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Dael is a monk from The Aesthetic Order of Cluodesa, a group founded on a misspelling, or so the story goes.  As the final part of his initiation a monk must walk the world, appreciating many things, ideally that few others in the Order have experienced. Since few of the Order have visited Basingstock, this seemed the ideal location, being a fairly large city, but far enough from the monastery that most initiates instead trek to Hornshroud which has a slightly higher population, but is also much closer.

Dael had been in the city for a few months, travelling around and seeing the sights, and sampling all the city has to offer, and keeping meticulous notes in his log book. While he started in the more well to do districts, sleeping in luxury, admiring fine parks and museums, eating at the finest establishments (some of the newer ones which no Cluodesa monks had previously patronized) and having a fairly great time, as the months passed his funds rapidly diminished and he moved to the more middle class districts, sampling theater and street fare, sleeping in more common inns and boarding houses. Eventually he moved on to the lower class districts, and slums. Sampling the life and entertainments of the poor and downtrodden.

Now Dael has sampled a broad cross section of all the city has to offer, he’s decided it’s time to build up the cash for a trip out of the city and on to see some of the wilderness and areas around Basingstock, and to that end he has responded to an advertisement for employment with Eight Arms Adventuring Guild. If nothing else, his employment might take him on some adventures outside the city, where who knows what he’ll see.

Dael’s Adventure Part 2

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So it turns out The Eight Arms only had two positions open, and 6 applicants. Dael wasn’t too worried about succeeding, in fact he was pretty sure several of the others were far more qualified than he was as adventurers, but seeing the rest of them work together or at odds would probably be at least one worthwhile entry in his log book, and he could surely find some work elsewhere in the likely event he didn’t get one of the two openings.

Eight Arms : The Six Applicants

Dael: Aesthetic Monk and Drunken Master.

Solei: She looks like a fighter with her heavy armor, but seems by turns sneaky and arcane.

Honch: A big half-ork. His bearing says ex-military; something tells me he didn’t spend that much time in the front lines.

Vyrez: This one I’m not sure about. Maybe he’s a vampire? He looks half dead; he is certainly intimidating. I’m sure his story will be interesting. I kind of hope it’s the two of us so I can have a good excuse to ask him questions.

Mortia and Hubert: I’m not sure what to make of this mystical couple. Sometimes it seems like they are paying so much attention to each other they don’t see the wolf in front of them.

Ebonbiters bite off more than they can chew

In this instance, the proving would be in protecting a warehouse for the night. The desire was to not only prevent the looting of the warehouse, but also to capture alive as many possible. We arrived at the warehouse shortly before dusk. With basically no discussion of plan we each cased building on our own and then proceeded to surround the building in a vary obvious manner. Varyz and Honch both tried to be nonchalant, while Mortia attempted to break into one of the side doors. Meanwhile I’d stepped into a nearby bar and procured a large bottle of local swill, which wasn’t much better than water, though it certainly had a lot more character than most water does. With my ale in hand I could rest outside the bar and watch two of the exits.

A group of thugs approached, and well, I must admit the swill was a bit stronger than I expected and I took it upon myself to try and apprehend all three of them at once. In hindsight, I’m pretty sure there were more of them then my initial reckoning summed to, and I was rapidly overwhelmed. Fortunately Hubert came to my rescue and with his aid, as well as that of Vyrez we were able to knock out pretty much all of the thugs. I did not witness it first hand, but apparently at the same time a wererat and several giant rats snuck into the warehouse through a window, espied only by Solei who finished the job Mortia started and gained entrance through the side door.

Just as we were finishing off the thugs in the front of the building, a giant ice wolf and a manticore joined the scene making it a 3 way battle. Honch forced the front gate open and we joined battle against these terrifying beasts. After a hard fight against the wolf it turned into some sort of black goo, with the head of the wererat lying where it’s stomach had been. Fortunately for us this seemed to frighten off the Manticore.

I do wish I’d made it inside the warehouse sooner, I’m sure the wererat would have been a sight to behold while alive. That said, even if I don’t get the job, this night alone has already been fantastic enough that I doubt any of the elders will be unimpressed.

Dael’s Adventure Part 3

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With our heroes triumphant we bound the thugs. The orc started to torture them for information but we managed to calm him down and the surviving Ebonbiters seemed perfectly willing to talk without the need for disfiguring them with hammer blows. We dispatched one of our number to locate and bring a patrol of the night watch. We did our best to explain the situation and events leading up to it, however between several of us trying to explain at the same time, and the rather amazing nature of events it rapidly became apparent that they believed we were indeed working for Eight Arms, but on the down low.

