Recap of the previous session (apologies if I've misattributed any actions to the wrong person - a lot happened in a short time!):
The Umentionables left the Dolphin without delay, leaving the corpse of Sir Giles in their wake, and headed straight to the Council. Lord Neverember summarised the situation: Brior Felhim was expected to return within the next day, along with an army of demons and quite likely a demon lord. The two proposed plans were to either destroy the Blackstaff near the demon lord, which would annihilate everything in the area, or destroy the Shard of Night, which would return all extraplanar creatures to their planes of origin, including the demons. The Council's concerns for the destructive nature of these plans were matched only by their concerns for the uncertainty of their success, but nevertheless they were the only plans available. Or so they thought.
As the party went to rest and prepare for the upcoming battle, Charr found himself ripped from the material plane and thrust into the bowels of the Nine Hells, an unexpecting petitioner before a huge winged devil who introduced himself as Barnabus. With a conceited grin, Barnabus explained that whether they chose it or not, the Unmentionables were now participants in the Blood War - the eternal struggle between the devils of order and infernal bureaucracy and the demons of unbridled chaos and destruction. As such, Barnabus had been commanded to offer Charr, a recognised representative of Neverwinter, a deal to solve their current problems. Barnabus proposed that the devils would send their greatest tyrant and warrior to battle and crush the demon lord and its armies, leaving the Unmentionables free to kill Brior Felhim on their own terms. In exchange, the souls of anybody who died during the battle within the walls of Neverwinter would become conscripts in the armies of the Nine Hells for eternity. Despite the offer of a grand infernal victory at zero personal cost to the Unmentionables, Charr decided to negotiate by instead offering a potato in exchange for the devil's aid. Alas, Barnabus did not favour the starchy treat and so the deal collapsed in an impasse. Cursing the tiefling's name, the devil thrust Charr back to the material plane.
Later that afternoon, the party awoke to screams coming from outside, and found that blood was raining from the sky and that the Shard of Night was suspended ominously in the air above the Bluelake in the north of the city. Without delay, Sage, Charr and Slythe flew towards the tower while Hamfist rode on top of Jeff, stripping them both of any dignity they still possessed. As they approached, they spotted Brior Felhim stood atop the roof of the Shard, the runestone held high, and he called for the prince of fear and madness to come forth and burn the mortal lands with his chaos. With that, he thrust the runestone into the lake below.
Bubbles foamed on the surface of the lake and there was a low rumbling, like the precursor to an earthquake. Bubbles drifted into the shape of a giant circle and the foam transformed into a wreath of bones. The water within the circle suddenly plummeted into darkness and the bones erupted in flame, and the lake around it turned an oily red. From within the maw came a baleful cry that sent a flash of pain and terror through the minds of the Unmentionables. A slimy tentacle spewed forth from the maw, followed by another, then two monstrous heads broke the surface, both resembling hideous, angry baboons with wickedly curved tusks. Both heads were attached to a single torso, and the monster’s red eyes burned with bloodlust and madness. The creature rising from the lake stood thirty feet tall or more, with oily blood cascading down its back and shoulders. Upon reaching its full height, the great demon threw back both its heads and roared!
Atop the Shard of Night, Brior Felhim cackled with insane delight as he watched Demogorgon, Prince of Demons, unleashed upon the world. As the beast waded across the blood lake, an army of demons spilled out from the maw.
Resisting the urge to fly out of the city and possibly out of the material plane for good, Sage gathered his senses and all of the might granted from the belt of stone giant strength, and he wrenched open the hatch on the bottom of the tower. The party quietly headed inside, expecting the worst. Taking a sneaky peek at the room, Slythe saw Brior Felhim working the tower controls, with a drow woman and the controlled Truss waiting in ambush. Brior sensed the Unmentionables' infiltration and began to taunt them, so absolutely certain that he had already succeeded that he failed to notice his companion behind him, the drow priestess Bithrie, who Charr had magically dominated during Brior's monologuing. And so it was that Brior Felhim's machinations ended unceremoniously with a poisoned dagger in the back. Truss staggered, and it became clear that he was free of the gnome's influence. A terrible half-drow, half-spider creature - a drider - descended from the ceiling to attack, but Sage swiftly charmed it to his whims.
With the situation seemingly under control, Charr commanded Bithrie to slit her own throat. While the rest of the party began to trash the control panel in an effort to destroy the tower, Sage searched Brior's corpse. Aside from his curious magical staff and his even curioser goldfish in a bowl that he kept tied to his belt, the most alarming item Brior carried was a pencil drawing on parchment of a female tiefling - none other than Sage's missing sister, Nexori. Sage had little time to ponder this, however, as the control panel began to spark from Truss's strikes, and the tower began to descend and list to the side...
