Session Start: Sat Sep 06 17:41:06 2008 Session Ident: #castlevania [After meeting with the Boccobite Contact, the party works out a list of items they will need before they leave Misted Vale. Within a few hours, the party is set up with the necessary equipment and gold. Theodore keeps the best sampling of the spellbooks taken from their fallen enemies and hands the rest over to the Contact.] [The item upgrades take a little longer. The party is invited to stay in the greenhouse and Theodore is provided with materials to help him teleport into Lifebreak.] [Specifically, Theodore is given extensive information on the Boccobites sent to assist with the problems in Lifebreak. Scrying on them should be well possible for someone of Theodore's abilities. From there, he can prepare for the jump to the city of Nerull.] [Once the equipment is ready, the Contact returns with his construct assistant in tow.] Contact: "Here is the last of what you requested. Please depart as soon as possible." * Nyyx bows. "Thank you for outfitting us. We'll be back." Contact: "I have reviewed the books that you have recovered. I can say with certainty that we have not seen the last of Gregor and likely not Simon either." * Nyyx nods. "I'm sure of that." I knew it. He just seems like the kind of guy who doesn't die even if you kill him. * Charlotte holds her newly enhanced bow. "Thanks. We'll try to keep an eye out for them." Don't people die when they're killed? Only if they're weak. Contact: "Gregor's plan after linking into the plague was to carry it into the southern oceans. I will look into a means to disable him as a top priority." * Nyyx nods. "Thank you." Contact: "Simon apparently implanted himself with a device called the Phoenix Heart to ward off death. It appeared to be a very risky experiment." Contact: "I will keep working. Good luck in Lifebreak." The Phoenix Heart? Where can we find this? I've got all the luck we need. * Biff heads for the doors. "Let's blow this joint." What's that? So we need to find him and beat him again and smash it? Contact: "I think he actually cut out a Phoenix's heart and put it in his chest. I'd look there." Hmm. Lifebreak first. Afterward, maybe we can swing around and check back at the temple, if we don't see Simon again before that. * Nyyx thanks the Contact again and heads out. Thanks. * Charlotte heads off Right. You gonna do this, Theo? [With a rapid succession of four castings of Teleport, the party vanishes from the greenhouse and appears on the roof of a building near the center of Lifebreak. Several figures in white robes are waiting for them.] This is the place? Yes * Nyyx looks around. "And you must be the Boccobites we're here to aid." So where's dis cult? All I know is I need a nap [The city unfolds around and below the building on which the party finds itself. The buildings are mostly squat affairs of black and gray stone. The motifs are ancient and outdated and drab. In the center of the city, the buildings radically increase in height with the monolithic tower in the center being the tallest. Orange and green fires burn throughout the city. Some are campfires and torches and others are large housef [... belching smoke into the heavens. The figures approach.] Boccobites: "Greetings. We have been expecting you. Our hosts are in the central tower. Please hurry.] Uh... thanks * Charlotte headsthat way * Nyyx nods and hurries along. * Biff hops up on Nyyx's shoulder and waits. [The Boccobites lead the party down off of the roof and across a walkway connecting the building with an adjacent one. The city below is dark and the air is acrid. After several minutes of weaving over walkways and through cramped buildings, the party finds itself in the central monolith.] * Nyyx murmurs, "Pleasant place." [The interior is comprised of vaulted hallways and steep stairways. The party is bid to climb nearly to the top.] [After several hundred steps, the party is lead to a pair of large basalt doors set with sculture and carvings.] At least there's a good supply of shadows. * Nyyx smiles. "More useful for you than for me." [The carvings depict death and torment in their myriad forms and the quietude of the dead. A shadow rises from the door and at a glance from the Boccobites receeds. The doors begin to open.] * Nyyx studies the carvings impassively and follows the shadow with her eyes. [The doors swing inward. Beyond is a large chamber reminicent of the confines of the Pelorian Contact although the motif is reversed. Where there would have been bright frescos, there is now black cloth. Where there would have been paintings, there are now grave markers.] * Charlotte frowns. [The chamber is lit by chandeliers of green flame hanging from the shadowed ceiling. The far end of the room sinks into a depression. At the center of the depression is a throne of black glass.] * Nyyx approaches the throne steadily. [His Emminent Remains stands before the throne holding the Bloody Smile. Clerics surround him casting spells and pale senechals take turns whispering reports from yellowed paper.] [His Emminent Remains regards the party as it approaches. The Bloody Smile coats him in a deep red glow.] Oh hey, I remember this guy. H.E.R.: "I wondered when you would be along." Uh... hi. * Nyyx nods. We may have been delayed by Gregor. * Olivia looks upon this weirdo with a thin frown, letting the people who sorta kinda know the guy do the talking. We're here to kill and/or capture some cultists. You