At Death's Door

## Drink of the Night

Bug juice (Like a midori martini with midori melon liquor)

## Sponsor(s)

Cantrip candles (TRIANGLEANDFLAME 10% discount)

## Announcements

* Check out the website
* The next two weeks, 8/26 and 9/2, will be a two part one shot run by Adam. They will not be live, but those who can make it will be in chat
* Bits bar!
	+ People cheered during re-runs, so we already have two prizes
	+ Final prize this week is a natural one that one can "gift"

## The Story

* We join the party as a large fireball is going off
* Hyllenae and Trixie save, Jingles and Dawnash fail
* The fire fills the tunnels as the party begins to run away
* Rocks fall as the fire continues, Hyllenae falls and Jingles creates a Tenser's Floating Disk under her, Dawnash jumps on as well, takes out his healing potion, swishes it in his mouth then baby birds it into Hyllenae's mouth, bringing her back up, then gives herself more with lay on hands
* Dawnash tries to throw Jingles over his shoulder and begins to run while the others jump onto the Disk, but cannot quite get it
* The party continues running out, getting to the point where the tunnel turns up
* Trixie takes a rope from Hyllenae and climbs up, then looks for a place to tie the rope off. Dawnash begins climbing up, following Trixie's path. Everyone starts climbing. Rocks fall. Jingles sees the rocks coming and jumps under his Disk
* The Rope falls from where Trixie tied it. Hyllenae sees another boulder on the ceiling that has yet to fall, it would be large enough to seal the tube they are in
* Amalthea shoots an arrow up for Trixie to tie off. Hyllenae ties a bowline knot around Camille, climbs up, then pulls Camille up, then throws the rope back down.
* Jingles goes to climb up next. He is practiced in Aerial Silks, about 8 ranks out of 20 in "Lolth's Web"
* Amalthea climbs up next
* They continue running through the tunnel with everyone up now. There is a small, shadowy figure in front of them. The figure is familiar, carrying a halberd
* As they get closer, they see the foofs. Dawnash dives and grabs Mugsy in a hug
* They hear a voice calling down about who is there
* They wait for the guards coming down
* Nurses come down with the guards to try and bandage the party. Dawnash tells the guards that they need to see Ozebren
* The party enters the door to the Corporal and Hyllenae says that they will see Ozebren now. He yells to the throne room for the rest of the soldiers to leave. Dawnash shoulder checks him as they are leaving and asks which way it is.
* They walk up to two large, double doors, which Renedra unlocks, he sighs, walks in and takes a cape off of the wall, black specked and fur lined. He puts the cape on and introduces himself as Captain Ozebren. He says that they have been infiltrated by spies before and they have tried on his life. He tells them that the situation was dire before the bugs, then only got worse
* Trixie remembers that Robado, Ozebren's son, was one of the ones in the cages with them in the cultist camp
* Dawnash grabs Ozebren by the shoulder and says that they have all lost, Ozebren begins to cry. Dawnash continues to tell him that he is a leader and he has people to protect
* Hyllenae tells him that there is another army of barbarians on the way
* Ozebren asks if they saw an exit. The party is upset that he did not give them all the information about his assumption that they would find a an exit, but promised he could get them out. He is concerned of the "Demonic Ballista" the cultists are making. They look out at this creation, it is about 50 yards wide, 20 yards tall, it looks as though it has been corrupted by evil
* Dawnash tells Ozebren that he cannot count on them six to do it, he could barely count on them for the bug problem
* Hyllenae pulls Amalthea to the side and says that she wants to get a message to the barbarians, could she get a bird and tell it a message to give to them
* Jingles asks the captain the size of the army to their flank, it is about 300 in number, and the extent of the men at the keep is about 200. The remaining bluepowder bomb is being hoisted, they are preparing to fire it at the ballista
* Hyllenae takes the scroll for Amalthea and checks in with Helios, then goes to try to find Dorian
* Dawnash asks Amalthea to have Camille sniff Hyllenae and see if she can find a tunnel that that sent may be coming from to find another exit. Dawnash goes to speak with Danica. He finds her and casts Healing Word on her. He tells her that she is the only one that he has seen that has shown strength and could be a leader. He asks her to gather her forces, put him in the same room as them, and he will handle it form there. He pulls her in, presses there foreheads together and says that they are kin in this now.
* Amalthea goes with Trixie and Jingles. Trixie says that she has an idea and she has been practicing. She holds her arms out and makes a cupping motion and dirt raises out of the ground and moves to the side. She thinks that they can use that to dig a way out
* Jingles asks Trixie where her cat is. Princess comes out. Jingles says that he knows it isn't a cat. Trixie looks around to see if there is anyone else around. Princess takes on his true form. He does his flip, then checks for the stone. Trixie shows the stone to Jingles. Jingles says that it is his stone, it is a powerful rock that he can't figure out how to use. Trixie says that it is no wonder it chose her instead
