SPQT -- Siege, Pt. 1

This is incomplete, consisting of this week's and last week's sessions, and ends with things Sofia is not yet aware of at the stage we're at; however, since the timing of our future gaming sessions and my participation in them are problematic I figured it was better to write them up now as far as I could. Next weekend, I will be in New Orleans. Theoretically it's possible for someone to run Sofia and the two NPC clerics for me, but I don't think anyone wants that particularly (certainly I'd be sorry to miss it.) The weekend of the 18th is a LARP weekend. After that we may have an SPQT game on the 25th; but again I may have to skip, because of preparing for the award ceremony on the first weekend of October. We'll play it by ear and do the best we can.

April 28 - The process of analyzing the magic removed from the demonologist's lair has begun, and we have discussed possibilities with the local church hierarchy. They are properly ashamed of themselves for not taking Manius and Drusilia seriously, and when I asked for a remote church property where we could take up residence and pretend to be studying the book, they obliged with a place on the outskirts of town. The situation is more populated than I'd like, but it's the best we can do. I've put a Glyph of Warding with Greater Dispelling on the door to the roof. I'll do that to all three doors, with Manius's help, and make a Greater Dispelling scroll. Robyn has us on a complex random schedule so that no amount of spying will allow our foe to take advantage of our habits. Alfredus thinks we should all sleep in one room, and we have camel bells to ring to raise the alarm. We have supplies for ten days. I hope it doesn't take so long!

April 29 - Back door glyphed, scroll finished. Our barbarians are gambling mightily. Gaius joined them, but I don't think he did very well.

April 30 - Front door glyphed, a Heal scroll begun. Robyn and Gaius say we're being watched. Gaius said the kid was an amateur and volunteered to tail him, but returned in a couple of hours much chastened, admitting he'd been spotted. Primus followed the lad the rest of the way, but said he went to a place with a lot of people, and could not get close enough to find where the boy went.

April 31 - Well, that was an eventful night! About midnight, I was on watch, and had just tapped on the door of the study to remind Drusilia of the time, when I heard Gaius screaming and ringing his camel bell down in the kitchen. Rushing to his aid, I encountered a shadow demon on the stairs, and before we knew it, the house was full of them! I suppose, being largely immaterial, they'd come through the walls. The walls and hall were not wide enough for the sleepers to deploy themselves effectively at once, those who did manage to engage the demons could not always hit them, and my magic was not as effective as I would have liked.

By the time I got downstairs, Snorri - who had been in the cellar - was battling a shadow demon and Gaius was crumpled on the floor. By this time I had stopped wasting spells and was using my wand of magic missiles, so I helped Snorri dispatch it, stabilized Gaius, and rushed back out to the hall, where Aelfredus - who had escaped the crush in the upstairs hall by tearing a hole in the floor - and Drusilia were bravely but ineffectively battling one of them. Drusilia indeed had nearly set the house on fire! However, we dispatched it, and Drusilia, abandoning martial pursuits for which she is manifestly unsuited, cast Healing Circle, which brought Gaius round and did considerable good to the combatants upstairs, as well.

Back up we went, and among the lot of us got rid of the last of those in the house, did some quick healing, and proceeded to the roof, where we found Robyn, Manius, and Decimus fruitlessly seeking for the demonologist. Manius had flown out dropping sun rods to improve visibility, Decimus had flown about as a bat, and Robyn had nearly stared his eyes out, without a sign of the one we knew must be out there. Discussing the matter, we decided that, if he wasn't going to follow up this softening move immediately, he would most likely strike again around dawn, to prevent our regaining spells - he had already spoiled Decimus's night's sleep, caused us to expend far more spells than we liked, and almost used up my wand of magic missiles. He had also revealed a very basic weakness in Manius's and Drusilia's spell lists!

