Session 17, 2008-02-29: In Ur Camp, Killin Ur Boss

Session 17: wherein prisoners are freed, snakes are killed, and NMR leaves a calling card

Players (Characters)
Scott (Filthy Ike)
Jeremy (Flynn Flamm)
Tony (Brother Jakob)
Rachel (Lotus)
Tom (Nathaniel Graythorne)
DM: Catherine

Nate cast veil on the party, disguising himself as the female psion who had led the yuan-ti party, and disguising the others to look like the remaining enemies, who were yuan-ti halfblood clerics and psions. At the gate to the siege camp, a group of guards gladly greeted the "insidious anklebiters" and said Seth Ness'n was waiting impatiently for the group. He also warned that teleporting within the camp was very bad -- all teleports would be redirected to a very bad place, no exceptions. Within the camp, snakes continually approached, looking to be petted. A few human slaves were being badly mistreated along the way, and Nate had to remind Jakob that the mission couldn't be compromised; slaves could only be rescued if it was safe. Flynn ran the Rod of the Mongoose in eavesdropping mode for a few minutes, hearing various lackies get summoned, but nothing of great interest. At one point along the way, a yuan-ti purebred coughed out some of the black sand associated with the Thirsting, and then healed himself. Jakob yelled at him to clean the mess up, so he kicked the black sand into one of the blood-filled trenches along the road. Elsewhere, in the market, the party witnessed items being purchased with red coins, and mistreatment of those who only had gold with which to pay. Throughout the camp, the yuan-ti class system was readily apparent -- the more snake-like one was, the more they would mistreat the lower classes.

Another yuan-ti halfblood approached the party and said he'd heard we had a mission assignment, with payment of "full scales" (that is, transformation into a higher class of yuan-ti), and that he wanted to be included. Nate, in his female yuan-ti voice, said he might consider it, and asked where they could meet later. After gathering up an address, the party headed for the temple that served as a gate to the inner ring of the camp. Ditches full of blood and other nastiness flowed freely from the temple, and inside, various forms of torture and killings were being performed on humans, elves, and lower-class yuan-ti. One cleric removed the heart from a living prisoner, and that was not the worst the party witnessed. The party decided to press onward, moving down the wooden pole at the back of the temple; Lotus wildshaped into a snake to make the climb easier.

Below the temple was a torture chamber where two yuan-ti guards had just accidentally killed a prisoner they were supposed to keep alive. The other guards pointed to them, and the party stepped forward and beat them to death. This did not surprise the remaining guards in the least, but when Flynn switched the Rod of the Mongoose to block sound and cast haste on the party, they started to suspect trouble. Lotus began summoning constrictor snakes, and Ike shot and killed a guard. One of the others yelled out "treason" and cast Sadism. Two others stepped back, out of where the psion Jakob was disguised as would have been able to reach, and began casting spells. They were quite surprised when Jakob knocked one on his back and punched the other in the face. One managed to cast Waves of Pain on Jakob, who resisted (melee-oriented Half-Ogres tend to have better physical resistance than yuan-ti psions, so this was a poor choice of spells.) Two more enemies approached Jakob, and he tripped one and took a minor wound from the other. Jakob used Searing Blade and killed two opponents with two strikes each. Nate used Hold Person to freeze the remaining cleric, and one of the human prisoners kicked at his captor.

Flynn fired a few shots from his bow, dealing minor wounds to one enemy. Lotus' snakes wrapped up two of the enemies and bit a third. Ike's five arrows left one enemy near death. Another turned invisible and started climbing the wall, hoping to get to safety. Jakob killed one of the enemies he'd tripped, and Nate fired an errant shot toward the wall-climbing enemy. Ike showed Nate how it's done with a critical shot that pinned the enemy to the wall, and Lotus' snake crushed the head of the final enemy. The party gathered up all of the arrows they'd fired, slashing dead enemies with scimitars to disguise their wounds. They also cast Lingering Soul on the recently killed prisoner, unlocked all of their cages, burned out a wand of Cure Light Wounds, and handed them a bit of gold. Nate cast Veil on the whole group, and Flynn handed the toughest-looking prisoner a pearl that allowed him to speak yuan-ti fluently. He gave the prisoners instructions to head out of camp and just keep walking for an hour, after which Nate would dismiss the spell and make them look human again -- so if they weren't away within an hour, they were going to be in trouble. Nate also used a permanent image to make the room appear occupied from afar.

The party walked out of the torture chamber and into the inner area. Some guards were talking about Azulu's recent attack on the Ninja Mongoose Rockstars. They thought the name was strange. Rockstars are loud, so they must not be very good ninjas, and the mongoose is an animal that kills snakes, which makes it some sort of hideous abomination of nature. It didn't make sense for a party to name themselves the equivalent of "sucky ninja puppykickers". No; a better name would be the "masked jackasses", and they'd be dead soon anyway. The guards then turned to greet the "insidious anklebiters", who obviously had a much better name, and told them Seth Ness'n was getting anxious. Nate asked where Azulu might be found, and got another address, this time to one of the nice stone houses in the middle of the camp.