They became more and more dubious of our story as it progressed, to the point where the guard said “Audible Wink, and then the giant wolf attacked.” It was fairly obvious to me there was more going on… I mean even the orc couldn’t have bitten the wererat’s head off, but the guardsman was having none of it, and they’d trundled the thugs off before I could even finish explaining about the Manticore.

We did our best to re-secure the Wilkerton Shipping warehouse, however with two busted windows we figured it best to stay and keep guarding the place for the rest of the night. That is, until Hubert noticed something weird with his watch and the city bell not agreeing. Solei and I climbed to the roof, but couldn’t quite see the bell so it was decided to send some people to the clock tower to investigate however things kind of got out of control with everyone wanting to go on this excursion except me… and I certainly wasn’t going to guard the warehouse on my own, so we abandoned our post.

Upon arrival the clock was still showing midnight, no staff was apparent, and the lock on the door thwarted both Solei and Mortia’s attempts to bypass it so we returned to the Eight Arms office to report in. It then transpired that Cilla considered the black goo to be extremely dangerous, and so she hired all 6 of us on the spot. She had us split up into three groups to notify apparent movers and shakers. Solei and I headed to the park to try and track down Crazy Eddie and his pet dragon Teawrecks; who apparently it is a bad idea to fight though I’m not quite sure why anyone sane would pick a fight with a dragon, much less a domesticated one. We were unable to locate the erstwhile Eddie, but we did encounter some exploding ninjas who were very impolite and threw poisoned knives at us. However our failure to locate Eddie was probably the least ignominious of our three parties.

Honch and Vyrez went to the slums to try and locate a retired sea captain named Gallagher. They also encountered an exploding ninja, but in the process of defeating it basically leveled the poor captain’s abode, as well as broke into a neighbors house to try and find additional information.

Hubert and Mortia went to Killian Shea’s estate, an elven noble. They ran afoul of, and destroyed his automated security and then it transpired that most (or possibly all) of his help aside from a single guard had disappeared. When they named dropped the Radiant Kings Killian was willing to host/relocate the Eight Arms to his estate as a sort of temporary HQ to deal with the process.

Dael’s Adventure Part 4

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After conferring with Cilla at the Eight Arms offices, we reconvened at our new defensive Headquarters, the estate of Killian Shae. There we discovered (from Killian) that all of the help had gone missing, and Cilla explained a little about why the black good had her and Killian so worried. Specifically there had been a war between Light, Shadow with the city of Basingstock right in the middle. Honestly it was a little confusing but as far as I understand it the Light faction was trying to create a light plain* since there was already a shadow plain, but somehow doing that would destroy the world because Basingstock already had a light plain? Basically people from Shadow were attacking, and some of them were bad, but the light people were doing a dumb thing and once the founders of the Eight Arms explained things the light people were very very sorry.

*Editors note: Dael is confused because he doesn’t understand Planer Cosmology.

We split up again to search the house, this time I paired up with Vyrez, hoping to ask him some questions. I guess I was a little bit indelicate, though it could also be that he just doesn’t like talking, but apparently he devoted himself to Pharasma and without irony adopted a stance of detestation of undead, even though apparently he was already undead at the time he did so. I guess I’ll have to be more tactful next time I get a chance to talk to him, as that was about all I could garner whilst we searched the servants quarters.

Honch and Hubert searched the kitchens and also found nothing. However Mortia and Solei figured out that anyone who went to bed disappeared. We were about to go search for Killian, as he’d proclaimed he was going to bed just before we split up, but before we could, we were ambushed! I’d never seen an actual goblin before, and hadn’t quite believed the description of how wider their mouths were, but seeing them in person was quite an experience!  Their mad cackling and the way they threw themselves into the fray without concern for self-preservation was kind of disheartening. Fortunately for us most of them were fairly tiny, and a bop or two on the head would knock them out. Their maniacal shaman took a bit of effort, and I later learned there was a berserker at the top of the stairs that kept most of the party busy while Vyrez and I dealt with the rest. We had just barely gotten the situation under control when fire started spreading; at first I thought the goblins had started it, as they are known for their pyromania, but once we had defeated them and escaped the building we discovered the truth.