wouldn't happen to have any handy, would you? H.E.R.: "You would be refering to the golemspawn, yes? Not some epithet against my people?" Yeah. I'm not a fan of golems. * Nyyx nods again. I've got no beef with your boys. In fact, I need to talk to you boys once we finish this shindig. What's the situation? H.E.R.: "Of course. We can use all of the help we can get." H.E.R.: "The cultists have overrun about half of the city. Their clerics and advance troops have been skirmishing block by block, destroying our people and converting them into more troops where they can.] Are they converting them into constructs, as with the Damacine armlet from before? H.E.R.: "We have had some success identifying and dispatching their commanders, but every time we engage them, we risk losing a powerful ally to the enemy.] ...damn, you guys are in it deep. How much of them is golem? H.E.R.: "Undead hybrids like in Kronnenburg Castle. It's what drove us out in the first place. I did not expect to see them here." Are there -any- normal types there, or are they all freaky undead/golem hybrids? H.E.R.: "Everything that we have faced has been a hybrid. They are only partially construct. Enough to override their bodily control. The rest is undead flesh.] Damn. What's the best way to damage them? Rather, what's the best way to put them down - quickly, if at all possible? H.E.R.: "Decapitation seems to work. Disrupts enough that they can't really function even where it doesn't kill them." Right... * Nyyx nods. Do they repair themselves? H.E.R: "On a positive note, the control structures in them provide weak points that neither undead nor constructs normally have." Are they vulnerable to dominates? H.E.R.: "We have observed clerics among them with healing powers." H.E.R.: "We cannot rebuke them." Control structures? It's been implied that enemies that are converted into these part-golem creatures are mentally controlled by the ones who converted them. That's why anyone who is captured changes sides. H.E.R.: "Their anatomies are run through with metal tendrils. We think these allow the construct part to control the body." * Nyyx listens carefully. H.E.R.: "They are dug in deep in the outskirts of the city and we suspect that they have been tunneling under the city as well. They used similar tactics on a smaller scale in the castle." Did those golem rats have anything to do with that? H.E.R.: "Yes, these appear to be the same beings from the castle. Golem rats? If that's true, that explains much..." * Nyyx nods. "Anyway, about these metal tendrils. What kind of weaknesses do they provide?" H.E.R.: "We did not notice when they arrived. They were well dug in before any major attacks started. Our infrastructure was hit and a lot of conversions occurred in the resulting chaos." * Nyyx nods. H.E.R.: "The tendrils can be cut to disable the creatures. That is about it." Have you tried lightning? H.E.R.: "It appears to have the expected effects." Theo, remember that. yes, mother We'll keep those in mind. Where would be the best place to start? H.E.R.: "Our research into the Cult and its history makes it clear that they are trying to resurrect the Damacine Golem. I can only imagine that they have attacked us for resources. If they are tunneling under the city, they they will access centuries of crypts and the mineral wealth in the root of the mountain upon which Lifebreak is built." H.E.R.: "With all that they appear to have planned, the Cult in our city must have an extensive control structure. That is where we need to attack." I see. How do we get to the crypts? H.E.R.: "There are sealed entrances under this building." H.E.R.: "Did you ever locate Lydia and Gregor?" Gregor's dead. Sort of. I killed him, but he's the sort of guy who won't die even when you kill him. * Nyyx nods. "Yes. Both. Gregor is de--yes. We have Lydia in custody." H.E.R.: "Where is she?" We have her with us. Why? H.E.R.: "RELEASE MY WIFE NOW." [His staff all become instantly quiet and retreat to a safe distance.] ...Your wife? * Nyyx glances at Biff. ...oh. Well, I'm glad I didn't get attached to her. You'll hafta do the honors, toots, I don't exactly have thumbs. Right. May I have the bag? * Biff reaches up and pulls off a small bag. * Charlotte raises an eyebrow Thanks. * Nyyx sets the bag on the floor, pulls it open, and drags out Gregor's coffin. * Nyyx glances me glances at H.E.R. "Gregor did this by the way. We just recovered his coffin." [H.E.R. steps forward, casts the Bloody Smile aside where it hangs in the air and rips the lid off of the coffin.] H.E.R.: "WHY WOULD HE HAVE DONE THIS?" His journals indicated that he...lost control of her or some such. * Olivia says, dryly, "He doesn't seem to have much consideration for people besides, you have to admit." * Nyyx looks even paler than usual. Before his death, it appears Gregor was no longer a true vampire. H.E.R.: "I see. You should get to work. She will be ravenous when I remove the stake. Thank you for recovering her." * Nyyx nods stiffly. "Of course." If we may use these passages under the building, we'll be on our way. Please give my mother my regards. Let's go kill some cultists. Right. H.E.R.: "Indeed." * Nyyx heads out. * Skip sneaks a peek at the coffin, shudders, and follows the fat wizard out of the room. * Charlotte follows the group out [The creature inside is a withered husk of a woman with Nyyx's characteristic hairstyle.] [END OF SESSION.] Session Close: Sat Sep 06 22:07:32 2008