The King Is Dead

The party had bedded down for the night in one of the dire corbies’ bedrooms on the 2nd floor of Brinewall Castle – with hindsight, perhaps not the wisest of choices, since they had no idea how many of the creatures inhabited the castle. About an hour after they closed the door, they heard loud squawking from the dining hall outside – apparently some more dire corbies had returned and found the bodies of their slain brethren.

A few minutes later, Kikonu’s voice joined the others outside. He was clearly angry. “Get those bodies out of here! Or eat them – I don’t care. I just don’t want to see them here in the morning.” More squawks followed. “Well, you were supposed to be on guard. How did they get into my castle? And where are they now? If they’re still here, I want them found! I’ve talked to Orbakhag, and none of his people have seen them in the dungeons. Some of his crew are patrolling the ground floor now, and Muthildah and her brothers are watching the courtyard. When I get my hands on them, Buttersnips will have some new playthings for her collection.” Still more squawking. “I don’t care what she says!” Kikonu shrieked. “I am King of Brinewall, and I give the orders, not some bird-brained priestess! Why didn’t she come out to help when this lot were getting plucked?”

The squawking settled down, and the party could hear muffled sounds of things being moved in the dining hall. They crouched pensively in their room, trying to be as quiet as possible in hopes that those outside wouldn't realize they were right under their noses. Well, except for Bella. “We should go kill them now!” she urged, as the others shushed her. “Seriously, we’d catch them by surprise. It’s only going to be worse in the morning, when they’re ready for us.”

“But we’re almost out of spells,” Marie cautioned, but Bella was unconvinced, remembering how the wizard’s spells had failed to affect Kikonu in the fight downstairs. She turned her argument on Sandoval. “They guy who stole your voice is right outside – don’t you want to get it back?” The bard did indeed seem eager for revenge, but couldn’t express his opinion one way or the other.

The whispered debate escalated, until it was finally settled by a dire corby, who opened the door and poked his head inside to see what was making all the noise in his bedroom. Two more of his fellows were also in the dining hall, along with Kikonu, 'King of Brinewall'. Sawyer bulled his way out into the room as he and Shinjiro attacked the corby at the door, while Sandoval, Nicki, and Zhustin fired arrows and spells at Kikonu.

Upon seeing them, Kikonu roared in fury and transformed. Gone was the funny-looking little red-skinned man. In his place stood a vicious bird-like creature, with broad wings and sharp talons. He screeched a curse in an unknown language and pointed his hand at the doorway. A pair of Scorching Rays leapt from his fingers to sear Sawyer and Shinjiro, badly burning them. Maybe this guy was more dangerous than he had appeared before.

Shinjiro ignored the dire corbies, and rushed to Kikonu and tried to grapple him to interfere with his spell casting, but he slipped deftly away from his grasp. Sandoval, enraged by his muteness, followed suit. He dashed past the startled corbies, leapt onto the dining table, and flung his net over the would-be king. Kikonu looked at him disdainfully – this had been no hindrance to him earlier, when Sandoval had done the same thing downstairs. He tried to cast a spell – likely the same Dimension Door that he had used to escape before. This time, however, he found himself so entangled that the spell failed, and from that point things began to go very badly for him. Nicki also rushed to the back of the room where Kikonu stood entangled, and reached out to deliver his Corrupting Touch, sickening the creature and making it still harder for him to concentrated on his spells. Shinjiro succeeded on his next attempt to grapple, and Kikonu had that much more interference with his spellcasting. He tried spell after spell, but almost all failed.

Meanwhile, Bella was in her element. She danced around the room, using her allies to gain flanking on the dire corbies, delivering deadly sneak attack damage with her rapier and dagger. But just as it looked like the party might have the battle in hand, and new element entered the fray. The double doors to the south opened, and a female dire corby clad in robes and carrying a polished longsword stepped through. Actually, two of her stepped through the doors, each identical to the other. She raised her hand and a arc of lightning suddenly leaped from Sawyer to Sandoval. Sawyer saw the longsword, and decided this might finally be a foe worthy of his abilities. He charged to the south and dealt a mighty blow with his own sword, but instead of splashing blood, all that happened was that her double disappeared. Marie joined Sawyer, swinging her mace, while another dire corby emerged from the room. Nevakali (the dire corby priestess) stepped back and uttered an ear-piercing shriek that Stunned Sawyer so badly he dropped his sword.

Zhustin didn’t have many spells left to cast, but he did have one thing left in his bag of tricks. He cast Summon Monster and a large dog appeared right in front of the priestess, snapping at her. She promptly disappeared.

Back in the main room, Bella had dispatched all the remaining dire corbies, and now turned her attention on the captive Kikonu. Kikonu managed to get off one last Scorching Ray against Bella and Nicki (who had continued using Corrupting Touch every single round), but it was too little, too late. Bella thrust her rapier into his evil heart, and he finally expired. Sandoval felt his throat open back up, and burst into song out of joy.

Now everyone turned their attention to the room to the south. The room appeared to have once been a shrine to Desna, but had been horribly defiled. Dozens of paintings of a towering humanoid figure with four wings, a bird’s head, and a scorpion’s tail decorated the walls of the room, seemingly painted in blood. Old pews sat in a line facing the eastern wall, where a hideously defaced statue of a winged woman stood. It had once been a statue of Desna, but her butterfly wings had been hacked down the middle to give the impression of having four wings instead of two, her head had been removed and replaced with a crude carving of a leering bird’s head, and a long, barbed tail made of braided dried nettles hung from her posterior. Marie immediately recognized this as yet another shrine to the demon lord Pazuzu. Another pair of double doors stood in the south wall of the room, and they realized this was one of the sets of exterior doors that Bella had failed to open when they were traversing the parapet.

