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.

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The creature jumps, startled by the thunder, at which point Luke says "Great, I can escape!" Luke crawls away, but, unfortunately, his foot's still caught. "Oh, bugger..." Luke swears, now still unable to move. a burn mark appeared on the lizard's head, but it was not yet dead. Meanwhile, Steve moved on top of the lizard, nearly making it to it's head, but the creature bucked, and threw him off. as soon as Steve began falling, a white flash erupted from Angus' fingertips, and he seemed to be falling slow as a feather. Steve took the opportunity this created to strike the creature in between one of it's scales with ravager, (Angus did 19 damage with thunderlance, and startled the creature, while Steve did 32 damage with ravager and piercing strike. Thanks to feather fall, no buck damage was incurred. Rhinoceros Lizard is bloodied.)
The Rhinoceros lizard focuses on Angus, as Steve disappears into the trees and out of sight. it Rolls it's eyes as it opens its mouth, firing greenish brown goo at you, filled with what seem to be bits of wood and leaves. Angus is able to withstand the onslaught, as the lizard's attack lacked the strength to get through Angus' armor. What a sap. Angus is unhurt, though he IS now stickygross.

[Angusm3]

Angus uses ghost sound to put the sound of fingernails scraping across a chalkboard inside the head of the monster, then for added confusion he uses prestidigitation to create a burst of light in front of it's eyes. "Get out of there Luke! And help him Steve!!!"

[Nut_Column]

Steve figures that the best way to help him would be to use Slaying Strike with Steve on the creature (Doing 5[W] now that it's bloodied and crits on 17-20)

In the event that the Rhino Lizard is not... a bloody pile of mush, Steve begins crying profusely and drags Luke out of the way, screaming "KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT! AHHHHHH!"

Due to the unlikelihood of that happening, however, Steve will probably say "Well, that was fun. Let's avoid clearings for a while yes?" While looting the body/remains/whatever-is-left-after-Steve-does-5[W]-and-maybe-a-crit.

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The Lizard is quite affected by both problems, and panics, trampling in Angus' direction. Running in Angus' direction, only through a quick twist on Angus' part is he not squished. disappearing into the trees, The lizard is quickly moves out of sight, moving side to side, though you can still hear the trees being smashed in the distance.
"Well, good work. You were a big help here guys. I, uh, I had him right where I wanted him, though, make no mistake." Luke Echerms says, holstering his dagger. "

[Nut_Column]

"Yes, we would be well and truly lost without you, oh great leader. *ahem* Now may we press on? I'd prefer to get out of here before any more show up. Not that you couldn't show them a thing or two eh?" Steve nudges Luke.
"Oh hey, and next time I'll be sure to stand back and not get in your way, so as to maximize your achievement." Steve says, winking and grinning.

[Angusm3]

Angus recovers himself, "Well I guess it's time to move on and not get any... wait, that was almost like that spell the evil mage thing we had in our group had a while back. The one that kept stealing all of our fighters organs. Mental note to self: light + ghost sound = voices of the damned"

[Nut_Column]

"I don't know who you're talking about, but I am very angry at you if you scared away the lootbag. Can you imagine how much gold that thing must have been carrying?"

Steve sulks off...

[Angusm3]

"it was a giant lizard... Where did it get all this hypothetical loot from?

[agentaaa]

Luke interjects. "Errr, actually, the horn of the rhinoceros lizard is pure ivory. worth ten thousand gold on the black market currently."

[Nut_Column]

"You see? Think of the sick lewts sometimes man... Honestly..."

[Angusm3]

"Well why don't you go track it down and kill it, I'll be walking this way" *points* "trying to save the planet from certain annihilation"

[Nut_Column]

"I would, but then you'd have to kill things by yourself, and you'd be lonely. I wouldn't do that to you. I need you as a... Well, not a meat shield... And you're not much of a damage soak... Traveling Cohort?"

"However, I am going to have to earn that 10,000 Gold I missed. One way or another..." Steve mumbles Ominously.

[agentaaa]

"Alright, we're nearly there. Let's camp." Luke says, the dwarves putting up tents for the night. Opportunity for rest is right now.

[Nut_Column]

Steve, still upset, enters his Carpet house and, after checking for spiders, goes to sleep.

[agentaaa]

You find one spider. you squeesh it.

[Angusm3]

Angus floats above the ground on his carpet, casts a silence ritual, puts an arcane lock on his tent from the inside, and checks if anything else made it into his tent that could try to poison him, which he stomps on unless it's spiky, then he slices with his sword. Then after all that is done, he falls asleep. Dreaming about his dailies and wondering how much experience he had gotten from the days exploits.

