Stone Soules Summary: Demonspawn Battle at the Barnaire Theatre
Around July 2172 - Preparations
It seems that tomorrow in the midst of the snow strom we're about to have here, will be probably a deciding point in the history of the Stone Soules. We will in all probability go and attack the Demonspawn while trying to protect Middle. We could conceivably all die, or kill them all and reap great rewards, or some shade in between.
Alegra has been talking with all the party members before the coming battle. Faranyn and Ceydric are scrambling to get preparations made ready to secure Middle.
The Big Battle
We had just arrived back in Middle at the end of the last adventure, July 3, 2172. It was pouring rain and very stormy. We then planned for the defense of Middle. We sent Elowier on a fast invisible horse along with money from the killed demonspawn to hire some mercenaries in End for temporary defense. We also sent mail to the Squid, the patrol leader of End, in case he noticed anything unusual in his patrol sweeps. We also mailed Farrah, the Nevronian cleric in End, that she might send some clerical aid to Middle in case of attack (temporaily, as the church still isn't built yet). We verified Alegra's identity by having her cast a spell in front of the Phaulkonian clergyman here in Middle (verified that she is Phaulkonian). We then gathered a lamp to light the meditation candle (so that Alegra can get Call Lightning) in, because of the rain. We headed off to base camp on the ridge, with which to attack presumably the day the rain just stopped (so they would go to the Barnaire Theatre (open air)) [Faranyn and his entourage stayed to look after Middle in Ceydric's absence -- note that Ceydric's men-at-arms guarded the horses at base camp and everyone else went on to the city when the time came] We used Alegra's weather sense abilities along with some spells of hers to predict when the weather would stop but there would still be clouds to call down the lightning.. During this time Eli turned people invisible (he had a lot of time, because the weather lasted another day and would break the following day, when we would attack).
We were then all invisible except Ludo and Dari, the thieves and we headed for the city.
We went through a broken part of the wall and headed for the theatre -- it was still raining hard though, but we knew it would let up by midday. We passed 3-4 gray shapes in the rain on an alley that headed into another alley, apparently without seeing us. We continued on. We arrived at the Theatre. We saw 4 bugbear guards but noone else. Unfortunately there was only one entrance and we knew we couldn't go ahead with our plan and sneak in on time for the arrival of the demonspawn if we didn't get inside. We finally decided it was impossible to sneak everyone we need inside without using our door token. We put a door in the wall of the back up against the cliff face away from the street. It opened into a small room filled with boxes of merchant goods. We came up with our plan and then camouflaged the door from the outside (from Aria who stayed outside invisible). Everyone else we inside. We figured out where we were by going through the two doors on either side (opened a crack at first, etc.) to get our bearings. Then we sneaked everyone except Eli and Alegra and Dari and Ludo inside to take up positions. We then waited (we were in position by dawn).
At about 11, the bugbear went and had a meal on the stage (dead rabbits, etc.). Note that the setup is: stage and garden open to the air, with bleacher type seats around it and balcony above that. Big double doors to opposite of stage and behind stage a raised platform room with stage machinery and where on of the bug bear guards is. There are archway windows around the balcony (about 60 of them) where the other three bugbears are. The sky begins to stop raining but the clouds remain.
The doors open. A guy comes through and looks around and starts barking orders in bugbear. The bugbears straighten up and stand at attention. The guy goes over to the stage and sets up lawn chairs on the stage. A beautiful woman arrives, no obvious deformities. The other guy has one snake arm and thats it. [I may be mixing up the order of arrival but it's not too important]. The next guy that arrives in white robes looks rather freaky and like he's levitating. He looks very -- insane is the best word. He giggles and smiles a lot. He goes on stage along with the woman but he just kind of crumples into a pile. His torso stays erect along with part of his "legs."
Next, the guy who originally charmed us long ago shows up. He argues with the woman. She calls him the weakest one. We find out the killed one's name is Gorp (or something like that and that he was an "idiot.") They make comnments about the "adventurers." The insane ones name is Brogarra and the woman's name begins with an S. He makes notes on a tablet he carries. "The Great Ones" also come up. We also learn that at least one demonspawn (Silla) is missing - punishing the bugbears.