Remembering how much longer the days were in Sigurd's homestead, I got out an atlas and discussed time with him. His steading, though far north, is also west, so the sun still comes later to those regions than here, and what I wanted was something earlier. We determined that dawn probably comes to the Great Rift an hour before it comes to Khmet. As we discussed these matters, Robyn re-arranged the interior of the house to prevent our getting in each other's way again, broadening the stairs and hallway, reducing some walls to columns, etc.

After about an hour, Robyn, having resumed his watch on the roof, detected the second wave coming toward us from an area unlit by the sunrods. Quietly taking two Sunshine Boys, he slipped out and took up stations on the roof of a nearby house, making use of his Rope of Climbing so as not to disturb the inhabitants. Decimus, in bat form, reported about 20 archers, 2 leaders, a group of spearmen, and a group carrying a battering ram. Unable to think of a legtimate reason for irate householders or vigiles to be sneaking through the streets carrying a battering ram, Decimus let loose a fireball on that group, and I tossed down an ice storm from my new Staff of Frost, and called down a warning that whatever they were being paid was too little, and next time we'd have to really hurt them. The rammers knocked down the door anyway. I heard Robyn use the Pipes of Building, closing up the roof access in case they penetrated the building and ran up his nice new broad stairs, but I directed Cone of Cold at them while Decimus fired the spearmen, and obviated that problem. We got shot at for our pains, but the wall around the roof provided good cover, and our bowmen and spearmen shot back. We couldn't see the leaders from where we stood, but Gaius and Robyn could, and shot at them. We heard retreat called, and it was obeyed at once. We refrained from pursuit, in hope that they would return to their master and lynch him, or at least quit their jobs.

Manius and Decimus flew down to the scattered bodies and managed to save two of them before they died. The neighbors, thoroughly roused, obligingly sent a runner for the vigiles and the local temple, so all were taken into custody or off for decent burial. I fear the neighbors do not love us.

Half an hour before the estimated time of dawn in the Great Rift, I gave all my magic to Decimus and told him to take great care while Manius, Drusilia, and I renewed our prayers. Dawn in that clime is strange and awesome, bringing the might of Orus forcibly to mind, and we prayed to good effect. I assisted Manius and Drusilia in their choice of spells, and we returned "loaded for owlbear," as Alfredus says. The Glyph on the roof door had been sprung. Decimus reports that Primus saw a demon appear on the roof and vanish at the door, causing a brief panic as they searched the house fearing it had teleported in; however, my Glyph had banished it, and very good I feel about that! I have restored that Glyph, and Robyn has reinforced the door.

That was the last attack, and all of us, including Decimus, were able to get a proper sleep. When I awoke, Robyn reported that he had apprehended someone evidently set to watch us, for he had taken over from the boy Gaius failed to follow yesterday. However, he had taken up a position with his back to the door and immediately started to commune with a wine jug, and when Robyn woke him he seemed genuinely drunk. I went down to interrogate him, and as near as we can tell, he had been hired, and given new clothes, expressly so that we could apprehend him and give our opponent something to scry in the house.

Since we are keeping him in the cellar, and the cellar is very dark, he may scry all he likes, and welcome. Even if, against the odds, he sees enough to allow him to teleport in, he'll be hard pressed to get past the meat locker we put on top of the cellar door without making enough noise to rouse the house.

May 1 - Another midnight attack. Someone came, invisibly, to the roof and started casting cloud-based spells, causing Decimus and I to use more spells than we liked to dispel them and damaging Robyn slightly. Robyn is sure he hit him, but he fled - due to the grievousness of his hurts, I hope! Expecting the next attack, we made coffee and sat on the stairs, discussing matters, and for the first time it became clear to us that the "house with lots of people" that Primus had traced the boy to was not a tenement, but a warehouse! I suppose you're never familiar enough with a cat's brain to understand it all the time. This is a very different proposition, and Decimus eagerly offered to do reconnaissance invisibly come morning.

A couple of hours later, Robyn spotted the person presently watching the house. Leaving Alfredus on the roof alone, he used his rope of climbing to descend the side of the house away from the watcher, sneak up behind him, and apprehend him. His was a disturbing visage to look on, evidently part human and part demon...