The Demon's weregild: chapter 1

[agentaaa]

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T-H-E D-E-M-O-N-S W-E-R-E-G-I-L-D



Chapter one:
The Jewel thief

Steve Frankenson and Angus Magec walk to the doors of the bright city of Ashta, grateful for the rest from their wandering, likely. As they come near the city, the gigantic metal gates of the walled fortress in front of them open, without any guards nearby. The gate didn't appear to be in possession of an automatic unlocking system, and whatever suspicion you might have had of it's condition is soon cut short as the door falls off it's hinges, and the smell of blood rushes into your nostrils.
Walking into the city, all you find is dead guards, townsfolk, animals, killed in spectacular amounts of butchery. What could do all this damage? The guards seem well armed and armored, and this town had resisted attacks from orcs, wizards, trolls, ogres, and even dragons in the past. there seemed not to be a threat the city couldn't handle, and even the drow had concluded it impossible to take the town after many attempts. Surely an army had come, and destroyed this city....
"Just give the ruby to me, you stupid woman, before I get angry." A man's voice could be heard shouting.
"You killed them, you bastard! They were the first to accept me! I'll kill you!" A woman's voice could be heard, as you round the corner. "Die, you heartless-" The woman, a dark haired beauty in a red dress, created a red fireball in her outstretched hands...
only for it to be dissipated with a snap of the man in front of her's fingers. The man had a long, brown beard, and wore violet robes filled with arcane energy. The staff he carried was long and black, the top appearing to be carved in the shape of a demon, but like none any mortal had ever seen. "hehehehahaha! Oh, you little fool! Your power truly is nothing next to mine.
as you hear the man say this, however, you hear a sickening crunching sound. Looking all around you, you see the remains of the dead piled around you move through the air, creating a barrier around you, leaving only one path open - right to the mage - for mage the man must be - and the woman.
"Right on time, Angus Magec, Steve Frankenson." The man remarks, regarding them with a smirk. "I can't use my own magic to steal this ruby, so I might as well take it from your corpses. I don't doubt you'll attempt to fight, of course - heroes always do, particularly when a little bit of power has managed to inflate their little heads - but, well, I'm prepared for you, and you must surely realize, by now.
I am the creature that destroyed this town."
Raising his staff, he readies himself for battle. Perhaps you should do the same.

[Angusm3]

"Okay, my biggest question right now is, while you two are so powerful, why did you" he points at the mage "lose that jewel that contained all the power, you could have just foreseen my coming and stopped me from entering the area with wards, or diverted my course or even thrown heavy magic at me to disable me." he then points at the rogue "I'm not sure why you want us to go along with you, but If I were you I'd just team up with that mage and be an exceptionally more skilled mage/rogue combo and take down the bad guy faster than me and Fred ever could."

[agentaaa]

"well, for starters, in exchange for my power, I only can do fire magic, with the exception of a few cantrips." Alexis said "And that includes divination. I only had common sense to judge with - and common sense dictates that it's impossible for a single mage to destroy an entire city by himself." As she says this, she seems to sober. "But in any case, why would I team up with an idiot with the foul scent of alcohol on his breath, who-" Alexis' eyes light up, and a moment later Luke can be seen blowing on his hand, with burnt fingers. "Hands off the [censored], idiot."
"Hoooo! Women!" Luke responds, seeming to slightly tear up. "Anyways, how about it? If you come with, I promise I'll teach you a few skills of the trade in exchange.(Paragon path upgrade). And that magey guy, well, if he comes along, I'll give him that old dark wizard's book, free of charge(Paragon path upgrade).
Steve can tell Alexis is not telling the full story, and that there may be more limitations on her magic she isn't speaking of.

[Angusm3]

Angus nods gently, "Well that seems fair. I guess our help is better than no-" Angus stops midsentence and then recounts "Oh dammit the emerald, right sorry about that, maybe you would be better off without me, I'll just go with this shifty rogue that smells of some kind of liquor that even with my most powerful sensing magics I cannot identify."

[Nut_Column]

"So, it's decided then!" Steve announces and starts hopping off "*He starts singing* We're off to kill the dragon, the horrible dragon of... *stops for a second* Where are we anyway?"

[agentaaa]

(you identify it with a passive perception check, he's drank fourteen bottles of scotch to your perception.)
"Tch. Fine! See if I care!" The woman says, stalking off.
Steve, with his keen perception, notices that both Alexis' hair and skin is several shades paler. She appears to be moving with more care to her own movements.
"Great to have you onboard, friends." Luke says "let's get moving, shall we? No time like the present!"
"Maybe let us gather our weapons first, king [censored]." One of the dwarfs say.
"Alright, alright, but you're talkin' yourselves into a looower paycheck." Luke says, wagging his finger on them.
"Little bastard..."
"Alright, while they're getting ready, let me teach you something in the next couple hours."
Steve gets paragon path features from the problem alcoholic.

[Nut_Column]

Steve spends an hour learning his skills, and he gets most of them almost right away, and he feels with a little more practice, he will get the last one as well.

"Well, that's enough of that, I think your dwarven friends are chomping at the bit to get going, if you know what I mean. Eh?"

[agentaaa]

"oh, yes, yes, them." Luke says, waving his hands at them. "I'll go grab the minions and we'll get going. Nothing like a treasure hunt to test your new skills, eh?" Luke says, getting ready. "Keep it up, you might almost equal my skill one day."
"Oi, mage guy, you coming?" Luke says to Angus. "just stay in the back and shoot stuff when it comes up - simple enough, right?