The guy who just entered (scaled hand, weird snake-like eyes) approaches the stage. Brogarra makes a musical selection, and they retrieve instruments from behind the stage. Brogarra say "ready" and they begin. He adjusts the tuning so that everyone is about 1/2 tone from everyone else -- it sounds horrible. The woman plays a cello, the scaled hand guy, a violin, the snake arm guy, a trumpet, and Brogarra plays the drum somehow (we don't see a drum). There is also a snake man (we fought one before: two-handed sword, 7' tall) on guard at the door. Canstin gives the signal and Alegra starts call lightning, after some delay from Eli. Afterwards, Eli turns them both invisible again. Eli gives Aria the signal to try and spike the doors from the outside, so none can escape. Alegra steps out takes a second to aim at the stage and releases the spell.
BOOM! The attack begins! [note that the lightning only did a max of 21 out of a possible 72!]
Gerald, Theo, Ceydric, Snag, Quick, and Tesla charge the stage at this point. Gerald is near Brogarra, who as Gerald hits during surprise (doing great damage), whips out his tail (on a natural 20) wraps it around Gerald's neck and head and bangs him against the stage a few times until he's unconscious and suffocating. A number of attacks occur here. Theo knocks Cello (we'll go by instruments) unconscious on his first strike. Ceydric hits Violin. Cassana tries to hit Drum (Brogarra). Canstin tries to hit Drum. Snag and Quick try to hit Trumpet (uninjured by lightning) -- Snag misses. Dari and Ludo try to heat people -- Ludo hits himself with sling. Dari hits bugbear with arrow. Aria at this point is jamming door. Alegra is casting hold person. Canstin gets hit bybugbear right next to him -- is out cold in segments. Aria commands the snake guy chasing Cassana to die and then the thieves cut it to pieces. Battle overview: After Snag and Quick are changed to snakes (but retain their minds) then sticks, Tesla is suggested to protect Violin from any attack by Ceydric. Ultimately, All four of them are beheaded as they try to regenerate. (including great move by Tesla against Trumpet by tackling him and pinning his innate ability human arm while Eli burned Trumpet with burning hands). 3 Bugbears escape because Aria abandoned the door to save Cassana and Canstin. We look around and discover a one way one-use teleporter that Violin was crawling for when Theo slayed him. It is destroyed by accidnentally activating it. We search around and by this time Gerald is fine, having only suffered 12 real points of damage, just being immobilized much of the battle. We retrieve their personal items and discover another room with boxes -- all normal gear.
The Sphinx appears and just says he want to watch. We give him a box of silverware we couldn't haul out of the city anyway and tells us the following: we killed most of the "lesser" demonspawn; the Great Ones are altogether different but that they won't be mounting any armies and that they are much more powerful; the bugbears are going haywire after being uncharmed, but that they are very disorganized and not coming to take us out;. [subtly] we shouldn't kill too many of the monsters because then it's boring for him and then we might try to settle the city -- "I understand it's very en vogue these days." and other great quotes about "transcending grammar" and that he can "mix metaphors as much as I [he] like[s]."
We leave the city but not before destroying the bodies with another lightning bolt and we headed back to base camp. It was attacked by an owlbear in our absence, but the men-at-arms took the horses and left and came back later. Then we headed back to Middle.
And some questions answered:
>Speaking of casualties, whatever happened to the guys turned into snakes?
Alegra dispelled the magic on them and they were fine. No problem.
The sphinx said we had killed over half of the lesser demonspawn, so I would think that there are perhaps 1-3 left.
>Any idea what the point of the weird music was?
No magic, but the Drum guy seemed to really like it -- he had tablets of musical arrangements on him. He specifically tuned the guy who was 1/8 of tone off to 1/2 tone off, and genuinely seemed to like it.
Kyle