Autumn in Hieron 03: A Podcast About Listening

## "A Podcast About Listening"

*"The party confronts a small group of strange. Art continues to invent new titles for his deity. Jack helps Ali be even better at sword-ing. Nick continues to show off how invisible he can be. Austin does a terrible accent. Keith is currently a cougar."*

## Plot

In the tower on Eventide Island, the party has found a bedroom, where a figure in black and gold lacquered armor, sits in a chair. This man, Rivallo, claims to serve “good king Samot”, and his armor bears a symbol that looks like a variant of the symbol for Samothes, the god worshipped by Hadrian. Hadrian invokes divine authority, incorrectly surmising that he and Rivallo worship the same god.

When Rivallo concludes that the party does not serve Samot, he calls to his compatriots Calithane and Brutus to help him thwart the party in combat. At the first sign of trouble, Fantasmo turns invisible. Rivallo advances into the hallway and slices at Fero, who avoids the attack by transforming into a cougar.

Lem performs pattern magic on his violin to increase the power of Hella’s attacks, and Hella strikes with her sword at a gap in Rivallo’s armor, dealing a serious wound to his left side. However, Rivallo lands a hit on Hella as well, and Lem’s violin draws the attention of Brutus, who is standing in the bedroom behind Rivallo. Brutus fires an arrow at Lem, but Hadrian rushes to defend, deflecting the arrow so that it lodges harmlessly in Lem’s armor.

Fero lunges at Rivallo, biting down on the wound left by Hella’s blade, but the enchantment on Rivallo’s armor burns Fero’s mouth. Fero recoils and Rivallo slashes at him, wounding him badly. Lem attempts to heal Fero with another pattern magic song on the violin, but the healing effect is only slight.

From the armory to the right of the party, Calithane enters the hallway, advancing past the invisible Fantasmo and raising her massive hammer to swing at the party. With a single continuous hand gesture, Fero cancels his invisibility and casts magic missiles—semi-transparent purple arrows of pure magical energy—at Calithane’s head. Hurt and dazed by the missiles, Calithane swings around to attack. Fantasmo is out of reach, but Calithane’s hammer hits the wall and it crumbles, tearing a new gap between the hallway and the bedroom. As Calithane advances to attack Fantasmo, Hadrian attacks her from behind with his halberd, but scores only a minor blow. Calithane swings her hammer back at Hadrian, knocking him backwards into the storeroom on the left side of the hallway.

Hoping that the storeroom might be a more advantageous position for a fight, Hella attempts to grab Fero’s injured cougar form and carry him there. However, an arrow shot by Brutus catches her armor and pins her down in the hallway, and she only manages to push Fero into the storeroom.

Lem stows his violin on his back and draws his dueling rapier, charging past Rivallo and toward Brutus into the bedroom. As Lem enters the bedroom, Rivallo grabs his shoulder from behind and thrusts his short sword at Lem.

Calithane swings her hammer at Hella, who manages to fend her off despite being pinned to the floor. Calithane stumbles backward into Fantasmo, disrupting his spell as he attempts to turn invisible once again. Both Calithane and Fantasmo are knocked through the gap in the wall and into the bedroom.

 Cast

* Austin Walker (GM)
* Ali Acampora (Hella)
* Keith J Carberry (Fero)
* Jack de Quidt (Lem)
* Nick Scratch (Fantasmo)
* Art Tebbel (Hadrian)