Outside were 5 emo looking ne’er do wells. Dressed in black, dour expressions, too much makeup and mostly in monochrome, the leader who we would later find was imaginatively named Darkness (hold on they’ve got a theme, which I’ll get to in good time) was chuckling maliciously. They demanded to speak with the various leaders of the eight arms, finally settling on tasking us with finding a corpse. They did go on to explain that their group was called the Diviners, the other four were Desire, Despair, Doldrums and Dread and that they were Oneironaughts which i guess is Dream Travelers? And slightly explains why they all picked named which began with D. Further apparently we are now in a dream version of Basingstock, and if we go to sleep before we find this corpse for them we’ll be trapped in the dream forever?

After talking with Cilla it’s apparent that a licensed necromancer by the name of Sammael was the last one in possession of the corpse, which I guess makes sense, but unfortunately he’s no where near Basingstock, possibly on some other plain. So we’ve set up shop in the estate of the head of the Baker’s Guild, hoping that since she’s generally well liked, no one will be having evil dreams about her. And I guess the next order of business is to figure out how to escape?!

Dael’s Adventure Part 5

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With the location of our new headquarters picked out, Cilla began setting it up while Team Intern went to investigate the Temple  of Pharasma. I really should have paid more attention during religious studies, though to be fair the Order never really put too much effort into explaining the gods, but Master Thevarada always said worship was a personal affair, that it was tangential to the pursuit of appreciation. Regardless, if I had spent a bit more time I might have realized that since Pharasma is the goddess of death, it would be the obvious place to look for information about a corpse! Plus apparently the Necromancer Sammael was friends with the Medical Examiner who worked there. Boy, a city sure is complicated. Though I have read several logs of initiates who went to Hornshroud, it all seemed to make much more sense; I wonder how much of this weirdness is due to the whole waking dream situation? I kind of feel like not so much since none of the others seem particularly bothered by any of this.

The Temple, once we arrived and went inside seems awfully decrepit but we perservered, splitting into two groups this time, with Solei, Hubert and I heading to the administrative rooms to look for records, whilst the others headed down to the morgue in case the Medical Examiner was there. Spoilers, she totally was, and I heard later from Honch that she had a weird zone of music that was so loud it was physically painful, but was limited in area. I really wish I’d gone with that group as that sounds amazingly unusual, and much more interesting than looking through records, a thing I was basically no help with. My boredom did end up working out for us as I spotted the first zombie well before it got to us. I closed the door whilst we discussed what to do, then I opened the door and again and Solei made short work of the foul creature slicing off it’s arm and head almost before Hubert could even ask what was going on.

Shortly after the rest of the group returned with the Medical examiner, I think her name was Abbae; She looked weird: pale and washed out as if seen at dusk, yet that may have just been an illusion caused by the fact that everything else around her was not just thrown in stark relief, but appeared more real, and also more clean and upkept, almost as if she was providing window into the waking world. She seemed to have a better grasp of the filing system and agreed to help us look, which is when I again noticed more zombies. It was a good thing we’d regrouped, as there were a lot more of them, and I’ll admit this was one of my least favorite brawls I’ve ever been in. Half the time when I punched or kicked one of them, rather than sending them sprawling my fist or foot would end up going into them and come out covered in rotting bits.

We had almost finished off the putrescent corpses when there was a great crash and a huge skeleton, that looked like it was an agglomeration of man and bison smashed through the wall into the main admin chamber. It was then that I had what might have been a tremendously foolhardy idea, but I went over to try and get a closer look, as I’d never seen anything like it before. It was far too big to fit through the door so I might have taunted it a bit, as at that time I hadn’t realized it had already smashed through one wall. When it rushed forwards to try and gore me I dodged to the side, thinking it would smack the wall and  the rest of the interns would come to my aide, but things didn’t play out that way at all… for starters several of the zombies had some sort of paralytic effect, stunning both Honch and Vyrez making it so they could barely walk meanwhile the Skeletal Minotaur’s charge missed me but destroyed the wall. Vyrez called out some sort of challenge to the beast, which it seemed inclined to accept, except that it couldn’t figure out how to get around me. At this point it occurred to me to try the Fist of Cracking Boulders technique which is well known to break ribs in normal people so I rarely have used it outside of practice, but this thing was basically all ribs! And low it was effective, every punch I threw cracked and shattered ribs, and emboldened by efforts Vyrez and Honch joined battle drawing it’s attention off of me. There was also some mystical light of some kind which I assumed was manifested at the behest of Mortia, as I’d seen her create a similar attack against the Ebonbiter thugs.

