Friday, December 30, 2022

Session Thirty-Nine: The Nun’s Priest’s Tale

The Fights Continue

Gillian asks Magnus and Jim—having won the adulation of the crowd—to fight a second time. The duo accepts and goes down into the pit to get ready.

Maurice, increasingly suspicious of the proceedings, slips off to take a walk around the keep area. He sees a number of people in cultist robes stride up from below and make their way purposefully to the amphitheater. The cultists are led by a robed man who is surrounded by a thick swarm of flies, and who reeks of death and offal.

Concerned what this might mean for his friends, he returns to the company to warn them.

Shortly after he arrives, Gillian resumes her position beside the amphitheater and announces Magnus and Jim’s return to the pit. The crowd, already bloodthirsty, goes berserk at Gillian’s words. The rest of the company now fears for their companions’ safety.

Their fear becomes well justified when Gillian’s introduction of Magnus lists some very personal details and achievements, including that he is the oldest of five children, that he is the slayer of a knight of Khorne, and that he is the warlord of the Cult of the Stranger.

Several members of the company attempt to curse or rise to defend themselves, only to find that they are magically immobilized. Gillian, cackling, orders the arriving cultists—previously seen by Maurice—to escort the company into the pit so that they can die with Magnus and Jim.

Garnier, who had stepped away from the company to establish a separate vantage over the proceedings, is undetected by Gillian and is, therefore, the only one not affected by the spell.

The Jig is Up

Meanwhile, Andre watches as the double doors at the end of the hall open, and a sweating, exhausted looking cultist pokes his head out into the tunnel beyond. Gillian’s lads indicate that they have three more people ready for “the procedure” and ask which one they should hand over first.

The cultist squints at Andre and says, “well, him, obviously. He’s one of the cultists of the Stranger, and his Mark of Tzeentch is backwards and painted on with makeup. Seize him!”

Andre takes advantage of the momentary confusion to flee down the hallway of the cellblock. Seeing no easy way to escape, he uses the keys he has been given to lock himself in one of the cells. This baffles the captive who is already in the cell and enrages the cultists. Andre retreats to the far side of the cell as the cultists attack the iron bars, to no avail.

Just as Andre thinks that he might be able to hold out long enough to be rescued by the company, he sees a massive, horned beastman lumbering up the hallway.

Oh Good. Beastmen.

 The Arena of Death

Those of the company that were magically paralyzed are tossed into the center of the amphitheater to join Magnus and Jim. Gillian casually dispels the spell that binds them and, as the company gets to its feet and readies its weapons, orders the doors on the north side of the arena open.

The company looks on in revulsion as perhaps a dozen beastmen come roaring and snarling into the pit. Wielding axes and hide shields, they seek to butcher the company to the last.

A man in the crowd stands up and announces himself as a member of Epernay’s Town Guard. He demands that Gillian stop the fight and proclaims that everyone participating in this blood sport is under arrest. The cultists fall upon him and tear him to pieces.

Garnier hefts his spear and runs along the outside of the amphitheater, before leaping in and joining his friends. He turns and hurls his spear at Gillian, only to have it be deflected by an invisible barrier.

Andre’s Vision

The beastman has little trouble bending the bars, opening it wide enough for the other cultists to get through. Andre, realizing there is no escape, readies his weapon and prepares for the inevitable.

Just then, Andre feels a strange sense of dissociation, almost as if his consciousness has been fractured. At first, he perceives a “nowhere place,” in which he surrounded by countless individuals. Andre doesn’t recognize any of these people, and yet at the same time knows that all of them are, somehow, different aspects of his true self.

Andre focuses on one of the individuals, the haggard-looking prisoner he had briefly encountered earlier. As if in a dream, he watches from the prisoner’s perspective as he slowly rises, removes his rope belt, and goes to the door of his cell. With everyone in the hallway focused on Andre’s cell, it is easy for the prisoner to reach through the bars and garrote the beastman with his belt.

As the prisoner begins to scream, “for the Lady! For Bretonnia!” Andre snaps back to himself. Andre realizes that, as the cultists are briefly distracted by the prisoner, now is his best and only chance to escape. He unlocks the door, slips through the frenetic melee, and runs for the stairs that lead up and out of the complex.

Although several of the cultists give chase, Andre is faster. He reaches the surface, only to find that the rest of the company are fighting for their lives in the amphitheater. He rushes forward to render what aid he can.

Pictured: A Hot Mess

The Battle Continues

Maurice, having seen Garnier’s spear deflected by magic, knows that only holy power can penetrate Gillian’s shield. He ties his pilgrim’s badge from the shrine of Saint Maxense to one of his arrows and fires it at the emcee. Gillian seems amused that Maurice would try such a foolish thing, but her confidence quickly gives way to screams of terror and rage as the badge arrow pierces her shield and her cheek, sending her reeling into the arms of the crowd.

Maurice attempts to follow this up with a second arrow dipped in manticore venom, also bearing a pilgrim’s badge. This one, alas, shatters on Gillian’s defensive barrier. By this time, Gillian recovers, and calls upon the Winds of Magic to hurl a bolt of raw Chaos at Maurice.

“Die, thrall of Zuvassin,” she screams, as her bolt strikes Maurice in his chest. He is blown off of his feet and slides across the bloodied sand.

At this moment, Andre arrives on the scene and gets into position behind Gillian. He draws the envenomed needle he took from the herbalist’s shop in Colmar and, with a vicious stab, plunges it into Gillian’s shoulder. The poison does its work with horrifying speed, and Gillian soon falls, her enchantments broken, clutching at her seizing heart.

Andre joins the others in the amphitheater and finds that they have acquitted themselves well against the beastmen. Most are dying or already dead, and only Maurice and Sir Henri have sustained any injuries of note. Sir Henri is pleased to see Andre, but is even more pleased to have been able to protect his squire, Jim, from a gruesome death at the hands of the hordes of Chaos.

Jim, for his own part, has acquitted himself very well.

The crowd of cultists seems not to care that the company is winning, so lost are they in their own frenzied bloodlust. Several of the company, most notably Garnier and Sabina, suggest that they get away from the ruin and the amphitheater as quickly as possible. Andre refuses and quickly describes what he saw in the complex beneath the keep. He insists that the company remain and free the cult’s other victims.

Grudgingly, the others accept.

Into the Beast’s Den

The two doors at the north of the arena are still open, and lead down a large passageway into the side of the hill. The company enters the passage and runs to the far end, where they find themselves in a large room with heavy gates blocking off entrances into smaller side rooms. The air is thick with the scent of straw, musk, an animal spoor, and the company can see numerous creatures padding around on the far side of the gates, fangs bared.

Several cultists are also here, both surprised and horrified to see that the so-called “Cult of the Stranger” is charging  them.  One of the cultists demands that they release “the beast” from its pen. Other cultists are dubious at this strategy, but seeing the company charging them with weapons drawn, reluctantly obeys.

A lever is pulled. Chains rattle. A gate falls back. Leaping into the room, fur bristling, acidic saliva drooling between clenched jaws, black wings spread wide, is a manticore. It raises its scorpion like tail, and the company sees that its stinger glistens with lethal venom.

All that Manticore Venom Had to Come From Somewhere...

 

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