Whatever. We don't start all that quick. Lots of reasons. What could they be? Lack of enthusiasm. Crushing hangovers. The incipient fall of Western civilization. Outstanding debts to the neighborhood crack dealers. Tim's (Antok Six-Hearted) ongoing fascination with the social structures of the orangutan. Bruce's martyrlike inability to free himself from his own work schedule. Chris's (Gruul) terminal addiction to American television. Paul's (Marik) hyperactive enthusiasm for supersaturated sugar drinks. Chuck's (Galen) laconic awareness of the inherent tragedy of human existence. Mike's (Kellin) long-standing view that Pitt the Younger was England's greatest Prime Minister.
Batman to Robin: "I'm gonna have to give you access to the section of the library with pornography because you're awfully boring."
The session starts with everyone once again taking refuge in the Temple, off Nircha's Plaza in the Old City of Nircharstal, with the dramatic exception of Antok Six-Hearted (who has ventured off to the new city to find beer and provisions). Antok comes back to the group in the morning. He brings beer and comments that he didn't see any demons on his way in. It appears that the characters' efforts to thin the demonic population have been generating some fruits.
Suitably fortified with alcohol, the characters take a look at the nice items they have picked up in the ruins and divide them amongst themselves.
Kellin gets the +1 Accuracy Regular Bow, and the +1 Fortify Pot Helm, and the +2 Deflect Leather Jacket. Everyone agrees that he needs the armor, as his last set was converted into dishrags and nesting material for birds by a flight of spitwings last session.
Antok Six-Hearted takes the necklace-mounted 1 ST Powerstone, explaining that he only had one Powerstone. Gruul congratulates him, "Well, now you have two!" Kellin compliments him on how the necklace strands go so nicely with his hair. Antok refrains from comment.
Gruul takes his skull candle-holder out so everyone can admire it.
Nobody wants the Quick-Draw dagger, but Marik notes that it takes about a year to enchant a dagger like that. He estimates it should bring some $7500 on the open market, minimum.
With the loot dispersed, the characters decide to move through the city, randomly setting up hunting blinds and killing off demons as they go. Kellin agrees to be the page-turner. Marik reads the book. The other three decide to play poker with their backs to doors. Gruul offers, "I'll carry the flashlight, and you can carry all the weapons and go out alone." Galen, "Okay. I'll make sure they're all in my backpack."
On the way towards the Agora, Antok comments in a casual tone, "Some time ago, I promised Gruul I would protect the book with my life. I don't have the book right now. I want the book back. If someone doesn't give it back to me, I'll gut them." Galen looks up, "Oh, I was just reading it. Here."
Crossing Nircha's Plaza proves to be quite a problem, as the fell mist ensures that it is impossible to see the edges from the middle. Just when the characters started to fear that this might be the end of them, Marik demonstrates that his education hasn't been wasted: he navigates across the plaza with MATH!
On the way across, Antok finds a warm page, though not one that's particularly warm. Marik quickly reads the page, but he doesn't hear any screaming. He suggests that the demons are probably running away from the characters now. Gruul suggests sneaking around. Galen suggests sending out decoys who loudly comment, "Oh, I thought you brought the book..." Everyone agrees that this sounds like a good plan, except perhaps for the decoy part.
The characters are making their way past several villas on the way to the Agora when Antok yells out, "Holy crap! The book's getting warm! Lots of pages are getting warm!" The characters decide to take quick refuge in the nearest villa, and run right into the Eyeslither and his demonic pack. First through the gate are two twisted mouths, followed quickly by two burning men. The characters are able to deal with them without too much trouble, though there is some consternation when a burning man finally manages to hit Antok. Antok deals with the situation by getting medieval on one of the burning men.
Things really start to turn bleak when it becomes clear that the Eyeslither has several fell shadows among his minions. Three of them, led by the Dustwalker, show up on the rooftops around the villa's central courtyard. And commence raining death and destruction down upon the characters. Remembering how this had played out with the spitwings, Gruul decides to put a stop to things right away and tosses an axe at Dustwalker, who sidesteps. Gruul yells, "Dammit! I only have fifteen of those!"
Things start looking bad when a fell shadow zaps Marik. He feels unfit. And then zaps him again. He feels very woozy. And then he falls over. Nobody is manning the Book.
Just to complicate things even more, Dustwalker envelops Gruul in a cloud of grave's breath. An instant later, Gruul is howling berserk. Galen looks over his shoulder and offers one comment: "Shit."
Galen runs over to offer healing and salvage the situation. In truth he ends up as part of the situation after the fell shadows knock him to the ground as well.
Kellin tries some arrow shots at various fell shadows and becomes quite upset when most of his shots are dodged. He becomes even more upset when one of the fell shadows notices him and deals him a staggering hit. Stunned, he moves back to the shadow of the gate.
At this point, the only character standing anywhere near the Chel Auxur-Dau is Kellin. Dustwalker realizes that the object that could make him the hero (or master) of the demon world is lying on the ground just beneath him. He swoops down to grab the Chel Auxur-Dau. Kellin and Antok react to this threat by attacking with whatever they have. They manage to whittle Dustwalker down enough that all he can do is raise his eyebrows when Gruul shows up swinging a mace like Dennis Leary on PCP. Dustwalker lets go of the Chel Auxur-Dau after he gets bashed into a dusty cloak.
By the time the dust clears, all of Eyeslither's gang are dead, but none of them were killed by the Book.
The characters take a look around for loot. They find two magical daggers in the courtyard. One of them is enchanted with Shatterproof (Power 15). The other is enchanted with +1 Accuracy and +1 Puissance. Kellin comes up with the body of an original inhabitant wearing a silver necklace. Kellin thinks it might be worth 70 clavars.
