9. Repeat after me: Don't Talk to Demons!

1st Eyre, 999 YK

• Oh god, wasps! Hell wasps!
• The wasps sting the shit out of Warren and Valaari, but they avoid the venom for now.
• Warren stabs a single wasp and then runs off, hiding.
• Naze uses a spell to take a bunch of wasps out.
• Valaari gets stung again and the venom takes old, making them clumsy.
• Bhaltair does a stunning performance, and then Quickens most of the party (but not Warren, who is hiding).
• Warren runs around the corner and throws his poncho over as many of the wasps as he can. He now has a squirming, angry bag of wasps with holes in it.
• Valaari sets fire to the poncho full of wasps, which agitates them greatly.
• The venom progresses, dropping Valaari unconscious.
• Runmae crushes the wasps in the poncho, and then Zaphkiel takes out the remaining wasps.
• Naze rushes to Valaari and tries to triage their wounds.
• Bhaltair rushes to Valaari and uses their crystals to try and treat the venom.
• Warren administers an antidote to Valaari.
• Valaari wakes up, reduces the stage of the poisoning and then passes out again.
• Warren momentarily mourns the loss of his poncho.
• Naze cheers Valaari on. He believes they can beat the poison!
• Bhaltair continues to treat the poison, and also casts Gentle Breeze to provide a further bonus to the save.
• Warren administers an elixir of life to Valaari, healing them slightly.
• Valaari overcomes the venom! A sigh of relief is shared (along with the Gentle Breeze)
• Naze treats Valaari's wounds, whilst Runmae and Warren keep an eye out (sadly without the poncho)
• They've learnt their lesson: never help screaming people in need.
• They proceed for the rest of the day, and rest in a cave.
• Valaari calls a team meeting, and thanks everyone for really stepping up, that was a close one.
• Runmae talks about an infestation of cave spiders she had in her pantry once. Valaari asks if those cave spiders also paralysed people and then burst out of their corpse. No, they did not.
• Bhaltair asks if the group is still comfortable continuing the mission. Valaari states the swarm was unfortunate, they usually avoid them. Bhaltair agrees that sounds sensible.
• Warren has no shirt or anything, he was just wearing the poncho and shorts, with some armour around his waist and shins. Runmae donates her cloak to cover him up a bit.
• Runmae says they'll make him a new poncho. What was it made of, wool?
• Warren says he took it off a dead guy.
• Apparently he also never washed it.
• Warren goes to cut a hole in Runmae's cloak to wear it like a poncho, and Runmae chews him out for it. "Don't cut a hole in my cloak, you dick!"
• He just really likes poncho's, guys.
• Valaari has horrible dreams of buzzing hellwasps. Bhaltair attempts to soothe them by rustling gently.
• Naze is concerned with Valaari's itching, but doesn't do anything about it. He didn't find any eggs or anything when he was treating their wounds.

