A hot time in the old town
FrdNwsm
Member Posts: 1,069
With the puzzle to upper level access of Fire Giant Central solved, MC and friends pushed forward, sensing victory. And indeed, resistance was feebler than might otherwise be expected. They freed a slave gal, found the two hearts they needed, and had a few combats with last ditch defenders, including one loser who proclaimed himself "The Prince of Fire". This wimp was an Elemental Prince? No way! He did drop a pretty decent halberd though, and MC thanked him for that. Also amongst the loot was a nice +5 sword, which would have come in rather handy MONTHS AGO when the group was fighting mindflayers in the Underdark. Well, if they ever found more of the pests, they would make short work of them now.
[To be fair, we attacked the Fire Prince with Wave, using a whirlwind attack. He had no chance.]
Back to the crazy lady in Bhaal's Temple they went. Overjoyed she was, to get her heart back, and gladly performed the ritual to make Yaggie mortal again. And of course, once she was no longer heartless, she had all sorts of guilt spasms about betraying her dear little boy, and tried to wipe the heroes out. Not terribly clever, since everybody expected exactly that, and a few withering spells made her summoned plant buddies into instant fertilizer.
"I guess she had a ... change of heart!" quipped MC afterward. This awful pun, following the dreadful joke about the Marching Mountains having Foothills, earned MC some withering stares and threats of retaliation from the rest of the group. "Such foul jokes can only come from the mouth of Hell itself!" proclaimed Keldorn. MC promised never to attempt comic relief again (but kept his fingers crossed).
The group as a whole did however come away with one lesson firmly implanted in their collective minds. Just about everybody who had hired them to do something, allied with them for a shared goal, or otherwise interacted with them on a quest of any sort had turned on or betrayed them in the end. It said a lot for the quality of trustworthiness of people in general, when the only two partners they had worked with who kept their end of the bargain were two DEMONS FROM THE ABYSS! Sheesh.
New Rule #1 ... trust no one!
[To be fair, we attacked the Fire Prince with Wave, using a whirlwind attack. He had no chance.]
Back to the crazy lady in Bhaal's Temple they went. Overjoyed she was, to get her heart back, and gladly performed the ritual to make Yaggie mortal again. And of course, once she was no longer heartless, she had all sorts of guilt spasms about betraying her dear little boy, and tried to wipe the heroes out. Not terribly clever, since everybody expected exactly that, and a few withering spells made her summoned plant buddies into instant fertilizer.
"I guess she had a ... change of heart!" quipped MC afterward. This awful pun, following the dreadful joke about the Marching Mountains having Foothills, earned MC some withering stares and threats of retaliation from the rest of the group. "Such foul jokes can only come from the mouth of Hell itself!" proclaimed Keldorn. MC promised never to attempt comic relief again (but kept his fingers crossed).
The group as a whole did however come away with one lesson firmly implanted in their collective minds. Just about everybody who had hired them to do something, allied with them for a shared goal, or otherwise interacted with them on a quest of any sort had turned on or betrayed them in the end. It said a lot for the quality of trustworthiness of people in general, when the only two partners they had worked with who kept their end of the bargain were two DEMONS FROM THE ABYSS! Sheesh.
New Rule #1 ... trust no one!
Post edited by FrdNwsm on
3
Comments
Alas for the forces of Justice, when they arrived, the party found that they were just a little bit late; a few frantic refugees raced past them, but the bulk of Sara's Tush was in flames. Drat! There was stuff in town MC still wanted to buy, but the whole mall was now a charred ruin.
Never foil the plans of a half-orc who was anticipating a shopping spree. MC's wrath knew no bounds, and fire giants and their cronies fell in droves. Yag-Sototh himself felt the fury of his rage, and was amazed to find that he could be hurt. Oh no, he had broken a nail! Horrified, he ran off looking for a manicurist, but promising to return for revenge.
Unfortunately for his plans, he had forgotten that he himself had burned down the nail salon less than an hour ago. He had to return to the fray with a ragged hangnail, a weakness that proved his undoing. He fell in battle; the immortal Bhaalspawn was no more. And there was great rejoicing.
Well, OK, the celebration was a wee bit subdued, considering that pretty much everybody they had known in town had been turned into crispy critters. While looking around and considering the devastation, the party encountered none other than Melissa, who spun a tale of last minute hairbreadth escapes and tragedy. She also had a lead on a couple of other ambitious and evil Bhaalspawn, raising armies of conquest just like dear departed Yaggie, whom she said would need to be brought to heel. MC could see yet another task looming, which of course only the current group could carry out. Fine. Directions to the next assignment were obtained, and plans were made to set off, after a rest stop in the pocket plane.
MC was starting to have doubts about this Melissa gal. What was that rule again?
I said it tongue in cheek, but seriously ... the whole "Aha! I have you now, you fools!" thing would be more effective if it hadn't been done to death at this point. I mean, by now, I EXPECT them to try and screw me over whenever I agree to do something for someone. I feel like saying " Let's cut right to the chase and save time; give us the obligatory villain's betrayal speech now, so we can kill you already". The surprise factor has long since dissipated.