Laravin's Folly Act II

Session 4

As of the end of last session, the PCs have just arrived in the under-undercity and seen Cedric get his ass beat by a demon (specifically, a coarti).

So they fight the demon, rescue Cedric, and if they loose, get rescued by Theodore (who is reportedly currently hunting demons). During the fight, the demon mentions that he's in servitude to a very powerful demon lord who's got nefarious plans. The arena is composed of a bunch of platforms floating on lava, which occasionally sink or rise from the lava. There are nine platforms in total, in a square, and five on the surface at any given time. Two sink and two rise per round. After the fight, assuming they haven't just gotten rescued, they meet Theo back in the guard post and get clearance to go up to the next level (level three, I think).

[!NOTE] For now, there are five layers.

Theo also has a new apprentice badass, a youngish, very tall and well-proportioned redheaded tiefling. A bit of a femme fatale, she's called Ria Vasari; gameplay class swashbuckler. (Given the opportunity, she does sleep with tal, but nicks his money and drugs in the process). More importantly, she's also new to the city and has a prophecy ring. She and Theo both suggest going into the undercity (not the hell bits though) to find a shady diviner/oracle character and determine the source of the wishes. Cedric declines to come with them but is cagey as to why (on the off chance the players inquire, persuasion is required. The actual reason is cause he's more focused on finding Laravin).

As for finding the oracle, there are a few avenues. Nearby the guard post are three taverns and a covered market. The taverns are the Refinery, the Hawk's Nest, and the Rusty Nail.

They have no luck in the Refinery, some in the Nest, and a lot in the Rusty Nail. This far up, it's also the only entrance into the undercity.

Character sheets: cedric ria

Session 5

So in the last session, they beat up the demon, rescued Cedric, who left them to look for Gawain, escaped, ran into Theo and Ria, Thal rolled a couple of crit successes on charisma checks and had a hell of a night, spent a half hour stealing gold from each other while Theo laughed at them, tracking Ria into the undercity, and finally ending off upon just meeting her, attempting to coerce a tied-up halfling into opening a secret passage to level four in order to find an oracle to determine the meaning of the visions from the ring. Breathe out.

TODO:

• Decide what the oracle's deal is
• Decide what Ria wants beyond answers about the ring, and why she's here
• Decide what to do after the oracle.

The oracle

The oracle, one Xoravek K'sul, is a xixchil with many eyes. In addition to the two primary eyes, there are two rows of tiny eyes below each large one, appearing as points of light. He's still getting his mojo back after a rival oracle (who he simply refers to as 'old hag') planted a bunch of false memory emmitters around his hideout, causing all his divinations to go haywire. He wants the PCs to go on an errand both as payment for his services and as a way to buy time. The errand he has ready is to go and plant some false memory emitters to mess up a rival oracle. Would be a cakewalk, but they need to not be seen by the rival while doing it, and she's got a load of scrying eyes around her area.

Upon being paid/the errand completed, he takes the two rings, and reveals that the vision is indeed legitimate, and is a time soon to be (the worst kind of vision). The source of the vision is deep in the undercity; near the grave of a legendary warrior (Percival Laravin, but they don't know that yet). Laravin made a pact with the Arbiter, a very long time ago, hiding it from his fellow knights. It was a pretty small pact, as they go, simply a magic sword, but it revealed Laravin's Hope to the Arbiter. Despite the fact that the city soon planeshifted, the Arbiter began planning for its eventual return, planting the rings around promising adventurers likely to make it to the city.

One Arbiter monologue later, they fight! I'll try and put together something unique for the fight. The PCs have to loose, before getting deus ex machina'd by Theo as the Arbiter swoops up to the spire of stars.

The stealth section

The PCs have to plant three magic macguffins in three specific spots. Each macguffin must be charged up by recalling memories, the more the better. So the players better get their stories ready!

In each of the three places, there are a number of scrying eyes, and other hazards.

• The first place has a number of dudes standing around, in addition to a couple of scrying eyes. The dudes are a bunch of dwarves Ria stole from a while back, they'll really not be pleased to see her. If she's not there for some reason, the PCs still need to explain what they're doing to the dwarves and why they're sneaking around.
• The second place has a whole bunch of laser tripmines. You can't see them, except for the first couple, which are illuminated by a leaking steam pipe.
• The third area is a rather larger cavern with a lot of pits and other normal-ish hazards, as well as some hidden side passages.