There was no sign of Nevakali, although Zhustin’s dog stood baying in the doorway; he could smell her even if he couldn’t see her. Zhustin, Marie and Shinjiro made their way cautiously into the room. As they approached the statue, they felt a movement of air and heard the rustling of the invisible cleric’s robes as she tried to move past them. Zhustin shouted for his dog to guard the door. It rushed to obey, but collided with something invisible (which he promptly bit). Shinjiro moved to take up a position on the other side of the door, and Nevakali swung at him with her sword as he moved past, revealing herself. She cast another Lightning Arc that went from Marie to Zhustin’s dog, catching Sawyer along the way, but that was all she wrote. Surrounded by foes, her back to the locked doors, she quickly fell.

Dancing Wasp

When no more enemies immediately appeared, the party quickly searched the bodies. Nevakali had several scrolls and a Wand of Inflict Moderate Wounds. Kikonu had his magical kusarigama, Dancing Wasp. He also had a 6-inch darkwood-and-silver disc decorated with an intricate etching of Brinewall under the noonday sun that radiated transmutation magic. Shinjiro examined it, but had never seen anything like it before.

Now the debate restarted about whether to try again to rest of the night, or whether to explore the rest of this floor of the castle to try to ensure they didn’t have any more surprises. “But we’re all out of spells,” Zhustin complained. “But I’m not out of swords,” was Sawyer’s response. Ultimately, they decided it was best to know what else was on this level, at least.

In the despoiled shrine, a small door led into a cramped room with a rude bed. Whereas most of the other rooms they’d seen in Brinewall were either looted and ruined, or inhabited by creatures, this dusty room looked to have been simply ignored. Under the bed, behind some rotting linens, was a small footlocker. Inside were four +2 Outsider Bane Arrows, several scrolls, and a phylactery. One of the scrolls was a Scroll of Restoration, and Sawyer’s eyes lit up, but Marie advised patience – perhaps his missing level would return on its own over time.

Another pair of double doors led onto a circular balcony overlooking a large ballroom on the first floor. They heard nothing from below, and closed this door quietly lest they alert any patrols. The rest of the rooms were more empty bedrooms. Most were filled more dire corby nests; counting nests and trying to remember how many birds they had killed, they concluded there were still a few unaccounted for. One bedroom had an actual bed in it, although it was dirty and had no linens. The papers scattered around the room told them this had been Kikonu’s bedroom, and that’s where they decided to spend the night. They set watches and prepared to settle in.

"What was that thing that Kikonu turned into?" Zhustin asked quietly. "It wasn't just another dire corby." The rest of the group was silent, apparently not knowing either, until Shinjiro spoke up. "I think it was a Tengu," he said. "What's a Tengu?" Zhustin asked curiously. "It's a type of oni," came the reply. Zhustin sat for a moment, but couldn't let it rest; his master, Malbus, had taught him that there are no stupid questions, only stupid people. "Well that doesn't tell me much," he said at last. "What's an oni?"

Shinjiro sat still for a moment, then spoke quietly. "Oni are evil spirits They normally live in the spirit world, but some cross over into our world and take on twisted humanoid shapes, although they are all shapeshifters. They take delight in pain, and gluttony, and perverse vices. There are many different types of oni, but the most common in this part of the world are the creatures called ogre mages. The oni are the opposites of the kami, the guardian spirits that live in all things." He looked up to see everyone staring at him; this was probably the longest speech the monk had made since leaving Magnimar. Shinjiro shrugged, and looked down with embarrassment. "My grandfather used to tell scary stories about oni as a way of getting me to behave." He would say no more, and the rest of the night passed uneventfully.

In the morning, they decided to explore the upper floor of the tower above Kikonu’s study. However, there was an exterior door that Bella decided to check first. Outside was an open platform overlooking the courtyard below, with a rusty, decrepit looking catapult (oddly, aimed into the castle rather than out over the wall). In the courtyard below, the two ogrekin they had seen wrestling yesterday were now listlessly wandering the courtyard (now that they weren’t fighting each other, they looked much healthier). Across the courtyard, Bella spotted a trio of dire corbies on the roof over the gatehouse, where the party had scaled the wall the day before. She quickly dropped to the ground and crawled back inside, hoping she hadn’t been spotted.

The party gathered in the study and began to climb the stairs, Bella leading the way. At the top, she found a semicircular room lined with bookshelves, although the majority of the books lay in disorganized piles on the floor. A large, filthy nest of grass, branches, and strips of cloth was tucked in the northeastern corner of the room, while a wooden door to the northwest led out onto a balcony. Standing beside the balcony door was a female figure with large wings on her back, her legs ending in taloned bird feet. Bella recognized her immediately as a harpy. An ornate composite longbow leaned against the wall behind her, but she made no move to reach for it. Instead, she extended her left hand to Bella, gently indicating she would like her to take her hand, while with her right she motioned to her mouth and throat. Her miming was clear: she was mute.

The PCs gained 628 XP for their efforts, putting them at 6969 XP, with 9000 required for Level 4. We’ll be at Joette & Rich’s next week, and Roger will be on-call again.