[agentaaa]

(7200 exp)
Both Angus and steve wake up 8 hours into the night(yeah, both of you got daily's back) To rustling sounds outside. you hear a fiendish, savage laugh that chills both of you to the core with it's familiarity.
Steve looks up to see an axe being thrown at his head by a surprisingly familiar figure. "Ehehehehehe..." The troll laughs "Ya didn' know Trolls could regenerate limbs, didja? We'll find out if you's do the same, soon, ehehehhe"

[Angusm3]

"DAMMIT I KNEW IT!!!" screeches Angus while quickly lighting fires all around the trolls with prestidigitation and pushing the ghost sound of hell into their heads.

[Nut_Column]

Steve, Mildly surprised that the troll is still alive after losing both hands, feet and eyes, relishes the chance to correct that. "Wait... So you're saying I could torture you daily and you'd just regenerate your lost limbs? IT'S JUST LIKE CHRISTMAS!" Steve shouts before laughing maniacally and attempting to catch the axe heading at his head. (I use some charges from my boots if necessary.)

[Angusm3]

"Oh I'll help ye Steve. They won't make it out of this with too many limbs!" he shouts while using spectral ram to force the one that was talking into the ground and casting magic missile as to hit it from above.

[agentaaa]

You manage to catch the axe, but it scrapes your hands(Take a single point of damage) "We'll see, mon, we'll see." The troll says, throwing a brown pouch inside the house before jumping away. Shortly after you detect an odd smell in the air.
Angus attmepts to use cantrips, only for the magic to be sucked away into a curious black orb one of the trolls is holding. "Give it up mon. Your magic b' useless against us, and we're too many to kill with swords." The trolls say, milling nearby, as they ready a spear.
A knife flies through the air, shattering the orb and hitting a troll behind it in the head, killing it instantly "Well, how about some knives then." Luke says, still invisible to the naked eye. "I have plenty of those."
(only counting one of Angus' turns, both not to waste magic of his on a plot point, because you can't frickin take turns, and because you can't see, and I presume not hear, Nutty at the moment through a combo of distance and a group of trolls outside your door demanding your attention)

[Nut_Column]

"Hah! Good one!" Shouts Steve as he slices one of the trolls with Steve, and another with Ravager using Rogue's Luck. "Let's see.. Hrmm... What's a good pun..." Steve ponders without stopping.

[Angusm3]

Angus holsters the staff to his back and draws the sword of fire and ice in the same hand, now holding the lifestealing blade and the sword of fire and ice. "And now for something, completely different trolls. It's time to put that dual sword fighting training to use!" he shouts while slicing and stabbing at the one that was mocking them so easily while now driving the sound of hell into the heads of the still living trolls.

[agentaaa]

(Since you don't know anything about what hell actually sounds like, you just go with the nearest thing you can think of - nails on a chalkboard. -1 to all trolls AC you hit with that, which is basically every troll other than the one bothering Nutty)
"Ahhhh! Da [censored], mon!" The trolls scream as the noise goes into their heads. both of Angus's strike's swing true, as he buries first one, and then the other sword into a nearby troll's chest. the first blade nearly cuts through the troll's chest with a wide blash, while the other appears to stab through the bone of the troll's spine with a loud crack, and it is dead before it hits the ground.(Dead troll + scared other trolls) The trolls throw their trademark throwing axes at Angus, who dodges some, while others stick in his armor, entirely useless. Angus finally takes a strike from one axe, to the chest, but even that meant little to this being, now more magical than physical creature.(8 damage from one of the trolls. All the others couldn't beat your AC.)
Steve attempts to strike his old opponent with his dagger, only for him to dodge. At this point, Steve notices the fact the troll now has long tusks, and a red, painted face. "I ain't the same as before, mon. Let me show ya..." The troll says, before taking a surprise blow to his side from a deft strike of ravager... the troll takes the blow in, but it begins to heal almost as soon as the sword leaves the wound. "I'll show you when I eat you' fingers in front of you, one by one!" The troll says, stabbing at Steve with an ornate spear, withdrawing it as Steve narrowly dodges to the side of it's strike. The troll, resting the spear on his shoulder, gives a toothy grin.(You hit him for 27, he has regen one)

[Nut_Column]

"Oh eating your fingers, Good Idea!" Says Steve. He moves so that he is adjacent to the wall before using Walking Wounded with Ravager on him, and Setup Strike on another troll with Steve.

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