Editing WS:Chapter Two (section)

===Session Ten===

Sunday, 22nd January, 12.30<br>
Game date - 25th of April

====The Baron's Synopsis====
Pre game:
The Good Baron and Thodric were a little puzzled - their understanding of the world had changed with the magical SAM attack.  As the magic receeded, so did their memories of Constantia.  Who was this jumped up tart that could ... put ... a spell... on the ... entire .... continent ...... !  Ehm.

And so, on with the story.

It was a bright and sunny day for the first day of the end of the world.  The streets of the city were quiet, however, as guards were stationed at various points.  Our heroes, knowing that a massive 10' tall invisible demon was stalking the streets, decided it was a good time for a walk.  Actually, knowing that the demons had invaded his home, the Good Baron decided that he'd rather fight one now, learning its capabilities, then 200 with no clue.

It took some time but they found the first sign of its passing - a house with two guards outside and a pool of blood in the street.  The guards were *very* uncommunicative.  Further along there was another pool of blood and more guards.  The Baron noticed a small piece of head lying in the gutter and pointed it out to his fellows.  Riso promptly pointed it out to the guards.

The final point of call was the gates of the palace.  There again the streets were closed but this time, in addition to the inevitable pool of human blood, there was a pool of purple blood as well, over which stood a Priest of Odin.  Riso bluffed his way past the guards to have a look, accidentally stepping in the puddle and getting the bum rush.

The Good Baron bought Riso a new sandle (he wanted to keep the other - it was 'lucky') and then headed off to the hidden 'laboratory' to investigate the blood and see if there was a useful counter to the demons.  Of course, seeing that the invisible demon was still at large, he took Thodric with him this time.

A little while later, it was obvious that the blood was carbon/silica based and immune to all normal poisons.  The Good Baron reasoned that if it was an earth-based construct that perhaps a Dwarven alchemist might have better luck then he did finding a useful attack.  It was off to the guild where he flashed his membership card, got Thodric a hot meal and beer and made his enquiries.  Oh, and purchased a large container of mineral solvent in a magic jar - perhaps it'd take care of them.  As he left, he gave the jar to Thodric to carry - 'Don't drop it, it costs as much as you do, and it'll eat ... everything'.

Nori the Dwarf was a happy little chap, ensconced in his shoppe on the corner of Cheap and Shadey streets.  The Good Baron gave him a sample of the blood and asked if he knew of anything that might affect it like a poison.  The Dwarf asked him to come back the next day.

Meanwhile, Red went to see a man about a hilt for his Demon Claw on the grounds that it'd probably be a good thing to hit them with.  Cadmus ... was Cadmus.

That night, Cadmus and the Baron had a little chat in private while Thodric was having a drink (on the Barons coin of course, the freeloading git).  An 'understanding' was reached and the part took another step in getting slightly closer together.  By the end of the chronicle, they may actually talk to each other.  There was also a little test of the solvent on the armour of the demons ship - it worked, but it wasn't completely effective.  It would probably work better on a creature - but they'd have to find it to check.

The next day saw a return visit to Nori - fat lot of good that did.  The jumped up little wanna-be alchemist could provide no useful information what so ever.  The Good Baron was inclined to Thodric him for his impertenance but, being a Good Baron, merely left.

After some discussions, they decided that it would be useful to get the hell out of town and head back to the Barons lands.  It would be even more useful if they had a writ from the Grand Duchess that would allow them to raise an army from the surrounding Dukes to fight the demons.  So it was off to see the Grand Duchess - something that the Good Baron had carefully not done since his arrival.

On the way they passed the church of Odin, which was surrounded by a large number of guards poking the bushes.  The Good Baron asked Thodric to ask the guards what was going on.  It turned out that the High Priest was suffering from a mysterious case of detacted lower torsoe and feeling somewhat dead.  The team exchanged glances, looked once more at the guards sticking swords into bushes and rode off.

After some 'functionary' delay they managed to get into court.  This was followed by a 'lowly Barons wait their turn' delay but eventually they got to talk to someone.  They secured leave to escape the city and even got a writ to raise an army.  Team Alden was on the move.