2nd Eyre, 999 YK

• They proceed towards the Ironlands entrance.
• They decide not to Scout, as it slows them down too much.
• They run into a Brimorak, a little goat-demon that starts fires. The demon panics on seeing them, and summons a couple of dretches, including Gong!
• Gong is not happy to be here. He apologises to Warren for the whole carotid artery injury earlier, but to be fair, Warren did kill him!
• Gong requests that the Brimorak unsummons him, which is denied.
• Naze tries to defuse what seems to be an impending fight. Gong backs him up, saying they're fucked if they fight the party.
• Bhaltair asks Warren what's going on.
• Valaari wants to back away and go around, without going past the demons and showing them the group's back.
• Naze tries to argue it'll be quicker to just go passed them, they don't want to fight!
• Bhaltair is concerned at Naze speaking "demon-tongue"
• The rest of the group is backing out.
• The Brimorak wants assurances that the Ghaash'kala won't come back and kill them once the group is gone.
• Naze presents this to Valaari, and Valaari refuses.
• Valaari says they won't say it again, they don't deal with demons!
• Naze turns back to the demons, and tells them he is sorry but at this moment in time they are refusing their proposal.
• Naze is in trouble.
• The Brimorak is confused, but Gong tells it to take it. Gong then asks the group where they're going, so they don't go the same way!
• Valaari goes back and drags Naze away by the ear.
• Naze explains what they said, and Valaari instructs him not to tell them where they're going. They drag Naze by the ear with the group, away from the demons.
• Naze calls out "see you later, demons", which gets him another chewing out.
• Once they get out of ear shot, Zaphkiel asks why they didn't kill the demons? They're just going to let evil walk away?
• Valaari explains they have a mission, and every fight they get in risks them dying and failing that mission. Gotta think long term.
• Valaari also reminds Zaphkiel that they aren't immortal, and that demons come back when killed! The party don't!
• Valaari remembers that weaker fiends, like dretches, don't usually retain their identity when they reform. Gong shouldn't remember the party. That is...sus. Valaari keeps this to themselves.
• They keep an eye out as they proceed, to ensure the demons don't follow them.
• Warren makes a note on the map that the old watchtower has demons in it. "Little goat guy, and that prick Gong".
• Valaari lets go of Naze's ear after half an hour. He whines the whole time. Zaphkiel doesn't help him.
• A couple hours later, they arrive at the cavern that marks the entrance to the Ironlands they found.
• They settle down and camp around the Ironlands entrance, not going to go into it today.
• Valaari now raises that this is the first time they've encountered a demon that remembered dying. Warren also confirms he's never seen that happen before?
• Runmae asks if maybe the other demons they've met just didn't mention remembering?
• Valaari also thinks it is suspicious that a demon they killed only recently was summoned to them, again.
• Bhaltair asks Naze about this, suspicious that it's related to him (because he was talking to the demons!)
• Bhaltair has had access to lore of the Ashbound that states that powerful fiends often retain their identities and memories after reforming, but weaker fiends do not.
• Bhaltair asks if any of the Lords of Dust were named Gong? Valaari doesn't think so.
• Bhaltair theorises that Gong was a more powerful fiend at one point in time, but reformed as a dretch. He picked his battles, he's more intelligent than dretches usually are.
• Warren doesn't care about this, Gong's a prick and if they see him again they'll kill him.
• Bhaltair then asks if the Lords of Dust fight among themselves? Valaari confirms that they do.
• They get the feeling this is not the last time they'll meet this demon.
• Valaari then asks Naze to please translate next time they try to speak Infernal to demons. They have no idea what he said. He claims he gave them the gist, he was just trying to avoid a fight.
• Bhaltair also asks that Old Common be translated as well, as neither Bhaltair or Runmae can speak it. If there had been a fight, they'd've been confused.
• Valaari makes a jab, saying that the conversation shouldn't have gone on that long. It wouldn't have if Naze had followed when the group moved.
• Naze just wanted to be polite and say goodbye!
• Valaari sighs and moves to a corner.
• Warren tries to communicate to Naze that demons are "bastards who want to kill us all", so niceties shouldn't be a priority. If Naze is gonna speak to them, it's "basic shit and we leave".
• Naze re-iterates that the demons didn't want to fight! They just wanted to chill in their tower.
• Warren presents a hypothetical, if Naze came across a "big tiger guy with backwards handies" and it was all like "I don't wanna fight I just wanna hang out, we can sort out this whole Lord of Dust thing". Would Naze trust them?
• Naze is like "well, those definitely don't exist" and asks "has Kait asked me to hang out with this guy?"
• Warren loses his cool and tells Naze that he cannot trust demons, they are tricksy and seek to take advantage! He can't trust them.
• Naze, quietly, says they didn't want to fight.
• Warren asks Naze to repeat after him, "you cannae trust a demon"
• Naze repeats it.
• Valaari is squinting at Naze.
• Warren says they have their problems with Valaari, but they know what they're talking about! When Valaari is telling them something, they should listen to most of it.
• Naze says "they might have useful information!"
• "WE CANNAE TRUST DEMONS!"
• Naze says he thinks he gets it, he will "try to take that on board as best he can" and not trust demons. He still thinks they could have valuable information so he should still be able to talk to them, but he shouldn't trust them!
• Warren tries to explain it. We can't trust demons, right? So any information they give, came from the demons, who we can't trust. So we can't trust the information either!
• Zaphkiel hates this conversation. Why are we even entertaining talking to demons? We kill them.
• Warren reiterates that Naze is inexperienced in the Labyrinth, and he needs to trust them that the demons mean him harm.
• Naze says that demons can be shapeshifted, so what if they impersonate the party?
• Warren says if any of them start speaking infernal, stab them.
• Bhaltair has had their hand up this whole time, wanting to ask a question. Warren asks them what's up?
• "Valaari said something about not making promises to demons, what does that result in? Is it like making promises to the Fey?"
• Warren says "probably? I don't know about fey, but probably. Make no promises! Don't barter with them, just kill them or wait for orders from Valaari!"
• "So a promise to a demon is not magically binding?"
• Valaari explains that it depends on the kind of demon, making promises to some demons are magically binding. They should be cautious, especially when things are breaking expectations, like a dretch retaining its identity after death. Don't promise anything.
• Warren says they should all listen to Valaari, they know their stuff.
• Bhaltair claims they will prove them wrong, that they can be Nice in the Labyrinth. Maybe not to demons, but they can be nice to each other.
• Bhaltair appreciates the demonology lesson.
• Warren thinks they're being sarcastic, but they were being serious!
• Bhaltair also disagrees with Runmae's idea of "trust". They need to trust each other implicitly or they endanger their lives. They want to do a team building exercise when they get back to Maruk Dar. Runmae doesn't need to sleep with a dagger when the rest of them are around.
• Runmae disagrees.
• This is why they need a teambuilding exercise.
• Next time, Ironlands!