Session 31: Adventures of the Burnt Hand, Part 3


 * The Burnt Hand starts fighting the SPOOPY BONE NAGA!
 * Vesun casts Protection from Evil on Benny, Agostina on herself.
 * Agostina has a +4 vs fear aura. Rigel Inspires Greatness on Merlin
 * Benny: Bad memories pop up - something searching through head but makes Will save. Delay until after Rigel. Agostina doesn't, she is shaken. She moves up around the corner and heals herself with the last of her lay on hands. Rigel starts inspiring confidence.
 * Inspire Courage: [+2 to charm/fear saving throws], +2 morale bonus to attack and damage
 * Merlin smacks its head with his axe. White Spider (NPC, no GGY today) casts True Strike and throws a dagger but it doesn't do much. Benny puts a trap behind the naga. The naga lightning bolts Merlin doing a shitload of damage. Vesun heals Merlin.
 * Brother Xonak comes down and starts heading around the side. Agostina starts attacking with smite. Rigel casts Soundburst. Benny tries to stab it to no avail. WS poisons and loads her crossbow.
 * The naga tries to tail whip Benny and Agostina - has nasty liquid on its spikes. It bites Merlin and thankfully he doesn't get poisoned. Vesun hands his mace to Agostina. Xonak whacks it, and it says something psychically like "no, I must bring it to Secatrix". Agostina smashes it tail to tip and it screams "Secatrix forgive me!" and collapses. Benny comments that they haven't seen a single halfling… Rigel thinks it's weird that Secatrix (who he thinks is the spider) was less powerful than the naga.
 * The Burnt Hand splits up, tries to figure out which way to go, and decides to go back to the other passage. We find a door, Benny checks the door. It's been especially reinforced. There are marks around doorframe as if it's been forced; something is locked in there from the outside. Agostina detects evil - something evil is in there. We keep exploring.
 * Go back to Naga room - the self-arranged bones have arranged as naga again but it's not moving…
 * Agostina gives a naga spike bone to Benny. For fun, I guess?
 * Keep exploring up - sarcophagi. Benny finds gems, a green bubbly potion. Another room, weird copper pyramid and old supplies. Vesun has a very similar pyramid, Benny gives to him when he asks for it.
 * Xonak finds stairs going up. There is a huge antechamber in there with giant statues. There are pieces of meat or organs on tables. Xonak can smell fresh air past that.
 * Merlin finds disturbed sarcophagi (from a long time ago), then insists on going back to the scarab room. He kills it and finds notes on a desk in Draconic.
 * They list names, people's valuable items - same handwriting as before, also some "Praise Secatrix" etc. He notices mid-war stuff on list, 50-60 years old.
 * Go back up… the naga bones we took have been replaced. It's regenerating.
 * Up to the big chamber. Room on the left has embalming equipment. Large organs on sacrifice tables look like preserved large creature organs. Room on right is a study; ancient stuff in Draconic - just prayers to Secatrix.
 * Go up the stairs… in chamber, there are stairs going up and these have been swept. Sees light from outside.
 * We find ourselves emerging outside in a clearing. In the distance there's a 20 ft plateau with some kind of magic ring on it, and an even higher ridge. We see a large green dragon flying overhead, which lands on the plateau. Does not appear to have noticed us. Agostina detects evil… Secatrix radiates powerful evil. She sees Agostina with her sword out… roll initiative!
 * Benny hides in the trees and takes out + loads his crossbow. Secatrix swipes down at Agostina, grabs her and drops her from 10 feet in the air, then sweeps around to the other roost. Xonak tries to scramble up but fails.
 * M: "Wait, shouldn't he also have a racial climbing bonus?" C: "Monica, somewhere else, Vikrit just died because you knew too many lizardfolk facts."
 * Rigel casts Blink on Agostina, who summons her pegasus and gets on. Vesun casts Fly on Merlin, who attacks Secatrix. Secatrix scares Vesun and Benny and spits acid at Merlin & Xonak; Merlin gets hit badly. Rigel Inspires Courage. Agostina charges the dragon on her pegasus but barely brushes it.
 * Benny's activates his mist armor and shoots but does no damage. Secatrix asks Xonak why we're here -- he says we're here for a person named Benjamin, she says to give us our treasure for her hoard. When Xonak doesn't, she smacks at him with her claw and tries to push him off the ledge; he slides down the ledge. She says there is no Benjamin here besides her devotees.
 * Xonak drops a bunch of gold in front of Secatrix for safe passage. Rigel starts talking to Secatrix about how shitty her temple looks because her minions have been slacking.
 * Everyone donates gold tribute to the dragon (some more than others), she says we can have a favor.
 * We try to get her to fly around and tell us if she sees a halfling camp with prisoners, she offers "the Egg of Bahamut". Looks like a giant granite melon, we say no thanks. She agrees to search for us while we wait.
 * She says she didn't see any halflings. "YOU SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE EGG." She saw that some of her acolytes have perished (who could've done that) and warns us that whoever did that could surely hurt us.
 * We leave!
 * We go back to the encampment we bypassed. The people who were there appear to be gone, and the campfire is smoldering. Benny finds paper with Clan Boromar on it, Merlin and Vesun notice the people who were there heading back.
 * Merlin rolls a 1 on Hide and knocks both him and Xonak over. The 2 half-orcs and 1 human all notice.
 * We stick them up. Rigel says we're looking for Benjamin/Boromar; he and Benny roll natural 1s on the Sense Motive roll. They say they're from Boromar, try to back away. Agostina says there's a dragon watching over the woods "as top of clan Boromar" and they believe her.