Tomorrow.  Red's sword still wasn't ready, and Cadmus had some things to do, and a few more guards would be good and ... why is it always so hard?  Red being bored went for another swim, anxious to see if anything had appreciably changed around the shell.  Back in the city, some couple of hours later, he wandered past the various previously identified locations of slaughter, trying to see if people might be able to tell him what had happened and if anyone had seen anything.  They largely repeated the description Riso had mentioned, but some had noted a large blur following the fleeing troupe of soliders and clerics.  All traces had been cleaned up.

On his way back to the hotel, Red discovered that the Master of Bangs, the Alchemist Guild Master had been attacked by 'something', but was still alive, albeit more than a little paranoid and disinclined to leave his chambers.  Red dashed back to the hotel to share this potential information source with the Baron.

Anyway, the Baron ended up at the Alchemists guild (powders and what not, you know) and it turns out that the GuildMaster had been attacked by the beast but lived to tell the tale - his door was magically sealed and he bravely didn't open it to the monster.  Thinking that this was a good idea, the Good Baron commissioned a copy of the forumla and, becoming suspicious that the thing was following him, took his guards and headed over to Nori's.

There he was distressed to find that his little fellow practicioner of the alchemical arts had been slain.  The Good Baron, distressed beyond words, asked permission of the guards to say one last goodbye to his little chum.  After the correct application of silver, they agreed.

The shop was trashed.  Nori had fallen - into three pieces actually.  The Good Baron clasped his hand, whispering his goodbyes (and incidentally relieving him of his magic rings).  He then turned to leave, picking up the other magic items he'd 'commissioned' from his dearly departed friend.

As he left the building he noticed a large, 10' tall shimmery invisible shape on the building opposite.  It ran off before he could call attention to it, but that was enough.  It was after him.  He sent his pageboy running to collect the rest of the team (particularly Thodric) and waited with the guards.

Cadmus, having returned from preparing the ship (and other nefarious deeds no doubt) joined the rest as they charged to meet the Baron.  There was a quick whispered discussion as he explained that he thought he knew where it would be going - to get the rest of the blood he'd collected.  If it didn't, it'd probably be after him anyway and he wanted the blood to work on.

He showed the others his secret lab, figuring that by now it was getting to dangerous to keep many secrets - the others would be dead soon anyway.  The beast wasn't there so they collected what they could and started to leave.  The Baron thought it was outside so he even went so far as the cast a spell on Thodric, knowing he'd be in the front lines - the Iron Warrior was in play...  The open application of magic caused a small freakout from Red, soon turning to embarassment when no-one else so much as blinked.   Riso's spidey-sense started pinging so they were cautious.  That didn't stop Red, who was last to leave, walking straight into it, however.

The thing decided to try and capture the Good Baron, firing its meathooks at him.  Fortunately, the Good Baron was blessed by the forsight to be wearing plate greeves and the hooks bounced off.  The others attacked, rather unsuccessfully (the phrase 'bounced off its armour' was sickening in its regularity).  The Baron retreated while the guards and Thodric intervened.  Cadmus thew an explosive potion (courtesy of the Barons alchemical skill) which did nothin' to no one.  Riso threw his, missed, hid Thodric in the head and it exploded heartily.  Fortunately, Thodric was protected by the Barons magic and didn't take too much damage.  Red, less fortunate in the armour sense, was merely further away.

The beast, moving faster then any of them, ran around the guards and again attacked the Good Baron, chopping at him stupidly fast with his massive claws.  The Baron threw his arms up for protection and fortunately the blades bounced off the plate arm guards that he was wearing.  If the beast could have sworn, it would have.  Thodric charged to attack (see phrase above) as did the others (see phrase above).  The beast attacked the baron again, but the arm guards held firm.  He did take a small scratch to the hand, however.  Finally the beast took some damage when the Good Baron opened a volcano at its feat, coating its little hooves in lava.

Being quite tired now, given the amount of useless whaling on armour it had been doing, the beast retreated to the top of a nearby building to catch its breath.  Cadmus then hit it fair in the head with another of the Barons explosive potions as the Baron caused the nearby vermin to crawl into its armour and start biting.  Red, meanwhile advanced and waited at the bottom of the building for it to make a move.

Here, the beast made its fatal mistake. It fired its flesh hooks at Red to try and drag him close for the killing and eating.  Red, thinking this a bad plan, grabbed the hooks that had gently settled into his flesh, and setting himself, dragged the beast close for killing although not so much the eating, off the roof and back to the street where he promptly grabbed it and wouldn't let go.  The others charged forward and a general melee ensued.  That is, until Thodric, tired of hearing the phrase (see above) took a massive windup and cut its head clean off.

