Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Flashpoint: Devil Alert

The team arrived at the warehouse, fully aware that it was likely a trap, and opened the front doors of McCoughin Mortuary.  The foyer was filled with Darkness and Obscuring Mist.  Proteus cast Grease into there and they heard someone slip over and swear - calling them to come inside.  Proteus then summoned an octopus to creep through in the direction of the voice only for it to be rapidly destroyed.  As they watched, a glowing red large louse (Hell Louse - there are more 3.5 devils of the right CR than Pathfinder ones) charged out of the Mortuary and rammed into Lunjun Siva and poisoned him for a little Dexterity damage.

They finally destroyed the Hell Louse and then explored the foyer once the mist and darkness dissipated.  There was a stone central bench with a bowl of greenish fluid and powdered salts in glass vials that Lhye later figured out with Alchemy were infernal drugs.  Proteus opened one of the doors to see what lay behind it and came face to face with two Legion Devils.

"Umm, sorry, wrong door," said Proteus, succeeding enough on a Bluff check to get the door closed and back away before the Legion Devils came in.

The door opened and the Legion Devils rushed in.  One even managed to summon yet another Legion Devil.  The characters focused their attacks on one and were horrified to realise that not only were they hardly damaging it but when the third one was summoned it seemed largely healed (they share hit points).  They finally managed to kill the Legion Devils and went down into the mortuary large storage room.  There was a reddish glow towards the end of the room and over to one side in an alcove.

A Spinagon stepped out and tried to reason with them.  "Come with me, Lhye, and I will let your mother go. You're destined for Hell anyway as if we killed you your soul would fall to us.  You might as well make a positive impression and we will let you go afterwards."

Lhye, understandably, argued the case.

Finally the Spinagon explained that, "I just want a little of your blood."

Lunjun laughed out loud at that, knowing what sympathetic magic can do.

"Blood?  Why?" asked Lhye.

"We just want to see the secrets in your soul," said the Spinagon.  "That's all we want to do."

"That sounds like it's gonna hurt a little," said Proteus.  "Maybe we should just kill him."

The Spinagon startles and tries to summon another of his kind but fails.  Seeing this, the characters all attack at once and with some good rolls manage to kill him in one round.  They notice the glow at the end of the warehouse was starting to die down and hurried forward to find what looked like a dentist's chair with a number of barbed wire-like restraints, pincers on wires, and serrated prongs.  Much of it was magically created as it sat there over the chair, slowly fading away.

"So they wanted more than a little of my blood," said Lhye.

Lunjun's Spellcraft noted that the spell was quite powerful and previously unknown, certainly of a divine and evil origin, perhaps caused by a prayer that was particularly favoured.  We go with the rule that in times of need you can roll a d100 and on a 100 you get divine intervention.  Sometimes, or so it is said, your odds are improved because the gods are willing and able.

Proteus, as he approached, felt a strange urge to touch the chair as the bone in his hand vibrated like a tuning fork that also felt so cold that his entire arm was in goosebumps.  He reached forward and touched the chair and immediately a red glow emanated from his chest and his eyes.

Proteus got to see a little vision to himself.  His vision coasts along a world of boiling seas becoming steam, volcanoes, plains covered in blood, teeming Abyssals crawling out of the various holes while lines of devil legions clash as angels fly in from the sky that feel more like invaders than the monsters.  He recognises the Storval Plataeu and realises that this is Golarion.  His vision sweeps in to see a beautiful man whose appearance changes each time he considers him but who he is forever beautiful.

The evil creatures suddenly are seen to flow from Golarion as though the world were exuding them, as though the world were a giant aberration growing tendrils that appear as demons and devils, and the man was the only thing untouched.  And then tendrils are starting to wrap around the man's feet and his skin peels loose in tatters that whip around violently before slipping back into place in a disgusting rhythm.  Then there is a sound like chains breaking....

Proteus wakes up and the characters nervously eye him off and train their weapons on him, wondering if he might be evil.  Proteus tries to convince them that he's not and eventually succeeds.  They head back to the meeting tavern to meet up with Haylei, Arexia, and Mellarius to find what they've learned.

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