Homeward Bound Episode 05

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==Recap==
===New Priorities===
In the land of the demons the Goddess of Hope, Matrigal has appeared in the sky.
In the land below, Demons upon the Demon Colony bow in worship to the goddess above.
Grimes climbs down the mountain side back to Kel William Marshal, Zarrah & her 6 Gnoll Pups, Nimrod, Mogwog, and the 8 Sled Dogs, calling out about Matrigal's appearance. Zarrah, despite being a Cleric of Velthara, begins to pray to her.
The Demons get up and head "North", the direction of the volcano and the cone of stars in the horizon, leaving the Demon City.
A Hydra Demon heads in the direction of the party. As the demon attacks Zarrah, Grimes assassinates it from behind.
After the fight ends, Zarrah heals herself with a , having prayed to Matrigal for spells. Her holy symbol of Velthara lays discarded respectfully on the ground.
===Scouting the Demon City===
The party cautious head to the emptied Demon City, stepping onto the Demon Colony (the flesh that grows across the ground). The Living Wall surrounds the city, with a gap in the wall being the point of entry. Grimes and William head on in ahead of the rest of the party.
The party get to the entrance of the city when the Demonic Living Walls attack them. The party "kill" 10 feet of the walls on each side of the gate, as it screams out. The party starts to walk past, provoking more attacks by more sections of the wall not yet killed - eventually passing it after getting grappled a couple of times.
Now Beyond the Demon Wall, Grimes and William enter the Demon city. Eyes appear or grow around them in the ground and stare at the party. Ahead of them is the is a Demon Orifice that other Demons had been sacrificing to the Colony. The party doesn't approach, but Grimes fires his crossbow at the gurgling orifice.
The Demon Orifice casts a spell. William & Grimes both get hit by a chain lighting bolt, knocking William unconscious and severely damaging Grimes. Grimes runs to William's side and in desperation drinks a mystery pink potion, which turns out to be a love potion, causing Grimes to fall in love with William.
Zarrah rushes in to backup Grimes and William. The Demon Orifice casts another spell, starting to undulate the colony surface around it and drag away William and Zarrah. Grimes holds fast onto William, stopping him from being dragged off while Zarrah disappears into nothingness. Grimes feels his mind being read by someone.
Once Grimes has pulled William to safety, he puts a poultice on William's wounds. Zarrah returns from her etherealness as William wakes up.
The party retreat up the side of the Volcano. The party find they can go into a trance to heal, 1 HP per hour. The party trance and heal up.
===Chasing Butts===
Grimes shoots the Demon Orifice from range, and after 15 minutes the Demon Orifice starts to retreat. It attaches itself to the living wall, moving at movement speed 6 which allows Grimes to give chase, continuing to shooting crossbow bolts.
The Volcano starts to erupt.
After some distance, Grimes has to go down to the lowlands to keep shooting. The Living Wall encircles the Orifice, preventing any more shots from hitting it. The party then hear a fleshy explosion. Surfacing from the walls is a floating, spherical demon; a 4-foot wide sphere. Grimes shoots at it. The sphere moves at speed 6 over the wall and towards the party in a serpentine pattern.
: Beholder Demon: Looking like a molten ball of blackened and charred flesh, with a central glowing eye and covered with 10 eyestalks. A wide mouth with small sharp teeth stretches below the large central eye. Each of the eyestalks is in constant motion gazing all around the creature.
From the dark, the Beholder Demon, attacks William with an energy beam of some kind. William closes in and the Beholder Demon's giant eye bloodshot opens and all the magic items nearby deactivate. William goes around the back and the Rune Blade lights up again, an he attacks it from behind. The Beholder Demon's Anti-Magic Aura makes Grimes's Magic Crossbow Bolts disappear before hitting. Grimes closes in to melee the Beholder.
The Beholder tries a Charm spell against Grimes, but the Love Potion is stronger, and Grimes isn't swayed. Zarrah comes in to help, and uses her magic dagger which hits true and holds the Beholder Demon in place. The Demon however hits William with a Flesh to Stone spell. Grimes touches William with the anti-magic gloves, stopping the stone effect 27% of the way up, just bellow his knee. Grimes also cancels the hold on the Beholder Demon, but blocks all of the Beholder's innate magical abilities. Zarrah finishes off the Beholder Demon with some vicious dagger work.
After the beholder fight the party hear the sounds of a Demon Army on the other side of the Living Wall. A Stalker Demon, the tripod demon, then stands up behind the wall and gazes at the party. The party retreat south down a "road" and come to a 4-way intersection. The party continue south to get back to the Beach and get in their boat and go out to coast.
===Back at Sea===
Grimes speaks with Zarrah. She thinks Matrigal is guiding them in a direction to go, North-North East, but Matrigal hasn't spoken to Zarrah directly. Zarrah goes to pray as William rests and Grimes rows the boat Eastward to try to get around the island.
As they go east, they find after 6 miles the coast turns southward. Zarrah says that Matrigal "isn't fully here" and that she can't speak with her directly. The party head south along the coastline, hoping to circumnavigate it.
After 20 miles the coast goes Eastward again. After 15 miles it goes South Again. The coast in this part has no sign of any Demon Colony, the coast appears to be rocky. They keep rowing.
10–15 miles later they come to a small east–west peninsula, and after going around it the party see are lights & structures to the north, the ground is covered again with Demon Colony. They can also see the movement of demons within the walls, maybe less than 100. The party make landfall half a mile past the Demon settlement. Grimes then goes scout out the settlement.
Grimes spies stone walls with spikes jutting out of them. A stone gate in the wall. On top of the wall are patrolling demons, Warriors, Hydras, and at least one Task Master. Grimes spends some time to count the forces. He counts 4 Warriors (without armor), 4 Hydras, 1 Task Master (with armor), and a new type of demons.
:Commander Demon: Tall and slender with bluish-purple skin, high cheekbones, long jaw/mouth. Long plates of bone extent upwards from joints, protecting them and the flesh above them. It is wearing darkly-dyed clothes of woven hair that drap over it in long stretches. From the back of it's head is a long shock of white hair that drapes low. It carries a spear with it. It seems to be walking the walls, walking with each demon it passes.
Grimes scouts around, finding the settlement is small, only 80 feet across, roughly circular. Inside appears to be a single structure, a mound of earth & rock, or carved rock with tunnels in it, to create a complicated building, where light comes from the "windows" without glass or frame. The sturcture is 40 feet across, 30 feet high. There are some walkways outside the structure. 
Grimes returns to the others and reports in. William thinks facing the danger out the outpost isn't worth it, and they should keep moving onward. Zarrah thinks they should sail north towards Matrigal and not south.
Zarrah then points to the gums of the dogs. Protrusions are growing from the gums. All the dogs have them. Grimes has none in his mouth, but William has a couple in his mouth. Zarrah has none, but Nimrod has a few on his bottom jaw. The party determine that the dogs have been eating at the Colony Surface, and Nimrod did as well a little. The Gnoll Pups are also "infected".
Grimes tries the anti-magic gloves, but it doesn't remove the protrusions. Grimes uses the Gem of True seeing and sees the Nimrod appears to have melted faces, the dogs appear to be molting, their bodies turning white-red-orange. William appears to have a set of curved fangs coming out of his mouth that curl to above the nose and weird scaring patterns behind the cheeks. The Gnoll Pups look like small demons crawling around. Zarrah looks normal. Grimes doesn't share what he found out.
The party keep rowing south down the coast.
===Experience===
12,500 exp each. 408,000 exp total.
*Goal - Warrior Level 10: 500,000 exp
*Goal - Rogue Level 12: 440,000 exp
Category:Homeward Bound Episodes