H:RotG Chapter 14: F(l)ight of the Chaos Wizard

After fighting off arch-magi, dragon-hunting monsters, powerful mage mercenaries, and several chimeras all at once, our battered-but-undaunted adventuring party could surely rest easy seeking aid in this simple Fringe town, right? All they had to do was send a couple people to the town hall while the rest of them stayed with Kris to get her wounds tended to. Just need to get some paperwork done. Easy peasy, right?

(It ends in absolute, resoundingly catastrophic failure, but we’ll get to that part in a bit.)

The guards of the town’s entrance, allowing the standard protocol to be bent for the sake of saving a life, led the tattered party directly to the infirmary. Though the humble hospice was already somewhat packed with sickened and wounded, the exhausted doctor hesitantly accepted one more. Seeing the wounded individual helped; Kris Nifeton, at this point, was hanging on by a thread. However even such dancing with death may not be enough for the local government to allow the group to stay, and so Professor Hydran & Rhyn were sent to plead for papers whilst Kefyn Cactar, Rabi Phendara, and Rok’saog Bonecrush were left to assist the doctor in keeping an eye on their fading friend.

Fusiona’s doctor, a worn old Ashstalker tiefling named HItchcock, entreats those who stayed at his abode with an interesting discussion on the recent happenings of those who worship Karomatzu. Particularly, those who had once followed the tyrian deity have found themselves powerless a few months ago. On top of already being a crumbling town, as well as the sudden disappearance of esteemed benefactor Anthony Daggerhart, all hope truly seemed lost for Fusiona. But then a beacon of light in the form of great lightning descended upon the people- the Bringer of Lightning, the “second incarnation” of Karomatzu himself, here to save the people of the Southwestern Fringe now that their former god has ascended to a higher pantheon. Though he himself was sceptic of this ‘new god’, after a few days of prayer some of his sickened patients had miraculously began recovering. The party, aware of the true fate of Karomatzu and the existence of Curunthsh, were disconcerted by this knowledge but bit their tongues, knowing that a false story like this would cause much less discord than the truth.

Meanwhile, Rhyn and Hydran were escorted to the centerpoint of the town- a large, fancy building crowning a large plateau, with a weaving precarious path carved up the hill to reach it. After heaving themselves up to the peak, the guards stood to either side of the entrance as the two adventurers entered the presence of the three governing bodies of Fusiona. They sat at a towering panel, a desk for three settled a solid five feet above those who would make their pleas on the courtroom floor. The representatives consisted of three humans: Aeric Li’nth, a graying orc-raised farmer representing the Preservation Party; Stephan Luca, a hardy craftsman representing the Advancement Party; and Asamon Nenbusk, a mediator and judge chosen from the townsfolk’s ranks by Karomatzu himself. Due process was to be observed regardless of these traveler’s health, and of course the Preservation Party wanted the adventurers out of their town as soon as possible.

What none of these government officials were expecting, however, was the true tenacity of the people before them. Already thrown off by the presence of a merfolk so far south, Hydran’s exclamations and Rhyn’s deft reassurance of the “facts” soon brought the three into a state of distressed confusion. The beginning of the descent was launched by Hydran’s sudden declaration of “discovering the dead body” of aforementioned Anthony Daggerhart; that his body was “seemingly alive” but then “disappeared in a puff of smoke, so we assume he’s dead.” When questioned further, the two silvertongues explained that they were able to entrance the deceased man’s roaming, hungry chimeras- yes, even Madame President- a tale for which none of the three officeholders were willing to verify.

Thrown off and angered by these newcomer’s wild claims, but unable to prove them false, AEric threatens bring the whole town guard down upon the adventuring group for the maddening claims that have been made. The juror attempts to quell the rising fury of the isolationist governor by asking a simple question- are all merfolk like the Professor himself? In response to both the threats and the inquiry Hydran assumes it reasonable to simply cast Blink, vanishing from view of the situation entirely. As he reappears behind the government officials they only grow more terrified of the adventurers, screaming for help from the town guard as they fled from the merfolk’s presence. But of course chaos only breeds more chaos, and so the next best logical option was of course for Hydran to freeze the doors shut in order to prevent guards from coming in or the jurors from going out.

Terrified by arcane powers the likes of which they had never seen before in their peasant lives, the government officials call out in fear for the town guard. Rhyn attempts to further back the wild actions of Hydran up by noting that he “won’t stop” until he gets what he wants. However, yet again it was japes! As accurate of a shot as the merfolk was, he purposefully chose to freeze the surface of the door, not the lock or handles themselves. Her voice still quaking with fear, Judge Asamon explains the purpose of the paperwork required to stay in town- to keep track of who comes in and out in a legal manner, and to prevent entry to people who would freeze doors or vanish and reappear in an instant.

As Hydran continued the baffling act even Rhyn grew exasperated with her aquatic ally. He began to make dramatic claims, such as being able to provide “infinite water” if provided with an empty well, interrupting the jury’s claims of law and order and their continued calls for help. As the number of guards began to grow in the space surrounding the building, Rhyn gave up on the situation entirely, casting cloud mind to silently abscond and warn the party of their failure to convince the local government to let them stay. Rather than continuing the distraction Hydran too chose to cast Blink, dissipating into the Ethereal Plane and tailing behind the otherwise-hidden tiefling. The town begins to feel the echoing waves of merfolk-based chaos as guards begin going door to door, seeking out the scoundrels to get them out of town as soon as possible.

Skirting around the flow of foot traffic, the two troublemakers scamper back to their friends waiting in the wing. In the time that they had given heart palpitations to the local government, their fellow adventurers had assisted the good doctor with some simple medical chores, including melting the permafrost wound of a mysterious kobold fellow through the power of sick burns alone. As Kris’ back was in the midst of being stitched back together, Rhyn threw the papers in the face of the doctor, somehow convincing him through pure charisma that the blank, un-signed sheets were good enough registration to legally stay in place. Though somewhat skeptic, he gives the group permission to leave Kris under his care for a while, only requesting that they take the kobold (whom he had saved out of the kindness of his heart, and was also undocumented) and leave for a while. Noticing the advancing guards far in advance from the others, Hydran chose not to speak up, but to instead cast Fly and launch himself directly above the town as a distraction.

While the rest of the party made their arrangements and fled, carrying the kobold with them, the sounds of squabbling guards could be heard advancing ever-closer to the doctor’s ward. Scrambling to get away from the ones who would blow the cover set up by Rhyn, the group made their way to the nearest restaurant to hide out in. Kicking out the totally-not-suspicious person (with an MK on her shoulderpad) they mulled over their options: leave Kris until she can heal and hope the townsfolk don’t neglect her considering her evident Nifeton status, or risk her wounds worsening by taking them with her in their escape. Deciding that gambling their friend’s life on the goodwill of the skittish townsfolk would be too risky, Kefyn slips out of the eatery to try and get Kris back from the doctor himself. As he departs, the party agrees to work together to escape over the other wall of the town however they need to, chanting “3, 2, 1, Crime!” to pep themselves up.

Meanwhile, in one fell swoop of actions, Hydran breaks into an author’s home, freezes their wand to their desk, mildly flirts with them, and then flies out, up and over the defensive wall fencing the rest of the party in. Surprising even to him, in his descent he landed in the arms of a burly long-haired man, with rippling muscles and- against all reason and logic- an equine lower half. With the fate of his friends still on the line, the grappled chaos-wreaking wizard is carried off into the distant wilderness.

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 TBD