While the two guards were demanding hazard pay from the Good Baron, and Riso was healing his hand, Cadmus knelt next to it and *poof* the body disappeared.  Those claws were too good to pass up.  The team took a circuitous route back to the inn and holed up for the night, ready to leave on the morrow...

====The Bard's Synopsis====

Having returned, the baron read his translated book to us. Demon aliens! Aiee! Cadmus went out to do some investigating of exactly who had given us the fake alien McGuffin while the others decided to walk along the wall, looking for where the alien/demon/creature had apparently made it over

Lacking marked success, they wandered into the interior of the city, finding a cordoned off area near the palace gates. A priest stood near some weird purple bloodstains. Riso bluffed his way through the guards and made notes of the scene. When the priest noticed Riso, he was not about to be bluffed and began to throw Riso out. With admirable forethought and no concern for the fact that the purple blood might melt his foot off, Riso stepped in it before leaving to ensure we got a sample

Having met with little success but gotten inquiries rolling, Cadmus checked on his purchases and made his way back to the hotel, where he met Red and Riso-the baron having gone to the warehouse laboratory to investigate the blood. Cadmus and Riso chatted about life, Riso and the nature of miracles. Cadmus found him trusting/liking Riso significantly more

The baron could not find a biological agent to affect the blood, but he did find a powerful mineral solvent would work on the creature's armour-albeit slowly. Disappointment/concern was in the air

The next day we went to visit Nori, a dwarf alchemist the baron had given some purple blood to. He agreed with the hypothesis that acids work on it, while known poisons do not. Riso went off to track down the red-dot people. Meanwhile, Cadmus and the baron had an in-depth chat-about life, Alden and the nature of miracles. In order to gain more cooperation within the party, and because he thought it was time-and because it amused him-Cadmus swapped background material with the baron

Now we can be much more free regarding what we do most of the time-something which turned out to be of major help the next day. As for the rest of the day, Cadmus went back to the shops, and he and Red changed Red's Kataran money into real cash

The next day we went to visit the Ducal court. On the way, we found that the High Priest of Odin had been murdered! Now many mystical guards and wards surrounded all places of importance-especially the palace, where it took over 10 minutes for even a Cadmus-announced Baron to gain entry

The court was abuzz with the news of a serial murderer monster, let loose, obviously, by the Hand of Loki. We ignored the courtiers, having more pressing business, meeting with Count Flavio and telling him our problems. We got permission to leave the city and a writ to command assistance when we got nearer to Elb-Elsta. After some discussion about whether we stop by Constantia for a quick murder and army theft, we decided to first go further south by boat, which was faster and gave us time to get a few troops of our own. Cadmus began to organise the boat trip. Meanwhile, the baron heard the Master of the Alchemy Guild had been attacked but survived. Having checked it out, he made his way to Norri's place, only to find the poor dwarf a pile of rubble-not that that stopped him, in the finest adventuring traditions, looting both the corpse and the room, of course. Outside, the baron saw a blur on the rooftops. He immediately sent a pageboy to fetch the armed and armoured party-he believed he knew where the creature would go next: the warehouse. It wasn't there. We discussed plans for trapping it. Dropping all pretence, the baron cast a few spells openly. Red had a mild panic attack about this until he realised no-one else had blinked. Ah - party secrets within secrets within conversations

We left, fully prepared to be attacked-and yea! We were

Near the back, Red bumped into something. The beast appeared! It grabbed at the baron with tentacles, which bounced of his armour! We instantly attacked it, with our attacks bouncing off its armour! Sigh

An armour-bouncing barney ensued, with the highlights including: it escaping to the roof, tentacling Red, and Red ripping it off the roof

The Baron letting loose with some rather impressive spells. Cadmus nailing it through both feet in a brilliant double-shot. And Thodric proving why we respect him as the punchy-by cleaving the beast's head in twain with a massive haymaker! Hooray for the tank! Not wanting to be questioned too closely by the authorities but wanting to keep the corpse for further examination/looting, the party quickly began to ready limb chopping implements. Cadmus instead leaned forward, placed his hands on the corpse, and it vanished, to be later carved up

And so we left, triumphant. For tomorrow Red and Cadmus gather our on-order swords, and then we all get the hell out of here by boat. An army, a country in peril, an evil ruler and glory await!