And this week's recap:
The party persisted in attacking the control panel in an attempt to destroy the Shard of Night, ordering the drider to assist with its spear-tipped spider legs. It became clear that the tower would soon collide at the edge of the lake, however, and so the party retreated through the hatch. Charr, Slythe, Hamfist and Jeff were first out, but as they caught the attention of the demon lord Demogorgon and met his gaze, they became paralysed with terror. With a horrifying leap, Demogorgon clung to the side of the tower and smashed his way inside, much to the alarm of Sage and Truss who immediately bailed out of the tower, leaving the Prince of Madness to thrash the inside of the tower to pieces.
Slythe, Charr and the rest regathered their sanity and landed on the lake shore at a safe distance from the tower, which was rapidly descending. Demogorgon burst out of the tower as it hit the ground, landing between the party and the tower, which split in two. Slythe spotted that the bottom of the tower had been destroyed in the impact, exposing the mechanical innards - in particular, a large, glowing blue crystal which could only be its power source. With nothing to lose, Slythe loosed an arrow at the crystal, causing it to crack. He called out to the party to destroy the crystal as Demogorgon rose to its feet and charged the party on the shore, tentacles flailing. Truss and Hamfist rushed forward to hold off the colossal beast however they could while Sage, Charr, Slythe and Jeff pummelled the crystal with all the magic and arrows they could muster, being careful to avoid Demogorgon's horrific gaze. The crystal began to weaken and gush blue liquid from the forming cracks, and a powerful energy field began to emanate from it with an ominous, pulsating hum, gradually raising in pitch. Demogorgon reached the two barbarians, effortlessly side-swiping them with its fearsome tentacle arms.
Charr knew that it was now or never and reached into the depths of his sorcerous mastery to bring forth all the fire he possibly could, which he then launched at the crystal. With a cacophonous wave of energy, the crystal shattered, leaving a momentary vacuum of noise as debris, the party and even Demogorgon rose slightly in the air in suspension. Finally the energy field collapsed with a deafening implosion that detonated the tower, peppering everyone in the area with rubble. The maw in the lake began to close, forcefully dragging all the demons back to the Abyss. Both of Demogorgon's hideous baboon heads roared in fury as it flailed against its defeat, but it too was yanked back to the pit from whence it came as the maw sealed with a peel of thunder.
Peace fell across the city. The threat of Brior Felhim and Demogorgon was finally defeated. It was at this historic and poignant moment that Slythe, full of pragmatism, informed Hamfist that his services were no longer required and that it was time for him to pay his severance fee. Hamfist, having only a single copper piece to his name, handed Slythe half a copper and his longsword as payment.
The next day, a ceremony was held before a crowd on the steps outside the Hall of Justice. There Lord Neverember congratulated and thanked the Unmentionables, naming Slythe, Charr, Sage and Truss High Captains of the North, with their office to be recognised across the Sword Coast by all members of the Lord's Alliance. Next, the herald called out for Hamfist Halfwit to step forward and for his services to Neverwinter, Neverember dubbed him Sir Hamfist, Knight of the Order of the Gauntlet. Finally, Jeff was called forth and appointed Grand Poobah of Redoubtable Importance, bearing no responsibilites or authority whatsoever, along with a feathered hat to serve as his badge of office.
Afterwards, at the victory banquet, Neverember approached the Unmentionables to discuss their material rewards, with each of them receiving 10,000 gold pieces. They were also granted ownership of Galveney Manor, which the late Lord Galveney had left to the Council the previous year, along with maintenance and renovation costs and the services of a steward, fully paid for a period of one year. Feeling bad about how things had ended with Hamfist, Sage approached him at the banquet and offered to show him a magic trick, fooling the halfwit halfling into drawing a card from the Deck of Many Things. None can say what exactly happened to Hamfist as a result, suffice it to say that he departed smugly as though he felt he had got one over on the Unmentionables. Sadly for him, the scales of justice were still immeasurably stacked against him. Still, with a knighthood to his name and free of the machinations of the Unmentionables, Hamfist departed blissful in his ignorance to ruin some more lives elsewhere.
After the banquet, the party headed to their new estate where they were met by their steward, Wilfred Gainsborough, who gave them a tour. There were repairs and renovations to be made, but on the whole the estate was vast, impressive and full of potential. Wilfred diligently listened to the requests of his new masters and dutifully set about obtaining every ballista he could get his hands on.
Neverwinter was safe. The Unmentionables - flush with riches, members of the nobility and with a mansion of their own - had finally made it.
). First up, Slythe's buddy cop adventure with Jeff, which will take the form of a short choose-your-own adventure:
