Episode 83

Around 9:00 in the morning the party heads back down to the bar area. Some of the locals can be seen eating breakfast and shaking off hangovers from the previous night. Everyone orders food and the bartender slips a piece of paper into Lily’s hand after she asks for eggs and bacon. Anthos gets an ungodly amount of food. Unfolding the paper reveals a map of the western gate. A line leads the map towards an X marked in the forest. “I’ll be sitting and waiting,” it says. After eating, the party heads out. Ingred leads the party through the woods and Marisol eventually points out a person sitting on a stump in the distance.

Lily walks closer to the woman and calls out to her. She appears to be meditating. Runes flow across her grey-blue skin glowing with a light blue light. Floating above and behind her are two short swords, with another lying in front of her on the ground. They all glow purple and spin awkwardly. They stop spinning and point themselves at the party as they approach. Opening her eyes, the party notices that they are completely white. She snaps her fingers and the swords sheath themselves in the scabbards on her shoulders and hip. She acknowledges them and comments that one of them is missing, to which Lily confirms. The woman gives them a look up and down before introductions are made. Her name is Myyrhyn.

She tells them that they will be heading to a tower that’s a good distance away. They should arrive at 11:00pm if they make good foot time. She tells the party that the goal is for her to entice the demon out, and they will be tasked to deal with it. Before walking off, Lily offers for them to use the carpet. “Fine,” says Myyrhyn, “But I’m sitting at the front”. Lily gives her instructions for steering the carpet and they all make their way through the woods. She’s not very good at driving the thing. Anthos and Ingred once again take the horse. Myyrhyn explains the plan and shows the party a golf-ball sized glass sphere, inside it churns a magenta-colored starscape. She will take advantage of a thinning in the rift to entice the creature through. It will open a portal and will likely attract other creatures as well. She warns them not to get too close to the portal or they’ll be sucked into it. Anthos asks if the demon has any vulnerabilities. Lily informs the group that it does psychic damage and that touching the jewel in its head is a bad idea. Apparently the demons are also immune to poison.

The woods are very rocky and have many large boulders scattered about. They travel through the majority of the day up until late in the afternoon. Ingred and Marisol keep a lookout and soon notice a giant stone hand in the foliage. Marisol asks Myyrhyn about it, but she lies and tells the party that she doesn’t know what it is. Lily calls her out on it. She sighs and tells them that there are stories of a fight between large giants before the land became a forest. She doesn’t know if they are true, but it’s what she’s heard. Marisol voices her concerns about Myyrhyn’s lying and the two get into a small argument. Lily stops the two from continuing their bickering.

After passing over many small hills, the party sees a long forgotten tower in the distance. It is built on a tall hill, it’s roof charred as if struck by lightning, covered by a curtain of green ivy, and surrounded by a large field with many uneven divots in the ground. Myyrhyn explains some of the history behind it: it was rebuilt several times through many different wars. It was believed that the tower was built across a magical layline, and because of that many fought for control over it. It was actually built on a falseline, though. After some time the cult of the demon prince used the tower for summonings. The line became more volatile and eventually it exploded and spread demonic energy across the surrounding area, including the town. That’s why there are so many tieflings.

Marisol asks to inspect the area beforehand. “Fine by me,” says Myyrhyn, “I won’t be in line of sight when the demon comes”. The party begins to approach the tower. They get about 80 feet from it before two training arrows shoot out from a small window, one bouncing off of Anthos’ breastplate and the other piercing Ingred square in the shoulder. The party hears some hushed and worried voices coming from inside. “I didn’t mean to actually hit them!” the kids say. Anthos threatens them and Marisol attempts to convince them to stay, but the kids runs off with a distant “Fuck you!”.

They soon find the doors into the tower, although it looks as if a crude, smaller door was cut into the main ones with an axe. There are many carvings on the inside of the door. There are hearts, names, tally marks, dicks, and a penguin with a cigar in its mouth. There is also a mural of a sunrise and the skyline of Sessul. Beneath it is a giant dick and scratches that read “fuck your art”. Marisol tells the group that she’s not happy that they’re summoning demons next to a childrens’ hang out, so the party decides to search the area for stragglers.

They find more carvings in the stonework. Many fresh footprints hint that many were here recently. Ingred and Anthos check out the upper level and Lily, Marisol, and Seipora search the bottom floor. The girls don’t find much, but Anthos and Ingred find a collection of arrows and booze. The arrowheads are broken off and the bottles are lowered down after a quick few sips. Marisol checks Ingred, but doesn’t find out that she was drinking on the job. Anthos tells the party that the bottles are to be used on the demon. Ingred seems upset about it.

Marisol splits off for a short private moment. After checking their surroundings for children and creatures the party discusses where to summon the demon. They decide that the field is the best area and Anthos sets up the bottles around their chosen spot. Myyrhyn shatters the orb in the middle of it. The starscape spreads into a magenta fire and slowly opens up a portal. The bottles slowly get sucked into it. The party hears soft screams from the portal, which get louder and louder until two horns crawl out of it. And another pair. And another. And another until the entire creature appears in front of them: a horrible goat-like creature with no lips and a whipping tail. Three others appear after it. They chatter amongst themselves very loudly and survey the area.

The fight begins. The party struggles to keep the demons at bay, many of Soulfire’s adventurers are soon poisoned, paralyzed, or harmed severely. They are forced to defeat the goat demons, two Balgura, and a tentacle creature before the giant bone demon appears. Marisol is the first to go down, but she is healed by Seipora. Anthos also goes down after defeating the bone demon and Ingred after taking down the tentacle creature. Everyone is patched up but Anthos doesn’t heal very well.

Myyrhyn slides down the hill to them and claps, a job well done. She produces a pouch and Seipora uses mage hand to drop the demon’s gem inside. They decide to head home instead of staying for a small job. Myyrhyn and Marisol have a bitter goodbye and the party bickers about Marisol’s use of magic before they leave. The party hears a hushed “think they’re gone now?” from the kids right as they get teleported back to Gaoli.