[Angusm3]

"Bah, I can't do much else until I get these swords appraised" he motions toward his back, two sword hilts are seen jutting up "all I've got for close combat until then is this dwarven mithril longsword. Say... didn't you mention something about a tome of magic scripts?"

[Nut_Column]

Steve grunts in annoyance. "Well, if you didn't use all your High Level Spells on those trolls, then you might have some spells left over." Steve turns to the others. "I think my mage is out of commission for the time being, unless someone can tell him about his swords there."

[agentaaa]

"yes... something about spell storm theory or something, I don't know." Luke says. "Magic was never really my thing, though magic items were. The only magic I want is in bed. With a woman. N... not like I haven't plenty of times before, though." Luke says, laughing nervously."in any case, even though I don't like magic, I learned appraising long ago. Regular appraisers are such price gougers. 1 silver an appraisal? Please." He says, holding out his hands. "here, let me see."
(you realize you do 10 base undodgable damage with MM now right?

[Nut_Column]

(Yeah, Do you?)

[Angusm3]

Angus hands over the sword with 1 gem and the sword with 2 gems. "keep careful with these, I can't even remember where I got them."

(Yes I realize I have all my encounter powers back, but I was trying to get back my dailies, like-...oh my god magic missile is at will)

[agentaaa]

(Yes. you have TWO at-wills. which is why, given your int bonus, I was wondering why you bothered with swords.)

[Angusm3]

Angus continues standing around, waiting for a response from the questionably intoxicated rogue.

[agentaaa]

hmmm... One of these swords is quite well created. I believe it's not magic, but that gem in it, I've never seen before. seemed to almost suck up my energy when I touched it. Perhaps it absorbs magic?(Longsword Novae. Can absorb and redirect 1 spell/encounter.)
This other weapon, though... it smells of fire, and yet is chillingly cold to the touch. It's obvious that it's got some layered enchantments(Sword of fire and ice. Fires frostburn 1/day. 2d8 damage.)

[Angusm3]

"Okay, thanks that's brilliant! And this one?" He hands over the sword with the aura.

[agentaaa]

"Hmmm... seems like a life stealer. You hit somebody with this, and the hit he gave you just... disappears." Luke says, making a "puff" effect with his mouth. (lifestealing blade. heals 1d4 HP every hit.)

[Nut_Column]

"Right, now if we're all done here, I think we'd best be moving now." Steve muses.

[Angusm3]

"Yes, let's go" then Angus walks forward while wielding his newest sword and putting the rest onto his back.

[agentaaa]

"Alright then, let's get going(travelling for 8 hours). Walking through the jungle, you walk for roughly 6 hours, before hitting an oddly clear portion.
"Well, isn't this a stroke of luck. A nice clearing. What say we take a nap gu-" Luke is cut off by the sound of tremendous movement. Litterally eating through the trees to clear a path, a monstrous Lizard appears in front of you. Possessing a large horn on it's head, it seems to simply be a giant version of an ordinary lizard, but is the size of a tyrannosaurus. hunching down, it quickly pounces at your party with a ferocious roar.

[Angusm3]

Angus curses loudly "I should have saved dimension door!" while dodging away from the creature to the side while casting frostburn and spectral ram.

[Nut_Column]

Steve Great Leaps between the legs of the Lizard, (Assuming it stands on two feet) or over it's head (if it's on all four) and attacks it from behind, avoiding the tail, using Hounding Strike with Steve. In the event Steve can't Great Leap, he simply dodges and does none of those things. He runs into the forest and camouflages.

[agentaaa]

(four. Imagine it like a gigantic iguana with a big horn on it's head.)
"Crike-errr, I mean, wow, a rhinoceros lizard!" Luke notes, barely getting his daggers out before the lizard pounced into him. landing firmly on him, the lizard pins him to the ground before focusing on Steve and Angus(Honestly, he was supposed to be helping in this fight, but rolled a 1)
Angus reacts quickly, jumping to the side and dodging the creatures pounce, as Steve does likewise. An arcane glow emerged from his eyes as what seemed to be fire and ice at the same time, though an onlooker could never tell what it was, struck the lizard, causing an area underneath it to be burning, and frozen, at the same time. (Hit. 22 damage).
Angus makes some motions with his hand, and some invisible force smashed into the lizard from different directions. The force attempted to move the lizard, but to no avail, as it held itself on the ground(One of it's feats is "too big to move" - well, It's only feat. but 27 damage. You don't push it though.)
Steve, meanwhile, runs as fast as his little tiny legs can carry him, seemingly vanishing as he enters the foliage.(camoflaged.) He might also have wet his pants, but that's purely conjecture.
"Errrr... no worries, I have this under contrOOF!!!" Luke says, as the lizard steps down. "No problem, just a broken spine - those grow back though, right?"

[Nut_Column]

Using Shadowstride, Steve sneaks up behind the lizard and climbs up it's tail, grabbing on to a nearby spike whenever it shakes. Once he reaches the Magic Seal on it's head he... Wait... This isn't Shadow of the Colossus. Still, Steve stabs directly in it's head with Steve and Feinting Fury. (Dex vs. Will)
If by some miracle, Steve doesn't kill it, or he falls off, then Steve Stabs it with Ravager and Piercing strike, and runs away into the forest and uses Camouflage again.

[Angusm3]

Angus casts thunderlance at the creatures head, attempting to move it off of Luke, while he keeps feather fall on his fingertips, ready to be cast on Steve.

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