MoM Session 2

## Recap

The party exits The Cleansing Stones as official DAEMON Hunters. They meet Hurry the gnome, who is giving out assignments for monsters to hunt. Most of the assignments have already been given out, so they get stuck with clearing something monstrous from the sewers of Pharendall. When they reach the towering city a few miles away, their conversation with the guards at the gate is interrupted by a different monster: a large, heavy gray creature which apparently comes out at night. It steals Kevin's DAEMON badge and disappears, leaving the guards complaining about the pest.

Entering the city, the Hunters must decide how to move up in the levels of the city. It's dusk, so a lot of shops have already closed - but they spot a pretty nice tavern called *The Three Story Stay*. The public stairs are under maintenance so they decide to enter the tavern, but are stopped by the bouncer, Elfo. Kevin poses attractively and is allowed in, but Ileao is too insulted by Elfo's comments on eir fashion (eir five demon bag isn't even Juchi) to play nice, so ey threaten him with bodily harm - and try to follow through on the threat. Lucky for the elf, Alex (who snuck in through a side entrance) throws his drink at the pair, knocking Ileao off-balance enough that ey miss Elfo and throw eir bag. Mighty Mo, the other bouncer whose room is right above the entrance on the second floor of the inn, quickly climbs down a ladder to protect ~~Elfo~~ the alcohol being thrown around. Before the buff orc interacts much with the party, they all hear a scream coming from the second floor.

When they reach the scene of distress, a noblewoman is bemoaning how a monster stole her signet ring. Alex reads the situation and notices a pair of glowing orange eyes on a nearby roof, eyeing all the shiny valuables with the party greedily. The hunter takes out his DAEMON badge to take the monster's attention off the noblewoman; this causes the creature to dive at him, but Ileao leaps inbetween them and takes the hit emselves. Alex finally gets a good look at it and sees that it is a dragon-shaped gargoyle, capable of flight and equipped with vicious stone claws. Gargoyles are a common pest in dwarven cities - and apparently one has made its way here. They become dormant during the day, effectively just stone statues, which means it'll be defenseless but also a lot harder to find. Each of the creatures has a different obsession which they build a hoard around - this one, they realize, steals symbols of status.

The party decides to set a trap for the gargoyle where there are lots of status symbols: the top layer, where the wealthy elite live. To get up there, they'll need disguises; luckily, Alex has some in his haven. He draws an intricate door in chalk on the wall of a building - a real door appears from the outline and opens into an extradimensional Victorian-style home. They get their disguises and bluff their way to the top of the towering city, getting to the High Church of Lathandar, an absolutely magnificent, sun-shaped cathedral made with gilded materials and gold-hued glass for its dome. As they enter, Ileao begins to hear whispers talking about how ey were told never to return to holy ground. Ey say ey may have to sit this battle out, but when a familiar voice comments that it's just like em to leave eir team behind, ey stubbornly change eir mind. Alex shows concern for em, which is weird to Ileao.

Inside the temple, they take the golden door-knocker for bait and then barricade the doors. Ileao steals a bunch of golden items, which are never seen again, so screw the church I guess. They don't have much time to further plan before they hear scratching above them - followed by an explosion of shattering glass from the dome that rains down on them, followed swiftly by the diving gargoyle. They all fail to dodge away from the shrapnel, giving them a bad start to the fight. They trade blows with the gargoyle - magic missiles met with stone claws, lycanthropic claws met with a vicious bite. They wear down the beast but take a lot of harm in the process, with Kevin getting the killing blow due to some lucky sunlight shining down into the monster's eyes. They collect Kevin's badge, the noblewoman's signet ring, and proof of the kill before crawling into Alex's infirmary in his haven.

## TL;DR

The Monstrous loses his badge. The Expert loses his patience. The Divine loses eir confidence.