Anyways, we were able to defeat the undead hordes, and it wasn’t too long afterwards that Abbae found the information we needed. Or rather, that what we sought was basically unattainable as Sammael had pretty much split the corpse up into pieces and sold them to a variety of customers across the land. After a bit of discussion, and some more investigation by the more bureaucratically inclined a new plan was hatched, go to the tenements district (where there might be a living night hag) and (this is the part I’m not super clear on, I was kind of busy cleaning the gore off of myself) either killing it and presenting it to the diviners, or convincing it to help us break the spell on the city and have us all wake up.

Dael’s Adventure Part 6

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As we made our way to the tenement district Hubert explained a bit about Night Hags to us. Apparently they are super powerful dream creatures that consume the life force of people through a straw. Enroute we got into a bit of a discussion about whether to take the main streets or a more direct route through smaller streets. As we traveled through the apartment district several of the Basingstock natives commented that the area seemed shadier than usual, with a certain menace to it not normally found. This grew even worse once we reached the tenements. There was a river that looked to be full of crocodiles or worse, but it didn’t take too long to figure out that we the likely place for a Night Hag would be under the district in sewers or catacombs.

There weren’t any big signs saying “Sewer Entrance Here” so I suggest the possibility of smuggling tunnels leading out from the basement of a bar. Ultimately this was mainly an excuse so that Solei and I could liberate some top shelf whiskey, and whilst we were doing so Vyrez found us our secret entrance into the sewers. Once down there I was the first to hear it, but it wasn’t long before others did as well, an ominous, nay creepy, echoing laughter, as if from a child coming first from one tunnel, then another. Moments later we were ambushed by more of the exploding ninjas. I spent much of the battle flailing ineffectually, mostly because I never did pay much attention to the blind fighting lessons and I was closing my eyes each time I threw a punch to try and avoid getting blinded again.  Though on the bright side, my blind drunk defensive technique was actually pretty effective at avoiding their blows in return.

Once we had defeated them, a bit more wandering in the sewers eventually led us to a weird portal, and we found the Night Hag. Apparently she was limited to sucking up a single soul per night, so was tired and sullen. We explained the situation to her, and she suggested that probably the Diviners were anchoring the city in the dreaming, and if we could defeat them we could restore the regular cycle of day and night. She agreed to help us locate where they were likely holed up, I think largely to get us to shut up. After climbing to the top of a temple she suggested our likeliest targets were the Clock Tower (which we kind of already knew) the Park, the Red Light District, the Lord’s Keep and the Garrison.

We decided to attempt the Garrison District first, Hubert was brash and used acid to burn a hole in the iron fence, and when we were confronted by a guard, Honch used military discipline to tell of the guard. Once inside we decided to attempt to disguise ourselves as soldiers while we searched for the Oneironaught responsible.

Dael’s Adventure Part 7

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And yet again Honch’s military training is counting well for us. Entering the barracks, he conducted a surprise inspection, keeping the two guards busy while Solei and I snuck into the laundry room and liberated some uniforms. Mostly they fit, though since Solei was the one to smuggle everything out her uniform was hilariously voluminous after departed and distributed the uniforms to the rest of the party. I feel like we all looked quite fetching in military uniform.

Next we arrived at the armory, but it turns our out clever disguises were for not, for some massive mastiff hounds were guarding the entrance. Honch attempted to bribe them with food, but apparently they were too well trained, and so Vyrez bopped one on the head. With little other option we quickly entered a scrum with the devilish dogs who upon expiration discorporated in fantastic and disquieting manners. The first turning into a goo and then growing into animated grass. Whilst we were fighting Solei used some mystical trickery to appear inside the gate but failed to pick the lock, following which Hubert tossed acid on it and Solei used a cannon to ram the weakened door open. Once we had finished the second dog it exanded and the shrank, fluttering around and making a shrieking farting noise like a pierced balloon. Hubert and Mortia raided the armory whilst Honch gathered up the requisite materiel to operate the cannon.

Once we headed into the prison proper looking for the Diviner Honch figured out that the feeling of dread was actively trying to keep us away. The less we wanted to go a direction, the more likely it was the right way and with his direction it wasn’t long before we found ourselves in an amphitheater like room designed as a fighting pit. Here stood Despair as well as three of her minions.

