Loose threads None
Participants Raziyah Tara Tula Toliloki Nuinu Valdri Seiorsdottir Zinthu Jadegazer
Locations New Hezrath
Short Summary:
The party participated in a training match with the Church's acolytes. A Succubus was freed shortly after who was slain by the party.
I, along with my dear friend, Valdri, gathered some of our Guild's more magically inclined members and set off for New Hezrath. My goal: learn the ways of the Radiance, hoping to better serve the displaced people of the Continent as a holy warrior of the Church. No plans, or anything. Just show up and ask for training. Great plan, right? Well, thanks to some of Valdri's luck rubbing off on us, we happened to arrive in the city a day before a new batch of trainees were to be inducted into the Church. Two catfolk sisters, curious of us outsiders, informed us of the event and we set off for it next morning.
There, we met Inquisitor Yteh Riverblast once again and were introduced to man-at-arms Grey Thorn who was instructing his squires. A friendly bout began with our side easily overwhelming the two squires before taking down Grey Thorn himself. I quickly healed Grey Thorn using some of the Radiance's magic channeled through my Relic and the squires patched themselves up with some magic of their own. This plus some mundane medicine was all the healing we could get before warning bells rang out. Something had happened deeper inside the barracks.
Grey Thorn and the acolytes rushed in at the first sign of trouble and the rest of us followed in turn. We found ourselves in a hallway with no enemy in sight. For a brief moment, I sensed great danger surrounding me but soon after I realized what was really going on: We were under the effects of a haunt, one that twisted our perceptions to the point where we could no longer tell friend from foe. A chaotic battle ensued, with each of us indiscriminately attacking another. Thanks to our casters mostly retaining their senses: Tara quickly healing off any critical damage and Zinthu and Toli dispelling the haunt, we were able to survive the ordeal. Grey Thorn dismissed his students for their own safety, and I sent Regina with them to protect her from further harm. The rest of us ventured forth: to confront the source of the spell.
We found ourselves in a large room: a palanquin in the center, a broken vase in front and an otherworldly handsome Gnoll sitting inside. Four guards stood in formation, defending the palanquin. The "Gnoll" emerged from inside and attacked us, immediately placing Valdri under his thrall. Tara identified our foe as a Succubus, and Toli and I got to work sending him back to the pits he crawled out of. The enthralled guards along with Valdri struck back at us, their true selves buried somewhere deep inside, and Grey Thorn was quick to respond in kind, killing one of his former allies.
Meanwhile, my hubris got the best of me as I ended up too close for comfort with the Succubus, letting him sap away both my will to fight and my physical strength. The power of the Radiance once again activated in my Relic to protect me from harm and Toli's conjured illusion of a golden dragon provided just enough of an opening for me to escape captivity. Things were looking good for a moment: Toli and I unleashed havoc on the demon greatly wounding him despite the healing it stole from its thralls. Greythorn and Zinthu took out one of the thralls each, though I still believe we overstepped when we used lethal force, and Tara kept all of us safe and healthy.
And then, disaster struck! A lucky bullet from Valdri critically pierced Tara's torso, the splash catching almost everyone in the blast radius. An enraged Grey Thorn viciously tore at our Gunslinger, giving the wounded demon a chance to down her, draining her life to heal himself. Things were looking dire, but we were in a house of faith. And fate had greater plans for us: a resurgent Tara channeled divine light into a ball of fire and struck down the demon, annihilating any trace of it from this world. We had won!
I immediately dropped my weapons and stabilized Valdri, before a certain some one got any smiteful ideas. Grey Thorn, on the other hand, cut down the last of his former allies, even though the guard was barely a threat to us at that point. We had a quick falling out about this and the party left the building in a huff, briefing Yteh along the way about what happened. We recalled in a hurry soon after.
As of writing this, Valdri has yet to recover though the Guild's priests assure me she will be back with us at sunrise tomorrow. As for my goal: well, let's just say, my inauguration ceremony in to the Cathedral of a Thousand Suns has been indefinitely postponed.