The Rescue of Duece

February 27, 2007

The group decides to get what help they can. They send Tabra to the temple to find out where Duece is through divination. The others go talk to Martin about getting his help in what is happening. Martin is able to offer some advice on what a Shadow Knight could be and some things they should prepare to fight him. They ask if Martin is willing to go with them and is not available as he is leaving in early afternoon. He does know of a mage who might be willing to go.

The group goes and talks to Benien, an illusionist. He also has some knowledge of shades and shadow magic. He has some ideas for them on what to expect. They ask if he will go and get some equipment for them at the War Wizard's college and ask if he is interested in going. He is reluctant but does agree to both.

Benien goes to the college to talk about getting some items. He is approached by a wizard he has seen there before who says he heard what Benien was doing. After confirming that Benien was getting items for the group, the mage says he is a friend of the group and he owes them and is hoping this will help pay them back. He gives him some potions, rings and other items. Benien thanks him and then realizes he doesn't know his name.

"I am Molmas."

Meanwhile, the others meet up with Tabra and find out Duece is about a day's ride to the west. As Brandon completely destroyed a temple in Eveningstar, they figure that's the best place to start. Tabra wishes them luck as they continue and goes to her place. The group goes back to Martin, after meeting up with Benien, and have him portal them near Eveningstar.

As they approach the town, everything seems normal. In fact, many people recognize Reece and are wondering if he is going to do another show. They ask if he has had more adventures. Reece says that he has many new stories and is hoping to share them as well. The word spreads quickly as they travel through town to the temple.

At the temple, there is activity as new acolytes and the priest try and do the upkeep on the temple. The priest recognizes the group and asks what brings them here. They tell him they think that Duece is being held near here. He offers to help and takes them inside.

He gets a glove of Duece's from the party and steps up to a brazier. He mutters some prayers to Lathander and then places the glove in the brazier. As it burns, its smoke rises and forms a globe of smoke above the brazier. The priest pauses to tell them the smoke will lead them to Duece and then starts saying more prayers to Lathander. A portion of the globe of smoke breaks off and starts heading toward a corridor. The group follows.

The smoke trail leads them down the stairs into the basement and past rows of cells. When they enter, they take potions, use the oils they have. Benien calls upon his magic to make Reece and Victor invisible. As they come to an open area, Brandon is waiting for them. Eric starts talking to him but Victor uses the fact that Brandon hasn't reacted to him to attack. Then Eric rushes forward.

Brandon doesn't stand a chance. Within ten heartbeats, the two have cut him down. He fought well but Eric and Victor are a force when it comes to fighting and two on one would be too much for a giant. However, even after killing him, they haven't found Duece. Benien rushes down a nearby hall to check things out and gets hit by several traps, forcing him back. The next trap he activates mortally wounds him and he goes down. Eric rushes to his aid and manages to heal him with potions. He then hears Duece's cries for help! He runs down the hall looking for Duece, again activating several traps, one of which saps his strength and leaves him tired and leaning against the wall.

While this is happening though, Reece notices that several of their light spells have gone out. He and Victor look around to see shades being kept back by the light. They attack and kill several but more eventually take their place. They are wondering why the shades haven't been forced back with Brandon's death. They hold them back with the light, Reece's fire spells and Victor's axe. They yell for Eric. When they see how bad he is, they try and get Benien to go help. Benien is reluctant to go down the corridor again. He eventually does and helps Eric.

Eric again wants to push forward down the corridor to Duece. The others want to get rid of the shades. As they are trying to convince Eric to come back, the priest arrives with some acolytes, blasting several shades with light and trying to get them to come with him. Eric, though, pushes forward. The priest joins them.

There are still more traps down the hallway but none are bad until they hit the lightning trap that flies down the corridor. It hurts them all, and kills one of the acolytes. The next trap kills the other acolyte, after not affecting anyone else. They finally get to the end of the corridor and see the door where Eric can hear Duece. However, there is a barrier between the door and Eric. He finally pulls out the item for his weapon from Molmas and starts hacking, managing to damage the barrier. He cuts through it and gets to Duece's cell. They release him, give him his stuff, and start heading back out.

Duece says he has a way to get them all home. He speaks of the Shadow Road and now that the potion they gave him restores some of his magic, he thinks he can get them back. Victor doesn't want to go that way and so they turn around and go back near the shades. They have to push their light spells forward but they do get out of the basement of the temple. And there to greet them are the two acolytes that had died! The priest questions them as to what happened. They say that he asked for them and then went downstairs without them and they had been looking for him. He isn't sure what that means. He goes back downstairs and when he comes back, he reports that the only body there is Brandon's. Further, the cell where Duece was being held is gone. He had wondered about that but didn't say anything at the time.

Duece thinks some food and ale would be good. Reece agrees, knowing that some want a show, and so they all head to the tavern for a rest after everything.

Notes

• I felt off on this session. There were some ideas I had but none got fully developed as I wanted. It just didn't feel up to par for me.
• I got chastised, and rightly so, for all of the traps in the corridor. I was told it was too much like DND! It was and I thought it would work but as they said, it ended up being too much.
• I think the players liked it and they said so, so that was nice.
• The interesting thing about Alternity compared to DND is that Alternity doesn't have final rounds long climactic fights with the bad guy. Alternity is more realistic in that sense and Eric and Victor's players were rolling well, such that he didn't stand a chance. It is both good and bad. I think it is more realistic even if, by the rules, it doesn't allow as much drama. I can accept it for all of the other benefits the Alternity rules have.
• Benien was Duece's players character for the night. We ended up having quite a discussion on him for various reasons. Some players were surprised that Brook didn't write up a one shot character better suited for the rescue. Brook wanted to write up a character with more depth and who could help but wouldn't be a perfect fit. There were points for both and it was quite interesting.
• In terms of story, I brought up Raise Dead and using that to have the same characters for the story. To my surprise, the character don't like the idea of Raise Dead. They want "final death" to be there and to be real. I talked about how their can be things worse than death, like debt or favors or other things. In the end, I think we at least agreed to take it on a case by case basis and see what would happen.
• One of the characters said that even though they were ready about noon to go fight the Shadow Knight, they have to wait until night so it would be more dramatic. Very funny!
• It was great to bring Molmas back in after being gone for so long. The players had a big talk about him and what he meant and what he was about. Very fun stuff!
• I tripped on my tongue so often last night. At one point, while the priest of Lathandar is trying to find Duece, I said "priest of Helm." sigh There were other times but that was the worst. I wasn't the only one, but I remember mine more.