The party headed over to meet Seth Ness'n, and Nate made sure to mute Ike via the Veil spell. Seth Ness'n said "you are late. I fear you've come to love your leader too much" and cast a spell on each party member that would harm the nearby person they loved most or were most loyal to -- a simple way to punish those who had too many loyal followers. Ike loved himself the most; Flynn and Nate were friendly with each other, as were Lotus and Jakob. "I suppose I have misjudged your loyalties. Ah well. I have a mission for you. It's simple -- kill the Ninja Mongoose Rockstars. This request comes all the way from the wastelands." Seth Ness'n headed back to his office, and Ike was clearly upset that they hadn't killed the enemy cleric on the spot. "Come on, Ike, let's go get your bow", Nate said, and Ike was satisfied.

The party walked to the tavern/sauna where Azulu was hanging out, and opened the door. Azulu was in the pool, holding Ike's bow in his hands and getting it wet and dirty as he spoke of how badly he'd destroy NMR "if they were here right now." Ike drew Fox's Bite and shot Azulu in the chest, and it was all the party could do to get the door swung shut before those outside would see. Flynn quickly set the Rod to block telepathic communications as Ike continued shooting. Jakob tripped one of the psions who was in the pool, and Nate used telekinesis to push another into Jakob's reach. Flynn played a quiet acoustic chord that inspired the party to attack. One of the psions dropped some lightning on Ike and Nate, and Azulu, recognizing who the party was, tried to telekinetically pull Flynn's lyre out of his hands. Flynn was able to hold on, so Azulu scrambled Flynn's atoms. A cleric who was in the pool with the psions and snakes cast True Seeing to try to figure out what was going on, and a pair of attendants panicked and tried to get to the door. Lotus called lightning down on Azulu, killing him and, to her dismay, some of the snakes in the pool. Ike fired four shots at the cleric, and Jakob's flurry of flaming fists hit solidly (rolled 2 20's and a third 20 to confirm) and killed the psion. Nate tried to bullrush the cleric away from his armor, but failed. Flynn's pair of arrows left the cleric barely alive, and the cleric cast Delay Death on himself. The attendants tried to send for help, but the Rod again blocked the effect. Lotus hit the cleric with lightning, which mattered little due to his Delay Death spell. Ike took down the attendants while Jakob, using his Quicksilver boots, strode across the water and knocked the enemy cleric unconscious. Jakob used his Shadow Sun Hand to pull life force from the cleric and heal the party, and Nate lifted Ike's bow from the water using telekinesis.

The Ninja Mongoose Rockstars headed back to Seth Ness'n's office, asking the guards for entry. The guards said "nobody is allowed to distrub Seth Ness'n. Come back later." Nate insisted "we were ordered to bring back information as soon as possible." After a brief staredown, the guards relented and moved out of the way. Inside the structure were three trapdoors, one with a cleric symbol, one with a psion eye symbol, and one blank. Flynn used the Rod of the Mongoose to block the sound from opening the door, and the party jumped down into Seth Ness'n's private chamber. The big yuan-ti stood and yelled "speak your piece and save your lives." Nate replied "the guards said to come right in." (bluff: natural 20.) "This better be important", the cleric said, backing off from his aggressive pose. "We got this bow from Azulu. We need to scry on the Ninja Mongoose Rockstars. It's time-critical." "I like your initiative." With that, Seth Ness'n grabbed the bow and began casting scrying as the party arranged themselves for battle. Soon, Seth Ness'n realized he was scrying on the room he was in.

Nate spun up his Great Thunderclap, knocking the enemy prone, but Lotus' Drown spell failed. Flynn played a loud lute riff and then flipped the Rod into its telepathy-blocking mode. Ike broke the AMF arrow out of its bottle and fired it at Seth Ness'n, hitting him solidly. Jakob stepped forward and took two swings, smashing the still-surprised cleric. Ike took a precisely aimed shot, Jakob hit the big cleric three times, and Flynn hasted the party. Seth Ness'n pulled the arrow out of himself and tossed it to the side, taking a hit from Jakob in the process, and then cast Dictum -- surely these "assassins" were chaotic and evil, so Blasphemy would not do. Everyone but Jakob was paralyzed by the powerful spell, but Jakob was able to grab the AMF arrow and toss it in the middle of the party, supressing the paralysis. Flynn fired a pair of completely unmagical arrows at the enemy cleric, killing him. ("We do a lot of assassinating for non-assassins." -Rachel) The party waited for the Dictum spell to wear off and then picked up various treasures from the room. Nate drew the Ninja Mongoose Rockstars logo on the floor in chalk, and then the party headed out.

On the way out, Nate told the guards "Seth Ness'n is really angry with you guys for letting us in, so I wouldn't go anywhere near him if I was you." They continued standing watch as the party walked toward the camp gates. Jakob bullied a few yuan-ti into giving up their human slaves, and Flynn traded a bunch of red coins for their gold equivalents. Once the party was outside of the camp, Nate contacted Derex to let him know the party was ready for pickup and that a group of "yuan-ti" ahead were really disguised human slaves. A group of kingsmen showed up to teleport NMR and the slaves back to Old Westlay.

Jakob reached level 12.