 * Ahab: "If we tell you everything we know, which is not much, you'll let us go? You won't rob us?" Vesun: "Of course not, we're the good guys."
 * They tell us Boromar sent them into the woods to prove themselves. They were told to go out here and be obvious about being clan Boromar… after we left the casino. Corvo is the one who told them to do it. Vesun gives them some gold and we let them go.
 * We head straight to Lower Dura to talk to Corvo, who is packing up his stuff for the day. Vesun approaches him and gives a fake name (Martin), asks if he's willing to share a drink to pay him back for his good glidewing deals.
 * Vesun leads everyone back to The Reef.
 * Merlin: "What is all this shit on the floor? Are those caltrops?!"
 * We start getting him drunk and talking about himself. Vesun mentions people he talked to, Corvo laughs. He says Halek told him to send 3 wannabe Boromar members to the Aedyran Baths 'as a prank' at a safehouse. ("They never check the kitchens!")
 * Vesun mentions the casino, Corvo says they're supposed to keep a low profile. He says Halek says he's not supposed to go to the casino, but Halek goes all the time.
 * We take an aside and discuss. The party thinks Halek is in league with Chance. Corvo has passed out. Gettafix comes in and is angry about all the people crowding his kitchen.
 * We drop Corvo off somewhere and head to the casino. The imp is still flying around advertising.
 * We head in the back door--it's open. We go up to Chance's office. Xonak says he lied to us about where Benjamin is. He says this wasn't the only deal he made, doesn't matter.
 * Chance turns into an 8-foot tall goat-man thing and charges Xonak. FIGHT!
 * Xonak whacks him with his lawful nunchucks. Chance summons 3 medium bat creatures (dretch) and badly hurts Xonak with his huge scythe. Vesun heals Xonak. Rigel starts playing to inspire Xonak. Benny and Merlin each destroy one of the summoned creatures. Agostina attacks the other one.
 * Xonak hits with the nunchucks again. Its face melts off and bursts boils at Xonak - he barely moves out of the way while acidic stuff shoots out. Chance casts a spell, Xonak hitting again. He teleports down onto the floor.
 * There is what appears to be a magic one-way mirror looking down on the floor -- looks like brick from the floor. Chance is now on the casino floor yelling at 2 devil things covered in chains. A bunch of the human staff are also setting up with bows. Vesun Dimension Doors himself, Agostina and Xonak right behind Chance. Rigel touches the "mirror" and fails his will save, so he thinks it's solid, then he and Merlin run down onto the stage while Benny cleans up the remaining dretch. Agostina smites Chance.
 * Xonak hurts Chance again, who attacks wildly and slashes up Xonak. The 2 chain demon things also attack Xonak but only one hits. Vesun uses a scroll of Shield Other on Xonak (Carlos: "Shield Brother!") and uses some AP to heal Xonak as well. Rigel makes himself and Merlin invisible. Benny is the only one still upstairs and also realizes the wall isn't real - he shoots at one of the archers upstairs on the other side, who is very confused and doesn't know where it came from. Rigel makes himself and Merlin invisible and they go into the melee.
 * Agostina casts Protection from Evil on Xonak, who attacks the goat demon again. It gores and claws him. One of the chain creatures (kytons) attacks Xonak but the spell protects him. The other attacks Agostina and doesn't do much. Vesun goes around and doesn't do much to Chance.
 * Rigel whispers, "Chance… the Rapier!" and tries to stab Chance but can't get the rapier in. Merlin nearly beheads Chance. Agostina attacks one of the kytons. Xonak smashes Chance's head and it slumps; Xonak executes him. The 2 kytons disappear and the archers surrender.
 * Rigel starts interrogating. 2 of them don't seem to know anything… the last one is one of the waitresses. She says "behind the bar… check his office too to get in, you'll need it." We let them go.
 * Vesun looks at the ledger. Names and dates, some people from dragonmarked houses; no details of deals. Benjamin is the 3rd to last entry, the day before Noelle told Vesun her bro was missing. Then another name, then Halek.
 * Benny finds a keyring but probably not what will open the vault. There's a handprint on the vault door. Vesun goes and puts the preserved hand on the door, and it opens.
 * In the vault: bars of precious metals; a rack with manacles. There's a passed-out, beaten up human. There's also a doppelganger or changeling… with a bloody stump of a forearm.
 * Vesun: "Well, what are the Chances."
 * "Hi Benjamin, I'm here to save you but don't thank me yet--your sister might kill you."
 * Benny releases Ben and the Doppelganger. Ben wants to leave--Agostina picks him up and gives him wine and water. The doppelganger is passed out, Vesun heals him and he comes to, very emaciated and disoriented.
 * Benny motions at the shriveled hand with the amulet. "Lose something?"
 * Vesun gives it back to him and we let him go. He says we can take whatever we want, then mutters something before leaving. Benny is the only one looting the vault.
 * We bring Benjamin to Noelle's family home. She embraces him but he knows he's in deep shit. The Burnt Hand thanks Vesun for their help.
 * Noelle said she'll get us in to the gala - friends in House Ghallandra catering - meeting tomorrow morning. Gala is tomorrow night.
 * They go to the Burnt Hand's hideout.
 * Xonak asks for Vesun's help with something else… "Skaldi!" She comes down, with a very powerful orb… and doesn't recognize Vesun, because he was disguised as Davide the whole time on the train.