They used all manner of magical and psychological tricks to make us despondent and unwilling to fight, but we managed to hold it together, encouraging each other and fighting off their malicious malaise long enough to best them in combat. The destruction of the Diviner resulted in weirdly pulsing, expanding and contracting shadow ball that finally expanded to encompass the entire arena faster than any of us could react. However it’s wake left a temporary area of invigorating tranquility, allowing us a chance to rest and recuperate.

 

Dael’s Adventure Part 8

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While we recovered there was a short discussion of which of the remaining options to investigate, and while a few of us thought it might be worthwhile to check in with Cilla, the majority felt that pressing forward and heading straight to the park was the best option. We made it there without incident, well aside from the fact that the beautiful park had been transformed, likely by the nightmares of the city residents, into a calamity of metal, spikes and fire. Rusty steel spires pierced the the sky, which was obscured by exhaust from the multitude of oily fires gushing blood red smoke which provided an eerie flickering light.

Vyrez and Honch climbed up one of the towers to scout ahead and then they quickly climbed back down, warning us nearly too late of the return of the Manticore. This time he brought a giant animated shrubbery, apparently the official name of which was the TREE MAN FIGHTER OF THE GROUND MAN. Mortia launched a warning shot into it before it could surprise us, but it still managed to get the drop on Solei, engulfing her and pulling her inside it’s writhing mass. Whilst trying to knock it senseless, or pull her out she managed to stab me. I’m sure it was an accident though and eventually Honch managed to pull her out and finish it off with his hammer. All the while Hubert was running around providing healing droughts and Mortia and Vyrez were shooting at both monsters. Once the fighting tree was still I tried to entice the Manticore to come fight again so I could bop it on the head but instead it fled.

Solei lead us deeper into the nightmare park, though not where she intended we found ourselves in a vast, towering building full of machinery, metal walkways, and a confusing profusion of interconnected devices beyond my ken. Hubert (I think it was Hubert, I may have been a bit distracted) told me I was standing in an “elevator shaft” and once I moved out they called down a terrifyingly rickety platform which then took us up. And up. And up. After several minutes of ascending, hundreds of feet up in the tower, shadowy hands sprang from the floor, though as only Mortia was wearing a dress she was the only one caught by them. Three shadows took form, and Vyrez made short work of them with a little help from the rest of us, but before they were finished they managed to touch bare skin on both Hubert and Mortia, sapping their vitality and leaving them particularly weakened.  Thus enervated they decided to stay at the elevator to see if Hubert could concoct some sort of remedy while the other four of us proceeded onwards.

A bit more search and Honch again found a room he didn’t want to go into, which is of course were we needed to go. Inside the Diviner Dredd, most desirous of making us live up to his namesake tried to convince us that he was only the second scariest thing in the tower, we were all doomed, everything was terrible, and each time we defeated one of them the remaining ones would become even more powerful. Yet he himself dreaded facing us and fled, warning us that the true threat was menacing our erstwhile companions.

We returned to the lift only to find Mortia and Hubert absent, and as we set out to search for them we heard an arrhythmic thumping that sounded different from the machines within the structure. Seeking the source was for not until a terrifying metal monstrosity emerged from a corridor behind us. Apparently this was the Dinosaur, or some nightmare dream version of Teawrecks at least. The beast everyone keeps telling me we aren’t supposed to fight. So we’ll have to devise some other way to best it… maybe we can lure it off a cliff or something? A weak catwalk? We’ll have to think fast!

Dael’s Adventure Part 9

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Fortunately for us  Teawrecks wasn’t very observant and we were all able to sneak past it. We quickly decided we’d try and lure it into the elevator shaft and so I trailed it to give warning if it  came back whilst the other three devised a cunning plan involving steel cable and industrial strength mayonnaise. Fortunately the mechanical beast made it’s way back just after they’d completed the trap. Solei hanging from a rope in the elevator shaft got it’s attention and pulled herself up just in time, the dinosaur slipped on the mayo-slick Honch had prepared and then tripped over the steel cable tripwire Vyrez     had strung in front of the the elevator shaft. Or it would have worked, except Vyrez had tied one end of the wire to a barrel, and the other to the support that Solei was hanging from. The monster did end up going down the shaft but was able to launch itself across and land 3 floors down. Unfortunately it also drug the support that Vyrez and Solei were hanging from after it, and if Honch and I hadn’t been very quick to rescue them they’d have gone down the shaft after the terror.

