The characters in attendance decided to forgo a long rest so that Briscoe could cure two of the witchfire curses and press on into town. They went to the Dawnflower Library via the graveyard to avoid getting entangled in town. The librarians were reluctant to let Xeelie and Briscoe in because they looked to be on fire. The fact that they demonstrated they weren’t flammable didn’t help but Oakwood talked to Vandy she let them in. Oakwood’s mom was worried but glad to see him. Doriana was in surprisingly good spirits. The Motley Man was promising to take her on some adventures and the price of a shriveled hand seemed reasonable to her. We talked and made some rolls. Her dreams were being invaded and her life force being drained. She had a ruby of unknown origins that seemed to be aiding the connection. When shown a sketch of the guy with a giant undead hand we saw in the dungeon last time, it was a match. Xeelie felt that if we observed her sleeping, we might learn more. Oakwood elected to stay with his family while Briscoe, Xeelie and late arriving Clarissa went into town.
Xeelie wanted to check on Amicia first. The shop was closed and the house locked up. There were blacksmith’s goods all over the lawn. Evidently Carmine’s arrest had turned the whole town against his family and they were returning the things he had made for them. She picked the lock and they started putting the stuff inside. A guard came by and the GM wanted to hassle them more but Xeelie rolled a 20 on Society and he just threw up his hands and left. They searched the house and found no one. And the forge next door was cold. The next stop was Xeelie’s mom’s shop. She had no help on both plotlines but she did have a scroll of Reverse Curse. It was pricey at 4th level but I think Xeelie bought it. Wrin asked her to mind the store for an hour or two so she stayed and did some shopping for potions and scrolls.
The other two pressed on the jail to talk to Carmine. That conversation was inefficient since Dan and Dave hadn’t really been paying attention(Dan: Neither of us really cared). Basically, more information of Carmine’s involvement with the Kartos Consortium had come to light including their plans to bankrupt the whole town and take it over. People were mad and evidently him coming clean and helping at the end wasn’t enough. He was awaiting trial. The traveling judge and his lawyer from Absolum were on their way. He didn’t know anything about Amica, having not seen her since his arrest two days ago. He assumed she was manning the shop. When told she wasn’t, he was concerned. About the shop, not her. He asked if they checked her room upstairs. Evidently, according to the GM, they didn’t go upstairs. Said vs heard vs implied etc. So, they went back.
They found her crying in her room. Neither was eager to talk to her. Briscoe was particularly harsh but evidently, they had never gotten along. Too bad Xeelie or TerStegan were not there. Basically, she was upset because the whole town hated her and her father. Understandable. Briscoe demanded to know what she was doing about it but the 16-year-old girl felt powerless. True. When told that Doriana, her best friend, was sick she agreed to go visit her. But she was really trying to get Briscoe to go away. Once Briscoe went out the front door, she slammed it and locked it. He was mean. Then she and Clarissa slipped out the back and headed to the Memhenes estate. Briscoe gave up, stopped at Wren’s to tell Xeelie what they had learned and then returned to the cabin to get that long rest. When the girls got to the estate and Dan realized that Doriana was at the library, Amica ditched Clarissa as well. They both gave up and went home.
Meanwhile, Oakwood’s father came to visit at the library so he asked him some more questions about Carmine. The real question is how much he knew and how much he was duped by the Consortium. There seemed to be a preset bias against him due to his Rogue past and the long-standing rivalry between the two men. But they needed a trial to sort it out. The players thought he was duped and might try to help him. Eventually, Xeelie showed up and night fell. They got some Occult rolls which Oakwood made with a hero point. They thought that killing the monster in the dungeon would break the connection. As Paul predicted last week. That killing the hand would not hurt her. That time was pressing because eventually she’d go into the dream plane and never return. They took the ruby and went back to the cabin in the early morning.
The next morning, Briscoe removed the curse on Xeelie. Since TerStegan didn’t exist, he was going to use his 2nd slot on himself but I think Paul showed up before he did. So, he cast it on TerStegan? We got back to the prison room and spelled up. Bless for TerStegan. Blur for Oakwood and Xeelie. Etc. We rolled initiative and a 3rd monster showed up. But not the hag haunt. Plus, the Motley Man and the Hand we had expected. The Minion cast the first of many Will saving throws. The Hand was taken out very quickly. The caster was most feared but the Hand was in the way. The Motley Man cast a bizarre spell which dominated the fight. He placed 4 10x10 squares on the map but they couldn’t be adjacent. Inside was difficult terrain. However, when you tried to exit a square, you randomly appeared at a different square. With the tight quarters, it had a big impact. He was very tough with high AC and spell DCs. I can’t recall it, blow for blow.
Oakwood critically failed a Confusion save, making him a danger to all for 10 rounds and no saves. However, TerStegan used Snap Out of It to get him a save. He still missed it and used a just earned hero point to make it. He returned the favor and used Dash of Herbs on TerStegan to give him an extra save on the Sickened. Clarissa just stood there and pumped Force Bolts into the caster, avoiding the movement issues and its AC. As usual, she did most of the damage. Xeelie managed to navigate into melee with the caster. As a reward, she was crit with its first and third attack, taking almost 100 points and going out. That was a problem because that spell would make it very hard to get to her. Plus, she was still 2d6 bleeding. Briscoe managed to get to her but it took 3 full actions and his free movement from Doctor’s Visit to do it. However, she had about a dozen conditions on her including prone, clumsy, sickened, etc.
Oakwood managed to hit it once only to find it immune to cold. Xeelie had been so busy dying, she hadn’t done much Lore stuff. He then critically failed a Fear save and was forced to flee. Briscoe was in a tight spot when the minion walked through the walls and got in there too. Xeelie was afraid to stand up. Both of these things had reaction attacks. Somehow the caster rolled a 1, the only roll that could miss her in her current state, and she survived another round. TerStegan was forced to bounce from square to square and lost rounds of actions trying to get into the fight. Eventually it was worn down and near death. It managed to drop TerStegan before Xeelie dropped it with a hero point. (If it wasn’t for that +10 on hero points, we’d never live.) When it dropped, its minion dropped as well.
The “Denizen of Leng” was sent back to its home dimension. His Fragment of Urevian’s Pendant dropped to the floor. Briscoe completed his pendant and now feels a slight pull towards Urevian’s location (Hint: We saw a massive door previously with a large Pendant inscribed on it). They found Scroll of Dream Message (x2 30GP Each) and Box of Candles (50GP). There was also a room that was apparently used to contact Doriana with a bunch of mummified hands. TerStehgen found a secret door leading south-ish that might get around a trap from a couple sessions ago. I assume he grabbed the maps of Otari off the wall like he said he would. They returned to town and found that Doriana’s hand was back to normal and she seemed to be much better / recovering from the ordeal. Oseph Menhemes rewarded the party by allowing each person to select 1 7th level or less item (pick normal stuff you would use, not the ridiculously priced vehicles, siege engines, etc.) typically in the 360GP or less value. Common stuff is fine, but run anything not common past the GM for approval (mostly to filter out stuff that is not area appropriate). It will take about a week for the items to be procured and brought back from Absalom.
