Disappearing Magical Asshole

26 Jun 2016 05:00
by: Patrick for The Golden Sun

The party left town headed towards Kaplan’s hobble outside the village. They encountered a full blood Wood Elf travelling alone on the road. He was introduced as Espio Dawnwind. He is a Monk on a journey to enlightenment and desires to find out about his origin, and how he came to be at the monastery.
Upon arrival to Kaplans hut, Ironbeard beat on the door as Skalen tried to peer through the dirty window panes. After several unsuccessful attempts at getting an answer, Ironbeard grew impatient and forced the door open. Everyone entered the cramped space of the hut and were met with a putrid smell emanating from a decomposing body left to rot among the deteriorating contents of the hut. The body was dressed in similar robes to that of Kaplan, and appeared to have been strangled. All of the once decent decorations and furniture in the hut were now shown in their true form revealing that a previous visit had been masked by yet another of Kaplan’s illusions. As they exited the hut, two demon Like creatures appeared from swirling voids in the ground and attacked the group. One creature was killed and the second fled after making a few comments about Kaplan. The party decided to continue on towards the mainland and made camp for the night. During the 3rd watch Phenic fell prey to the magical stare of a were-beast. Petrified and unable to move any muscle, she alerted the sleeping group by screaming in what sounded like drunken dwarvish. The fear from the creature's horrific howl enveloped Skalen and IronBeard as the rest of the party engaged the beast. Blows were exchanged as the beast decided on retreat, grabbing the paralyzed Phenic in the process and throwing her over his shoulder as he headed back into the swamp. The were-beast was felled by an errant arrow that was redirected by air controlled by Espio. Passing through the beasts head and stopping a mere inch short of Phenic's eye, she and the beast crashed to the ground in a crumpled mass of beast and lass. Rhogar finished the final watch and the party proceeded on to the port town that had been their previous point of entry to the Isles without further incident.
They were making their way towards the Black Turtle Inn, when a voice called out from behind the party, “Skalen!”
Skalen slowly turned to find himself face to face with the woman he left behind when he fled the nightwatch. Immediately perplexed and worried by the familiarity of the voice, Skalen turned around. “Shallis…” He responded. The fear of the unknown was obvious on his face. As they began to talk the party continued to the Black Turtle Inn as Skalen and Shallis followed behind to talk.
Espio slid into an empty corner booth alone and watched everyone closely
IronBeard joined others at the bar where a dusty keg of Dragon Snot Ale was tapped for him. He joined in the revelry as Bartholomew told tales. He waited for an opening in the singing and stories and inquired about getting a ship for passage to the mainland ready to leave that night. Bartholomew snatched up the coins and said he would take care of it. Phenic spoke to Bartholomew asking if he had heard anything about her mother. As Phenic spoke her name, Bartholomew immediately began to show watering eyes and great emotion. Bartholomew revealed himself as Phenic’s father and told a tale of Phenic’s mother getting wind of a lead on finding her brother. She set out to the docks to follow up on the lead more than a year ago, but never returned or was heard from again. Bartholomew searched as best he could, but not being an adventurer eventually resigned himself to mourn her disappearance.
Skalen and Shallis talked in the corner sharing Shallis’ favorite tea. Skalen tried to ease the situation by implying he had gone back to the city looking for her, but she saw right through his facade. He eventually admitted that he ran with only what he was carrying and led his pursuers away from Shallis to help keep her safe. Shallis and Skalen decided to return to her apartments for a night of goodbyes. As they walked down the hallway of her apartment building, an invisible hand wrapped around Shallis and slit her throat. Skalen screamed in horror as Kaplan appeared and said, “You ruined my plans, so I will take from you!”


Ironbeard made a toast, “To Lucky Skalen saying his goodbyes!”


Skalen rushed to Shallis’ side, catching her before she hit the ground and screamed “Why?” Kaplan disappeared as Skalen called out for help. Several people appeared in the hallway and Skalen was pointed to the temple down the street. He scooped up Shallis and began running as her blood drenched them both. Upon arriving at the entrance of the temple, Skalen was stopped again by Kaplan who said that he would kill everyone inside if he entered. Kaplan entered the temple and shut the door behind him. Skalen beat unsuccessfully on the temple door trying to open it, when it suddenly became free and burst open to an empty chamber. Skalen scooped up Shallis’ body and ran into the main chamber and laid Shallis’ body on the dais and pleaded for help. An old priest entered in and said he couldn’t watch anyone suffer, no matter the price. He began an incantation and was joined by several other priests. Before his eyes, Skalen saw Shallis’ life force exit her corpse and reincarnate into a Halfling. She briefly awoke and called out, “Skalen!”
The priest pleaded with Skalen to take her from the temple, so he grabbed her Hafling body and left, seeing the elder priest slit his own throat when he glanced back. He took her back to her apartment and laid her in her bed.
The rest of the party received news that the ship was ready and headed to collect Skalen. They arrived at Shallis’ door and Iron beard knocked. Skalen threw the door open, still covered in dried blood. His face was twisted in anger. Ironbeard asked, “What happened?”
Skalen replied, “Kaplan!” as he slammed the door in Ironbeard’s face. Through some soft spoken words and coaxing they convinced Skalen to open the door where the party was shocked to find a halfling laying in the bed. Shallis woke in shoke, not remembering much. Skalen recounted the events of the evening for Shallis and the party, vowing at the end to hunt down the “disappearing magical asshole, Kaplan!” Shallis decided to go with the group to Water Deep to start anew.
The group headed to the docks where Phenic spoke to a sailor and part of the guards about her mother’s disappearance. They recounted stories of kidnappings and suggested that that might be the case. They suggested checking in Waterdeep.
The group boarded the ship The Saint's Rest and set out for the mainland

Comments

Add a New Comment
tgs
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License