn't have.  
  • The final fight was a big fight and all were needed, although I didn't roll well for attacks. 
  • The result of the fight was not only Hang becoming High Priestess of Auril, but of Auril absorbing the portfolios of some weak gods that the character destroyed.  Specifically, Garagos and Moander, gods of destruction and decay.   
  • The end result of this was a betrayal.
    • Hang betrayed them by pushing them forward, knowing she couldn't do this on her own. 
    • Auril betrayed them by the circlets showing them the wrong thing. 
    • I think it's fair to say they betrayed themselves and who they are for loyalty of a friend.  They also aren't friends anymore with Hang.
  • Hang's player is coming up with a new character.  This was known before hand, so not a surprise to him. 
    • It's a good story and will be remembered but it stung the rest of the group.   

 

 

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