Magic Shop Owners Session 5

Session Notes

Calendar Date: 6-3-569

The party decided it was vital that they stop Acman and the army he was creating. Initially, the party visited the church of Felheim in Stagbrook, where they found two priests who would bless their gear and provide holy water. They were called Philistine and Badger. The group paid to get many of their weapons blessed and filled a barrel that they got from Rodger's shop with holy water. They also bought a mace, marbles, and two bellows from the shop after some haggling. After this, needing to wait for the blessings to be completed, they went to the tavern where some gambling was done with the miners, and they also met Sally Hope, Barnaby the lawyer's wife, whom Sphonyx bought a book from.

When some time had passed, they gathered their equipment and made their way to the tower. Sphonyx attempted to seduce the guards into letting them in, which failed rather quickly. But Stinkcat mimicked the voices of the guards on the wall to prevent them from sending the skeletons out. Sphonyx then used her hypnotism spell to persuade the guards to give them their robes, tell them all about Acman's lair and go and bathe in the pond of foresight. This meant three of the five now had cultist outfits. Entering the wooden walls around the tower, they found another guard whom they quickly took out to get another set of robes. Geog was the only one left without any robes, so he carried the holy water barrel and acted as if he were a slave.

With these disguises, they walk straight past the skeleton army and to the main tower. Using the secret pass code, they were able to have the drawbridge over the moat of boiling blood lowered and enter the tower. On the ground floor, they encountered a demon who wanted to know their business. They explained that they were bringing virgin blood to help Acman's transformation and wanted to go straight to him, but the demon was not convinced, so he told them to take the barrel to the basement, where the blood was usually kept, while he checked. Inside the basement, they set up a trap. They put a bucket of holy water on top of the door at the top of the stairs and threw blessed marbles all over the stairs.

When the demon returned, he was shocked by the water, which caused him to begin to melt. Then he slipped on the marbles, which became embedded in his skin as he slid down the stairs. When he reached the bottom, they pummelled the demon and drenched it in holy water using the bellows until it melted into a puddle of demon sludge, which Sphonyx took a cup of. With the demon dead, they made their way up the tower, bringing the barrel of holy water with them. On the ground floor, they found undead summoning circles, which they sprinkled some holy water on.

On the first floor were four zombies guarding a pile of magic items and treasure. On the other side of the room were discarded magical items, broken with their essence drained. If anyone went too close to the treasure, the zombies would stop patrolling and turn to stop the person who got too close. Everyone other than Breadwig picked a zombie whom they got behind, and then Breadwig moved close to the treasure, so they turned to approach him. As the zombies turned, everyone got a surprise attack on their zombie. Geog practically took out his with one blow, cutting its legs off and leaving it crawling. Maia got a good blow to the head on hers with her mace. Stinkcat removed an arm from theirs, and Sphonyx got to good stabs in on hers, which Breadwig quickly finished off with a thrown dagger. Maia then took a serious blow from her zombie, and so did Stinkcat. Geog was able to avoid the Zombie on the floor, which he crushed with his boot. The other Zombies were then quickly dispatched.

Everyone collected magic items from the treasure pile. Notably Sphonyx picked up a belt with a button on that when pressed when the belt was worn made her invisible for a time. Geog found some very strong armour, but after he put it on, he could not remove it, and he could feel something else moving around inside. There were also some healing scrolls which the party used to heal up. After this, they moved on to the top floor, where Acman's lair was. Geog booted down the door and they all rushed in.

Inside were four cultists and a large tube in which Acman was suspended, but he looked more zombie-like now. Some form of energy was being pumped into his tube. When the cultists saw them approach, they released Acman, who fell out of his suspension, flesh dripping from his bones. Then he rose up, floating and aflame and chanted "Before you were in your world safe, now you are in mine, doomed." The doors slammed shut, the sky turned red, and lightning struck. Stinkcat tried to open the door, but it was sealed shut. They had little option but to fight.

Sphonyx activated her invisibility belt and tried to attack Acman with her wooden staff, which burned away as it got close to Acman. Everyone else also targeted Acman to begin with, but their attacks seemed to be ineffective. The cultists then began attacking the party. Geog had a tentacle shot at him, which began tightening its grip around him, and Stinkcat was blinded by another. Then Acman hit Geog with a powerful boned claw, which his new armour protected against effectively. The party rallied back, attacking the cultists. Breadwig quickly disintegrated the cultist who had blinded Stinkcat, restoring their sight, and the Sphonyx used her daggers to kill the cultist who had wrapped Geog in tentacles, causing them to fall to the ground. The others were dispatched by the now free Stinkcat, Geog and Maia.

With only Acman remaining, the tables looked to have turned. Stinkcat removed a foot with their bolas, and Maia hit Acman's Jaw while Geog tanked many attacks. Then Acman began raising the dead cultists as zombies. After some more attempts to attack Acman, which he seemed to brush off, although his fires did weaken when he was sprayed with the holy water, and some devastating hits back from Acman and his minions, Breadwig cast his sleep spell. By good fortune, he was able to put Acman to sleep. With the pressure eased, the party took out the remaining minions and then began devising a plan. Very carefully, they dragged Acman, who, while asleep, had no flames around him, to the barrel of holy water and forced him inside. They slammed the lid just in time before the barrel started to rattle and rumble. They managed to hold the barrel together for a time, but after not too long, it exploded, sending everyone flying. Acman cackled, "You can not contain me!" and walked out of the explosion, no longer on fire. Breadwig and Stinkcat took turns using the disintegration staff, but Acman reflected both attacks, one of which almost hit Breadwig. Geog and Maia charged Acman, but he pushed them back with some unseen force. Even Sphonyx, who was still invisible, couldn't penetrate Acman's defences. He began casting powerful spells, attempting to possess the party members or burn them to a crisp, but none had any serious effect. Finally, Maia charged Acman, shouting "Mace to the face" and sent his head rolling. His bones fell to pieces on the ground.

Everyone gathered as much treasure as they could carry from the tower, and they made their way back to Stagbrook. On the way, they saw that the skeleton army had disintegrated and the cultists whom they had snuck past had left. It seemed Stagbrook was now safe from the evil of Acman.

XP

5095 xp total
1019 per person

Published Content Used

• OSE (Classic and Advanced)
• The Monster Overhaul