If the whole stealth mission thing doesn't take very long, then the PCs need to get up to level five, as Percival's grave is below level five, almost directly in the center of the city. They have two basic options - go through the normal undercity, contending with a budding turf war in another underground market and stopping Ria nicking shit every two seconds, or go through the under-undercity, which involves fighting some demons (in this case, four wrecker demons and a hellbound attorney ordering them around).

As for stats for the new weapons:

• Rick's fancy pistol: A +1 striking pistol inscribed with a custom rune: grants the ability to charge the pistol with an energy damage type, granting it +1d8 damage of said type, in addition to a special effect. The available types are:
  • Acid: inflicts Sickened 1.
  • Cold: inflicts Enfeebled 1.
  • Electricity: inflicts Stunned 1, but only on the enemy's critical fail.
  • Fire: inflicts 1d8 persistent fire damage.
  • Sonic: inflicts Deafened.
• Thal's six pistols duct-taped together: More or less what it sounds like. You can fire the pistols individually, though they are unupgraded duelling pistols, dealing only 1d6 damage. You can also elect to fire all six at once, which grants it kickback (-2 to atk unless you have +2 strength or more) and forces a misfire roll, but causes it to now deal 2d20 damage.

Session 6

So the PCs have successfully planted the memory crystals, but literally just finished at the end of the session. They also really didn't bother with stealth. They know most of the plot, with the sole exception of the precise location of the source of the visions.

The precise location of Laravin's grave is in the undercity, in the place closest to hell. It was there that Laravin beat the Arbiter (solo, lmao), but died in the process, falling here, where he was buried. His sword is reclaimed mjolnir-style at the beginning of the fight with the Arbiter. Cedric also shows up, having sucessfully traced Laravin to here. He's extremely angry at the Arbiter for 'leading Laravin astray', somewhat justifiably (it was a bit of that, bit of desire for power). Ria's there, but she's in the same boat as the PCs, minus the past experience with the Arbiter (she, of course, stole the ring from someone else).

The PCs level up after they find the location of the grave (to level seven, I think).

After that, the PCs have a big fight with the Arbiter. He is like three levels too high for them right now (probably level 10 or so) and whups their asses, before Theo shows up and the Arbiter shoves off to the spire. Given that the Arbiter fight is likely to be pretty short, run the segment detailed in session 5, where the PCs have to get down to the grave in the first place.

Some more details on the turf war:

• One faction is in control of the market, and bars the PCs from entering unless they pay an entry fee (pretty steep, say 500 gold). They will presumably decline, and have a few options:
  • Hook up with the other faction, and take a side entrance before ambushing some higher-ups in an upstairs balcony - two halfling smugglers and a big boss dwarf. They then get free passage.
  • Sneak round solo. If they do this, a brawl breaks out in the market, and they can join in in the hope of loot or stay sneaking in the sidelines.
  • Bust in the front, fighting three hobgoblin battalions reflavoured as a mob of people. Ria doesn't want to do this, as it involves killing basically everyone.

As for the arbiter himself, he appears as an dude, basically, in an immaculate coat and tails, with a staff. He floats a good foot of the ground, and has the basic stat block of a coloxus.

The droning wings move is reflavoured as a large floating eye which he summons on the first turn. The basic game plan is summon the eye, summon a couple of giant arthropods, go invisible, and generally fuck around with the PCs. He can't die and may deal more damage if the fight goes on too long.

The giant arthropods in question are ogre spiders.

Session 7

The PCs left off just before the fight started so i'll see how the fight goes. See above for the details.

Now after the PCs loose, the Arbiter takes off to the spire of stars. He turns the whole spire and a bunch of glowy magic stuff red, and starts charging the entire city in preparation to plane shift. The PCs meet Lancelot, Knight of Laravin after being rescued to the guard HQ. He's an elf, very businesslike. With the plans for the spire in hand, they have to make it up each of the three floating sections. End it in the planning phase, probably, if the session gets there.