Apparently Mayo is flammable! Who knew? Well, Honch is a cook, so I guess he did, which would explain why he lit a couple of torches and tossed them down onto the now Mayonated monstrosity, setting it aflame. Then the three of them started hurling the spikes they’d prepared as a fallback defense down at the Teawrecks. With the terror looking a little worse for wear the three of them decided to descend in the elevator with the remaining spikes to try and finish it off. Turns out it was doing better than expected and had stopped, dropped and rolled, putting the condimental fire out. They got past it, but it then leapt on top of the elevator car. I tossed the remaining Mayo and just to be sure the remains of my liberated jar of whisky on top, hoping to reignite the flames of it’s demise. Solei and Vyrez enacted some complicated plan which involved rubble and flying, the exact details of which I’m still a little unclear on, while Honch rode the elevator back up. Honch used a spike to rub sparks off the elevator cable and reset the undying thing back on fire and finally we were reunited a few floors above the beast. Solei was suggesting going back down, but I could see the elevator cables didn’t look to sturdy so I lowered the elevator back down empty and sure enough it was stupid enough to climb in, as the elevator struggled to come back up to us Honch hammered the cable while Solei cast some sort of mystical power at it and moments before Teawrecks returned to our floor to wreck us the cable snapped sending it plummeting dozens of stories to it’s destruction.

We made our way to the bottom, and were pleased to find a distinct lack of the remains of Mortia and Hubert in the rubble. However we found a magic gem, which nearly killed Vyrez, and a note that said: “They haven’t been eaten, it’s worse than that. -Love Dredd”.

Upon exiting the tower and heading to the next spire we eventually found Dredd and he offered us a terrible choice, one of us would have to trade our lives for that of our captured companions. Solei quickly accepted the martyrdom, but both of our missing companions were returned within a hairs breadth of death.

Dael’s Adventure Part 10

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We barely had a chance to exchange greetings with Mortia and Hubert before Dredd and his 2 cohorts joined battle. Well, that’s not exactly true. We were in a large room, 6 sided, but not hexagonal, rather more like a square with two corners cut out. In a big arc around the back (and sides) where the “cut outs” were was a large raised wooden and metal platform without railing or adornment. A tight spiral staircase surmounted each end of this platform so there was a sort of central area surrounded by this raised stage. If you’ve ever been in a church you might be forgiven for thinking there were stained glass windows, except these were all done in blacks and reds, and even the reds might be better described as black. I didn’t really get a chance to examine them until after the fight, which is probably for the best. I won’t describe the actual content of the pictures, suffice to say the scenes they depicted were terrifying and had I known their contents before hand I’d been much more hesitant to engage Dredd and his malefic minions.

As I said Dredd finished his monologue about how scary he was, which lacked a certain weight seeing as he’d claimed Teawrecks was more terrifying and we’d already bested the metal beast. However when Solei accepted his baleful deal to trade her presences for our previous companions, with a logic that only seems to work in dreams, she disappeared and they returned, and Mortia was evidently quite upset for before anyone could react she was calling down magic upon them. Honch moved up to attacked the heavily armored one on the left while Hubert stepped forward and tossed acid at Dredd. Vyrez judged the distance to far to reach any of them so drew a pistol and began firing upon Dredd. It took me but a second to get my bearings, and I vaulted up the stairs on the right, focusing my Ki and rolling forward to deliver 17 Fist That Silence the Tiger just as the Hexer began her incantation. After only 4 blows she reeled back and collapsed. Dredd then cast some foul magic which made everyone so afraid of failure that failing to connect was physically painful. Hubert later told me that this was called Kakorraphiophobia, but I suspect he’s making it up; that can’t be a real word. This ended up working against them as we were as able to dodge as they. Honch meanwhile had stuck to his oeuvre and knocked the other minion off the platform and then come down on top of him like a ton of bricks (or an angry half-ork, which might be worse.) For a brief period I was pretty sure that Dredd was not a person at all, but rather a suit of armor piloted by spiders. Fortunately I was unable to communicate this to the rest of the part because Mortia had put a zone of silence on us, and as it turns out this was some sort of dreadful illusion put in my head by Dredd. However with the full focus of the party on him Dredd was not able to stand up to our combined might.

Unfortunately Solei was not returned to us upon Dredd’s demise, so after a brief rest we continued on, heading to the last major landmark in the area, the Silo. We found it without too much trouble, and climbed it where we were set upon by some more ghosts and Shadow folk. We managed to dispatch them, but during the fight Honch got into a tug of war with one of the ghosts over one of Hubert’s potions and together they vanished 80 feet or more below to whatever was at the bottom of the Silo.