* Jingles takes out the Bestiary from the Necromancer to look up the imp. It tells him that it has damage resistances, immunity to fire and poison, the ability to shapechange, can become invisible
* Hyllenae is led up to the archives by Ozebren
* (Break)
* Hyllenae enters the archives. Dorian has been researching the demon cult, it has been around for hundreds of years. Baralel is a demon prince of the nine hells and resides in the realm of Despair. The cult has been trying for a long time to bring the prince into the world for a while, but has been unsuccessful. The book tells of the demonic ballista. He found that thousands of years ago, there was a traveling prince, with a powerful raiment made with blue crystal magic which were used to bring a demon prince into the world. The captain does not seem to know much. One of the articles came up from a private collection
* Dorian found out that Renedra was the high captain and wonders his angle for not telling them. There is an artifact from the Prince, Razel, in the keep, the Orb of Razel, a small wand like thing with an orb on it
* They ask Ozebren where the wand is, they know that he knows, his troops are counting on him. He thinks that he knows what they are speaking of now. They go to follow Ozebren to a vault behind a hearth. He goes down a hallway then opens a long wooden box and the room seems to be illuminated. Hyllenae wonders whether the artifacts could be used to summon a god. Dorian thinks that the if the cultists know that the artifact is "no longer here" they may go to where the others are, which they may already know.
* Ozebren takes down a tome, which is more a collection of looseleaf notes
* Dawnash walks by an invisible figure, like a small lizard-like creature pressed against a wall which now looks at him
* Initiative
	+ Dawnash feigns that he did not see the creature, He takes out his lute, looks at the creature and tunes it a little, then plays a dissonant chord to cast Dissonant Whispers. The creature casts Counterspell. He tries to grapple it, but the kobold slips away
	+ The kobold is running away
	+ Dawnash casts Tasha's Hideous Laughter, incapacitating it. He takes its knife and and grapples him. Danica runs over to it and puts her spear to its throat. Dawnash says that it is an enemy but also a fountain of answers. It is tied up.
* Hyllenae is heading back down with Dorian
* The party hears a horn of one of the scouts on the wall, they yell out that they have completed the demonic ballista
* Trixie asks Princess if he knows anything about the demonic ballista. They will need to cast a lot of spells at it, but then it will be prepared
* Jingles says that there is a quick test, he gives Princess a rock to hold that weighs about 30 pounds. He asks Trixie to pick them both up. She cannot. He gives Princess a 10 pound rock instead. He wants to use Feather Fall to help with the accuracy of the bomb
* Trixie sends Princess up as an invisible bird to see how the army is laid out. She believes that the bomb could take out about 70% of the army
* Dawnash is with Danica with the Kobold. He tells the creature that that creature thinks himself sneaky, but he thinks himself merciful, given the right conditions. He holds the creature's dagger to its throat, taking off the muzzle and is told that it was spotting for the ballista, they know where to hit. Dawnash slits the creature's throat
* The ballista is fired at the keep and punches a hole through. Jingles shakes Trixie to bring her back.
* The troops are rallied. Dawnash goes to a rampart and begins singing to rally the troops to fight.
* The party hears a humming in the air, the barbarian army is coming
* Dawnash wraps his fists in rope. There is a large creature, 12 feet tall with a giant axe. "Release!" is yelled and the bluepowder bomb is released and the creature it blown apart and its axe is blown towards the party, hitting Hyllenae.
* Hyllenae asks where the other people are, Jingles casts Light on one of Amalthea's arrows and has her shoot it up and send that they are under the glowing arrow
* Hyllenae brings out the orb for Jingles and asks if he can use it, giving him the history of it. He uses Identify and gets a wealth of information about the power contained in it
* The party discusses whether to stay and fight or to leave, they want to get out of the back alive. The barbarian tribe is coming, possibly to get them out. Jingles wants to shoot everyone over the fray and cast Feather Fall, then book it. Dawnash thinks running is cowardly
* Hyllenae runs back in to get the book Ozebren's grandfather had.
* The barbarians begin to tear their way through the cultists

## Characters

* Robado - one of Ozebren's sons, he was one of the ones inside the cages with them
* Razel - traveling prince with raiments of blue crystal that were used to summon a demon prince

## Items

* Orb of Razel - Artifact of a traveling prince who used blue stone to bring a demon prince to the material plane. One of five artifacts

## Quotations

"And with our guest DM who's going to be DM'ing this thing." Guillermo, "Oh, that's right, can we say that?" Gil "Are we allowed to say that?" Adam "I just did." Guillermo @ 8:10

"That's not canon and you know it" Gil @ 10:20

"Mouth to mouth!" Adam, "She needs this! That's called necrophilia" Guillermo @ 19:43

"Gil. May I make you a bargain?" Adam @ 31:57

"Watching you do math is amazing. I've never seen someone go red like that doing math." Guillermo @ 33:33

"Damn you gods whose that I imagine your name starts with a 'G' and ends with an 'il'" Guillermo @ 1:19:05