Demons and Sins

It is now the 14th of October.  Our Heroes first arrived in Sandpoint on the 21st of September, not even a month ago.  What an interesting and exciting month it has been!  There has been death and suffering and pain, true, but remember the adventure equation: Fun + Danger = Adventure And who are Our Heroes if not Adventurers! Kendra has received an offer to purchase her house - and at full asking price!  The couple will be back in Sandpoint to exchange keys for money, and asks that some minor changes be made.  Kendra puts The Party to work painting and performing light carpentry work.  The days pass quickly - there's something good and satisfying about building and maintaining a house, especially when in contrast with Our Heroes' other work of fighting demons and being Haunted by the malevolent dead. Two days after Harrowstone Kendra receives a letter from Adivion Adrissant, which states that he has some business and research in Magnimar for the ne...

Before the party leaves Vesoriana's room, they ask about Petros Lorrimor - Ves felt him on the prison grounds, several weeks ago, and then just inside the prison a few days after that - and on his third visit, he was slain by a spell cast by an old man, bald and with a hook-nose, wearing armor either made of bone, or stylized to look as such.  The man then directed several of his associates to topple one of the Harrowstone Gargoyles from the roof onto Petros' head, crushing his jaw, before his team captured V's husband and left. Hmmm. The rest of the main level is investigated, and a secret room with five labeled items is discovered - each item corresponding to one of the malevolent spirits which assails Vesoriana: A bloodstained Handaxe .  This +1 handaxe belonged to The Lopper , a serial killer who delighted in blood and decapitation. A Collection of holy symbols.   This set of chains and holy symbols from a variety of Gods was owned by Father Charlatan , who wo...

And we rejoin Our Heroes as they stand outside the gate to Harrowstone prison, looking inside through the ruined gate.  They have walked around the structure - mostly, anyway, since the ravages of time and a collapsed sub-level have caused a lake to form, blocking transit around the prison - and seen the main prison building, with a patrolling scythe carried by two skeletal arms, and a smaller house next to the prison. As Our Heroes enter the prison... Oh.  I - mmm.  I, Your Humble Narrator, must confess something here.  My - both my mother, and my grandfather, died in the Harrowstone Prison tragedy.  This... this is difficult, for me.  I apologize, for making this personal; I generally try to remain a neutral and objective observer but - well, this is a lot.  A lot to process, and a lot to remember.   My father and I would reminisce about his wife and father, my mother and grandfather, as we ate dinner by the fire - and now, all these ye...

We rejoin Our Heroes in Sandpoint, the day before a funeral and two days before a Town Hall Meeting. Lyrie and Orik have left for Magnimar already.  After his experience with the demon, Kand also realizes that perhaps he would be better suited in the big city.  Nod 'finishes his vision quest' by which everyone understands him to mean that he has run out of delicious grapes and is ready to return to the Adventuring Lifestyle. Grapes really ARE delicious, after all, but after the second bunch of them one generally starts to feel a little - upset.  In the tummy parts, I mean.  It is bad for adventurers to stumble into too many grapes for, like a chest of gold, it presents an almost irresistible temptation.  Unlike gold, however, a Chest of Grapes leads quite quickly to nausea and, as we all know, nausea is just about the worst of the conditions an Adventurer can suffer.  Only a single move action each turn?  Why bother even dungeoning, I say. Anyway...

I remember when I first learned what 'imaginary' really meant, and thinking that perhaps it was one of those cases like saying 'going to the bathroom' when you meant peeing, not taking a bath.  My friends weren't imaginary - they knew things, and they told me things, and sometimes I even saw them.  I still had to pour their tea and eat their cookies at our tea parties, but they did give me good advice.  "Don't step there Kendra - that plank is weak," they would tell me, or warn me about some of my father's workers and let me know who I could and could not trust. Doesn't everyone have imaginary friends who keep them out of trouble?   What's the point in having imaginary friends otherwise?  It took me a while to figure out that I was different, somehow, and that my imaginary friends were actual spirits; external and categorically different than me.  As I grew older, and my friends began to outgrow their childhoods, I more and more felt diff...

We rejoin the Party in a library under Thistletop, in the dead hours of the night.  Vig and Torvan scout ahead to make sure their path free of this place is clear, where they find that Shadowmere has apparently slain the Goblin Druid (and Ripnugget the chief, mostly as collateral damage).  After healing the War Horse's wounds, the party arrives back in Sandpoint an hour before dawn.  Depositing Nualia in the prison, the party retires to the Lorrimor house for some well-earned rest.  The next morning finds Shalelu gone to scout the remaining tribes of goblins, and Lyrie and Orik off for Magnimar. A conversation is had with Mayor Deveros and Father Zantus, about Nualia and what the party found under Thistletop.  The Mayor and the High Priest are - stunned, and confused, and go to talk to Nualia - but not until the Priest agrees to help the party fight a demon.  Father Abstalar Zantus asks to wait until the next day, so that he can prepare spells appropriate...

So You Have Just Gained a Mythic Tier.   Congratulations! Remember that whereas before you were adventurers , now you are Heroes .   The gods are more aware of you now, and there is an ineffable… something, that people can sense about you.   You are different than you were before. At your first tier, you must choose a Mythic Path.   Here are the choices available: Archmage is for Arcane Magic users Champion is for fighters and damage dealers Guardian is for fighters and tanks Hierophant is for Divine Magic users Marshal is for fighters and battlefield commanders Trickster is for rogues and skill users When you gain your first Tier, you get the following: ·          Bonus hit points, depending on your path ·          A bonus ability, depending on your path, that’s specific to first tier ·          One Path ...

Nualia's Journal July 18, 4698. Dad said he was working on my birthday cake so he let me end my studies early today. I went outside and there were some boys from the Academy, they threw rocks at me and one hit me. I have a huge bruise, it bled some too. They called me a freak, and laughed at me. I was crying, so Father told me no one else is as gifted as I am and that my silver hair and violet eyes are a blessing from the goddess Desna. He said I’m an angel. December 1, 4699. Master Gandethus gave us an impossible amount of work today and I was trying to finish up when I notice Amylee and the other girls at snickering and pointing at me, again. I did what teacher said and tried to ignore them, but they wouldn’t stop. I excused myself from my studies and hid in the bathroom for a little while, but when I wanted to get out the girls had piled furniture in front of the doorway. I was locked in there all afternoon and half the night, I screamed but no one helped me. When the ca...