Welcome back. As you no doubt recall, the group spent most of last session conducting vicious psychological experiments on a painting and its petite minion. What? Stop looking at me like that.
In the process Aria had an unfortunate encounter with a plasma ooze. In short, she got slimed. She reacted to this indignity in about the same manner as the latest white trash guest star on COPS (or the green guy featured above): unbridled fury.
And wouldn't you know it, she still had a whole pool of the goop to take it out on. Thus the rest of the group found themselves back in combat against another three of the oozes. Not that it was a very tough battle, but . . .
Aria got slimed again.
As the group finished off the last few of the oozes Nelzask grabbed a bottle from his bag to take a sample of the ooze. Lucius decided to one up that play by emptying his bag of holding (Killgore agreed to take care of the loot; it was a fairly straight forward contract), hopping into the pit, and suctioning up all of the rest of the ooze.
Aria, lacking anything unfriendly to fight, eventually calmed down. The group decided unanimously that they needed a good rest before tackling the next floor, and so went back from whence they'd come. On the way, Lucius stopped by the fountain of healing to fill the remains of his bag of holding with positively charged water.
{Players Note: Okay, I admit to a little meta-gaming here. At least I didn't try to get the Bard to start playing Higher and Higher. Nor did I search for a large statue with which to assault the tower.}
The next day the group returned to the tower. Everything was pretty much as they'd left it up to the final floor. There they found a reconstituted Vigo. And on his belt was the macguffin-err I meant crown- most of the group was looking for.
Of course, being a BBEG, Vigo had to have his moment of monologue. Surprisingly, the group actually waited. Lucius tried to point out that he'd said all of this from the painting the day before, but he was like a steamroller careening uncontrolled down a hill. Truthfully, he was starting to sound a bit like a broken record.
He'd barely caught his breath from that little soliloquy when the group wrecked his face. I'm not kidding, it was embarrassing. But the worst part was how he received the final blow to his ego . . .
But we'll get to that.
To start with, Vigo the Igo was a reskinned Balor Demon. Yep, that's right: a CR 20 creature facing 5 level 14 characters. Should be a good fight right? And it did start off like it was going to be. He did get the highest initiative. And he tried to use Hold Monster on Nelzask. But that's one of the Samurai's best saves, and he gets to roll it twice. Needless to say, (though, clearly, I'm going to say it anyways) that attempt failed. The rest of the group then closed in on him, intent upon ensuring he didn't try any of that nonsense with them.
Round 1 Aria did very little. Actually she did very little that entire fight. But what can a healer do when their allies take no damage? She did cast haste, which was nice.
Hermin conjured a Shadowbard and started his standard performance.
Killgore peppered him with arrows. Lucius took the bag of positive goo and hurled it at Vigo. Killgore burned a Hero Point to shoot it, unleashing all of that goo on Vigo. {I had thought that positively charging the goo might make it attack Vigo. Instead it just made him happier to be fighting people.} When that failed he abundant stepped up to Vigo, in preperation for round 2. Nelzask charged. Big surprise there eh? Round 2
Killgore crit him for over a hundred damage. {Player's Note: Not letting anyone use Twist the Knife in any campaign I run!}
Not to be outdone, Nelzask crit him for nearly a hundred and fifty damage.
Lucius tried with many of his attacks to trip the ugly bastard. He finally did with the attack provided by Aria's Haste. Not the best of rounds for him really.
Aria and Hermin . . . were there.
Round 3
Vigo went to summon help. But, in his anger at having his HP dropped so quickly by 'dull creatures' he forgot to cast defensively. He died from Killgore Nelzask's AOOs. Lucius may have tapped him with his staff as well.
And that was it. Killgore quickly retrieved the macguffin (I mean crown) and started talking about the end of the quest. Lucius pointed out that he still needed the crown to weaken Prince Adam, a use Duke had brought up, whether willingly or accidentally. For once, the Bugbear did not live up to his name, instead arguing that they must return the crown.
Lucius then snatched the crown from the Bugbear, an act only noted because Hermin's shadowbard was still buffing their skill checks. Remember, Lucius, being immune to mind affecting abilities, does not get those bonuses.
Seeing that he'd been caught macguffin -I mean crown (I've gotta stop doing that)- handed, Lucius booked it downstairs. With his 70ft movement speed no one was catching him. They didn't even try actually. Instead the rest of the group reprimanded the Bugbear. Apparently they were all for some demon killing as a right jolly end of a long quest. And what could be wrong with a little punishment for the regicidal bastard that had caused this mess in the first place?
Meanwhile, Lucius used Abundant Step to place the crown under the trapped cushion in the throne room. Then he Abundant Stepped again, this time to the outside of the tower entrance.
He had to wait a bit, as it turned out. As the rest of the group trooped down the tower they noted that the big tapestry on the fourth floor had changed. Now it showed the five of them (no holy auras) striking combat poses commonly favored by Power Rangers. Nelzask immediately ripped the rod it hung from from the ceiling, rolled it up, and jammed it into a bag of holding.
He quickly pulled it back out to show Lucius once they reached the ground floor. Lucius started to complain about the fact that Nelzask was taller, but really, wasn't he? The rest of the group joined them (Aria had paused to explain to Slimer that he had the run of the tower) and pledged to help take out Prince Adam.
They then decided they needed more information on when Prince Adam would return. Lucius scryed on Duke, but he was currently asleep in his coffin. So they decided to pay Jareth another visit. After all, Hermin had been itching for a re-bardoff
Fortunately (Or unfortunately depending on the depth of one's vicious streak) Jareth decided not to throw gobs of further goblins at them. Instead he gave the group free passage. Hermin spent most of the time trying to convince the goblin king that he was the god of nonsensical music, a title he clearly planned to stick with till death do it part.
Jareth stated that Adam would not be back for at least three days. He also informed them that he would have advanced notice before he arrived. He agreed to pass it along when it arrived, and offered his hospitality to the group. Surprisingly, only Lucius took him up on that offer. You would have thought that the Bugbear or the Half Ogre would have been right at home with a group of goblins, but no, they had other plans.
Aria and Hermin decided to wait it out on the boat. Nelzask and Killgore went back to their house of ill repute.