17/12/2019 - Tentacles and elk

## A new ally

Now that the two guards were dealt with (#greasybolttime) the group were able to properly assess their surroundings. Realising they were in a dungeon, they checked the cells using a set of keys taken from the dead guard. Most of the cells were empty, but one contained a living human male prisoner. At first the group were inclined to leave the prisoner where he was, however, Rowan suddenly realised that he recognised this man! It was the kind Captain who had allowed him to heal the girl in the Upper City. The Captain then introduced himself as Aldar Utrech, and explained that he had been locked up on the grounds of mutiny and treason for refusing to forcibly remove people from the Upper City following the tsunami. Aldar also told the group that there were roughly two-dozen guards currently stationed within the fortress, and that he could lead them to the Kings Chambers. The group decided to release Aldar from his shackles, and gave him the weapons and armour of the dead guard before decided to start carefully making their way to the Kings chambers. Theodore decided to stay behind to guard the now surrendered guard and ensure no shenanigans happened in the dungeon whilst they were gone.

## Through the fortress

Over the next 30 minutes or so the group, led by Aldar and Corus’s arcane eye, slowly made their way through the dungeon and up onto the ground floor. They came across many supplies (and some excellent wine sampled by Nika and Christo), but strangely no guards – which concerned Aldar as he knew where the guards should have been posted. They also found a large locked room filled with weapons, armour and trebuchets/scorpions. A combination of an eldritch blast by Christo and some head-banging by Rowan and his wolves soon broke down the door, allowing the group to enter. The group decided to destroy the trebuchets and scorpion whilst Rowan filled his five bags of holding (yes, five) with as many weapons and armour as he could. By this point the group had reached a large courtyard that Aldar told them they needed to cross to get to King Bharabesi. However, the group, convinced there must be some secret passage directly into the Kings chamber, decided to find some servants to question about finding another route. As such, after finding the servants quarters, Jotham charged in, woke them up, and intimidated them into telling him whether there were any secret passages into the King’s room – as far as they knew, there weren’t.

## It’s a trap!

Now that it was confirmed that the only way to the King was through the main central courtyard, Rowan decided to send one of his wolves ahead to scout out the situation. As the wolf stepped through the door, the group watched as a huge rune suddenly lit up across the floor, which was immediately followed by a huge blast of dark necrotic energy. This energy rippled through the group, killing all of the wolves, knocking Aldar unconscious and considerably damaging everyone else. However, the necrotic energy didn’t dissipate, and the group realised they needed to get out of its range ASAP! Nika ran inside the courtyard, however, before she could get through the door at the other end another pulse of damaging energy hit her. Christo, having a vague idea what this magic was, immediately dashed outside of the necrotic region (in the opposite way to Nika, back where they had entered), as did Corus and Jotham. Rowan attempted to dispel the runic magic, but failed, and also took another blast of necrotic energy. Khathraa, seeing Aldar fall unconscious, managed to heal him, but also took another blast of necrotic damage.  Khathraa, Rowan and Aldar then all made it out of the necrotic zone to join up with Christo, Corus and Jotham. However, back in the courtyard, Nika had decided to run through the gate at the other site of the courtyard, towards where the King’s room was. As she burst through the gate, she ran straight into over a dozen guards who had clearly been lying in wait. Thankfully, she was observant enough to stop herself from falling into their trap, and was able to double dash back through the courtyard to join the others on the other side of the necrotic zone.

Now regrouped, Nika told everyone of the guards at the other end. Rowan decided to take a pot shot with his bow through the darkness of the necrotic magic, and, despite the low odds, seemed to hit someone. Christo and Khathraa then spent some time analysing the necrotic zone, and realised that it was some sort of symbol-based trap, and that the effects would dissipate within a few minutes, allowing the guards at the other end to attack. As such, the group readied themselves to attack as soon as the necrotic magic disappeared.

A few minutes passed before the necrotic magic suddenly dissipated. Before the guards on the other side could even react, the group made their move. Rowan, saddened by the death of his octave of wolves, decided to now summon an octave of elk (!) and commanded them to charge down the guards. This proved effective, and several of the guards were injured and/or knocked prone by the charging elk. Christo then rapidly followed this up with a well-placed eruption of tentacles, which damaged and restrained even more of the guards (and some of the elk). Over the next few seconds, the rest of the group quickly mopped up the few guards not ravaged by the surprisingly effective combo of tentacles and elk, freeing the path to the King. However, the effects of the necrotic trap were intense, and many of the group, particularly Aldar, Nika and Khathraa, were severely injured. As such, they decided to wait in the courtyard whilst the others went on into the next chamber.

## The final encounter

The next chamber held several strange alcoves with portraits of the old Kings and Queens of Merchendale. It also had a large ornate door that Aldar had told them was the route into the King Bharabesi’s chambers. As they approached the door Christo realised that there was a strange magical aura of protection around the door. However, as the group gathered to examine it, the air around them suddenly exploded with fire. Turning around, damaged and dazed, they saw the sneering figure of Lord Durandail appear out of nowhere. Lord Durandail scoffed at the group, telling them that they were foolish for breaking into the fortress, and that whilst he was impressed that they made it passed his symbol trap (it would appear the groups greasy bolt shenanigans had alerted Lord Durandail to their presence), they would now have to die. Battle commenced, and things were not going well for the group. With half of them already out, and the other half severely injured with dwindling mental and physical abilities, things were looking dire. However, Lord Durandail was clearly tiring too and Rowan had one last trick up his sleeve: the old turn into a massive ankylosaurus trick. So, with the group on their knees, Corus used his last breath to enlarge the already monstrous ankylosaurus to twice its size. Rowan then used his now incredibly girthy tail to take a final swipe against Lord Durandail, quite literally pulverising his head into mush.

## Epilogue

As Lord Durandail’s body fell lifeless to the floor, the defensive magic blocking King Bharabesi’s door receded. The group then used their last reserves to break the door open and intimidate the cowardly King into surrendering, standing down the Upper City guard and opening the Upper City gates. After 30 minutes or so, Father Cleftjaw, a number of his priestly warriors, and Vasilis Venusto entered the castle. Father Cleftjaw had his warriors arrest King Bharabesi and take Lord Durandail’s body away for a forced resurrection: both would face trial for their parts in causing thousands of deaths during the earthquake-tsunami.

So, with King Bharabesi and Lord Durandail deposed, the process of re-building Merchendale began. A new representative City Council (as proposed by the Venusto’s) was set up, and the earthquake-tsunami recovery phase begun in earnest. It is currently unclear how Merchendale will fare in the coming months and years. Will the new council succeed in uniting the Upper and Lower Cities? What will become of the large Aboleth in the tunnels beneath the City? Will the Venusto’s honour their promise and turn away from their illegal activities? These questions remain unanswered, for who knows what the future holds.

And what of the gallant heroes of this tale? Having saved hundreds of lives thanks to their actions during the disaster and played a fundamental role in overthrowing the King, what will their futures hold? Will they remain in Merchendale to assist with the recovery? Will they turn to looking after feisty weaponised orphans? Or will they decide they’ve had enough of Merchendale and seek out adventure elsewhere…? One thing is certain, their journeys are far from over.