Session 8

... The black bastard sword immediately caught Black Mage's attention to the exclusion of all else. He slowly approached the weapon, grabbed it by the hilt, and held it outstretched in front of him. Then the strangest thing occurred ....

Black mage seemed to go into some kind of weird trance while staring at the sword, then an astonished look played across his face (if one could actually see any features of his face, then you would see the astonishment). He then said the rest of the party that the sword he was holding was actually speaking to him. After a few comments about hitting his head too hard, the rest of the group pretty much ignored him for the moment and continued divvying up the other weapons and armor. After cleaning the temple and taking the severed limbs out to the body stash out in front of the garrison, they resumed their search of the complex.

The adjacent room to the temple turned out to contain several dretch demons and a single tiefling, most likely an alchemist by trade. But it didn't take long for them to fall to the combined might of our heroes. The room proved to contain some interesting items. A portable alchemy kit was among the fallen alchemist's possessions as well as a longsword identified as a +1 evil outsider bane longsword. With the sword there was a note, that turned out to be quite interesting to Irabeth, once the group made it back to Defender's Heart and showed it to her:

Lord Staunton,
I believe you will find the enclosed weapon to be a singular and famili ar delight, for it once belonged to your old “friend” Irabeth. She sold it to Kandro Nyserian, of all people — I’ve no idea why. Kandro’s been sitting on it for years — still would be, except his home got smashed by an ulkreth. Shame. He managed to save the sword and came here, begging for an escort north to Drezen, doubtless so he could give you the sword and weasel some cash to help him set up a new home. I hope you don’t begrudge a creativity I took — our friend Nyserian serves now as a warm suit for a vermlek as punishment for only revealing the sword now instead of when he first acquired it. I suspect the blade will take to your brother’s touch nicely! your loyal servant,
Othirubo

Next, the heroes tackled the barred door in the large hallway. It took them several tries to break it open but when they did it swung open hard enough to dislodge from its hinges somewhat and they leaned askew against the wall. Inside the found three more dretch demons guarding the stairway up to the second floor. In only a few rounds of combat, our heroes slew the demons and cautiously made their way up to the second floor. Zaigon was the first to breach the stairwell and there he saw six tieflings surrounding the stairs. He rushed into the closest ones with Llyrana, her tiger, and Haligon close behind. rounding out the rush up the stairs was Black Mage and a couple of the mongrelmen rangers.

The battle started out simple enough, but then, unbeknownst to our heroes, four clerics of Deskari were lurking in one of the rooms off of the main upstairs hallway. And they began to channel negative energy. Multiple times. Haligon's positive energy and healing couldn't keep up with the evil clerics' onslaught. And so our heroes began to fall. First, a mongrelman, then another, then Black Mage, and then Llyrana's tiger. Fortunately for the protagonists, Zaigon and Haligon were able to hang on until the last of the evil clerics and tieflings were slain.

Things looked very grim for the party, but some luck did shine on them. In the room where the evil clerics had come from, they had found a veritable treasure trove of documents - current troop movements and plans the demons were enacting. In these papers they also found a scroll of raise dead and restoration spells. Haligon quickly cast both spells upon Black Mage and successfully brought him back from the grave, if a bit worse for wear. Then the group took everything they could carry, including the bodies of their fallen friends and made their way out of the Gray Garrison and over to the body dump. There they picked up the others that deserved proper burials and slowly picked their way through the ruined streets back to Defender's Heart. They were lucky that no other demons crossed their path and made it back without further incidents.

once back, they relayed the entire proceedings, leaving nothing out. Irabeth was saddened by the group's losses and surprised that her old sword was still in the city. She told them to keep it and get some rest while she checked into something for them. A while later she was able to come back with yet another scroll of raise dead and restoration. This allowed Haligon to raise Llyrana's tiger companion from the dead and restore some of his lost vitality. Then the group rested till the following morning when they would, once again, take the fight to the demons in the Gray Garrison...

That's all for this week. Tune in next week to find out what happens.