The characters decide to take refuge in the main house. It has nice thick walls, and is fairly defensible. While they wait, Gruul teaches Galen how to throw axes while Kellin and Marik keep watch for demons. Marik drinks the beer Antok brought. Gruul suddenly realizes what Marik is drinking: "Antok brought beer? You gotta share! We're throwing hand axes, so we need at least half of that." Kellin makes a point of being on a different floor.
While everyone else sits around getting drunk and throwing axes, Antok spends his time hovering over the Chel Auxur-Dau. He manages to find eight locals, and smokes every single one of them. This leaves only forty-one demons left in the city, about a third of whom are "pending" after being killed by the characters.
After several hours of successful demon hunting, Antok hits a four-hour lull. The characters conclude that the chances of any more demons showing up are pretty small. They sleep for six hours, with whoever is still sober standing guard. Kellin glumly admits that that would be him. While everyone else is sleeping, he prowls through the main house, looking for demons and anything that isn't nailed down. He manages to come up with a couple of bottles of wine, a bag containing 50 clavars, and a potion.
Back in the glory days of Nircharstal, the Tardotaan Palace was the most glorious structure in the city. Based on the characters' knowledge of demonic psychology, they decide that it is very likely that the self-styled Emperor of All Demons is probably holding court in the Tardotaan. They are somewhat disappointed to find out that the thrux leveled the place after they took the city. From the edge of the complex grounds, barely a dozen stones visibly remain in place.
The characters do find one rather pathetic corpse-toucher who urges them, "Don't burn! Don't kill!" It continues on to explain that it is Plaguefinger, and that it has information for them if they don't kill it. This proves to not be that much of a strategy for poor Plaguefinger, as Marik and Antok feel that there isn't much that the creature could tell them that would be of any interest. Plaguefinger buys itself a bit of time by blurting out that there are other newcomers in the city, people who come in and take the stones. It claims that there are six or seven who enter the city through a gap in the southern wall, plus "a tall one" that the characters deduce must be a thrux. It really takes Plaguefinger a lot of effort to provide all this information, as it's burning into a puddle of caustic sludge all the while. Forty demons left, less the dozen or so that the thrux may have taken.
Galen starts off by making disparaging comments about the skill and dedication of the guards in the new city, given that they have had a thrux just wandering around and haven't even noticed. Marik comments that the guards are probably not paying a lot of attention to the Old City, as by now everyone left in Nircharstal has a pretty good idea that the demons can't leave, and that nobody in their right might enters. Also, if the thrux is a magician he might just be casting Daze on the guards and walking right past them.
The characters decide to go back into the new city, pretend that nothing is wrong, and then set up an ambush for the thrux.
The characters spend some time studying the geography of the southern wall. There are two substantial breaks in the wall, and some signs that Jelfinn the Jumper has been around (several sets of deep boot prints, side by side). They also find signs of a recently-used camp able to support perhaps a dozen people. It looks like the site has been used at least two or three times.
A plan is swiftly developed. The characters will gather up five days' of rations and wait in a building on the inside of the walls, a building with reasonable line of sight to both of the breaks in the wall. Galen will place a Watchdog around the campsite so the characters know when the thrux return.
Three days go by, during which time the characters manage to bag three demons. Three more days go by, each slower than the last. The characters reprovision, and collect six more demons, leaving only 19 pages in the book. Of those, they know that eight pages correspond to demons they killed up at the Agora.
On day six, the Watchdog spell goes buzz. Antok watches one of the breaks in the wall. Kellin watches the other.. Both are in the same second-floor room of a small building. Nobody appears. The characters deduce that the thrux are still at the campsite. Gruul sneaks up to the wall and sees the smoke from the cookfires. The camp is no more than five meters from the wall. Gruul slips back to tell the others what he has learned. He proposes giving them a few hours to settle in and then kill them in their sleep. Everyone agrees that this is an excellent plan.
It looks like the camp consists of three tents, one fire, and perhaps eight individuals. Seven of them are Faian humans. Two of those are on sentry duty, but have most of their attention focused upon the Yierdogiven sea and the shoreline approaches. One is much taller than the Faians, and sits apart from them. It is covered by a long robe, but it is clear that the creature is thrux.
Preparations for the attack go swiftly. Kellin agrees to stand up at the top of a nearby watch-tower and kill the sentries. Marik casts Flight on him to let him leave the area swiftly if need be. The others decide to sneak up and kill the thrux first, then deal with the others. Everyone goes in with as much magical fortification as possible: Hermes potions all around and +2 Haste spells upon Kellin and Galen. Antok is chosen to stay back at the characters' base camp in the city with the Chel Auxur-Dau, just in case the local demon population gets riled.
Six hours later, the thrux is asleep in his tent. Two sentries and one soldier are awake, but everyone else is fast asleep. Marik, Gruul and Galen sneak in. They manage to get into the thrux's tent without even waking him. He is wearing his breastplate, but no other armor. Gruul and Galen stand poised above him, then strike as one. Gruul severs the thrux's head from his neck as Galen stabs through his heart with Ghelgul's Terrible Heartseeker.
The explosive crash of the Heartseeker's strike serves as a fine alert for the others. Kellin fires two arrows, shooting down one sentry and the one awake guard. The surviving guards wake to see Galen and Gruul advancing upon them. For their action, they rise to a 'kneeling' position. The characters laugh with derision. The battle is short and very one-sided.
One guard tries to surrender to Gruul. Gruul fails his Bloodlust Will roll and finds out that "surrender" is his battle call. A second guard manages a more successful surrender, to Galen. One of the sentries manages to run into the hills, evading Kellin's flying pursuit.
Each character gains four experience points. Everyone looks forward to interrogating the survivor next time.