SPQT -- Snatching drama from the jaws of victory

This summary picks up where the last one left off. Brace yourselves, and read the whole thing. Important developments occurred after Ryan left.

An important chunk is missing because Sofia doesn't know the details, so I'll ask Damon to tell y'all about it. He'll also be able to give you Robyn's spin on events.

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, as I saw for myself once Bjorn woke Manius and me. Robyn had him, unconscious, in the living room, next to a pile of magical equipment. Manius said he had seen such a visage before, and the fellow is a tiefling - part demon, part human. Since I had no interrogation spells, only one Detect Thoughts potion, we blindfolded him before waking him, and I instructed Robyn to ask the questions while I stood back and quietly got the answers he avoided giving.

His name is Angitra. He does indeed work for Aulis. The warehouse location is confirmed, and appears to be chock-full of evil - I got a veritable cavalcade of faces and a glimpse of a sizable demon, something like a hydra, which Manius says is called a Henizurgas or something of that kind - poisonous, magic resistant, quick to heal. The sentries, however, are negligible - thugs on rooftops - and magical protections are primarily of a personal nature. The short sword Robyn removed from his person is demon-possessed and capable of teleporting (Robyn has scooped all of his things into a bag of holding, for safekeeping).. Unfortunately, he wasn't aware of anything his master fears, apart from church inquisitors, who I trust will be in his near future.

Robyn recruited Primus, who understands everything said to him these days, to take him to view the warehouse and the sentries. Meanwhile, I used the Helm of Teleportation to carry Agitran to the offices of the Inquisition in Azydas - just to make sure. Robyn clearly wanted to kill him but didn't try to talk me out of it, presumably remembering his promise.

And now we're waiting for Decimus to wake. Manius, and I have memorized as many Greater Dispelling spells as we could, Drusilia has the scrolls I made earlier this week, I have Holy Word. No one wants anyone to have to engage that demon! We will be attacking in broad daylight, but at last we'll be attacking, not waiting to be attacked.

Later - The warehouse district was active but the warehouse in question was closed. It was huge, one of those granaries intended to feed entire cities. Since the sentries were no longer at their posts, Robyn played his pipes and walked around the building, sealing the exits. Decimus turned into a crow and flew up to the windows, but saw primarily that shelves were stacked in front of them. He did perceive a sizable bulk in the center of the warehouse, and we arranged ourselves level with it, on the side. Decimus opened a Passwall in the side of the building and in we ran. I used my last teleport to get within 30 feet of the demon, which I am happy to say did not recover from its surprise in time to prevent my casting Holy Word. The fiend could not withstand the Word of Orus and vanished, to the great encouragement of our party and the dismay of our foes, many of whom were blinded by Manius's Cloak of Righteousness, in any case.

A brief, but intense battle followed, with Drusilia moving among us invisibly to provide healing as needed. Since she had the Status spell, my understanding of the battle primarily comes from her.

Decimus cast a fireball into a cluster of archers. Aulis fell before he could loose a single spell, cut down by Manius's sunspear and Robyn's arrows. Bjorn felled the elf captain. A tiefling and a club-wielding thug felled Sigurd, about the time that I, seeing Aulis was gone, cried "Anyone who surrenders, lives!" A human teleported out. I believe Alfredus was occupied by thugs. Amid the general melee, Manius threw a sunspear at an ogre who had been standing near Aulis, and it charged him, wielding an enormous ax and appearing to be in a berserker rage. I Commanded him to stop, but he did not.

And did not.

Let me keep this in order as well as I can. Bjorn and Robyn took down the tiefling, I believe. Drusilia healed Sigurd, who promptly attacked the elf captain, who had retained just enough strength to drop his bow to drink a healing potion. Drusilia says Bjorn fell unconscious about the same time I was calling for surrender, so he may not have heard me; however, the principle of honoring a surrender - traditionally signaled by dropping weapons - was clearly not in his heart. Decimus tried to polymorph the ogre, and failed. Everyone else was dead or surrendering.

The ogre killed Manius first, Aelfred second. The effort concentrated on him should have killed him three or four times over, but he remained standing, striking with that terrible ax more often than seemed possible, and dealing hideous damage. Drusilia and Robyn asked prisoners what would stop him, but he was a new hire and they were as shocked as we were. Clearly, no one could stand in melee with him and I called for the fighters to fall back, but they didn't, until he killed Bjorn. Drusilia cast Greater Dispelling on him, and says she felt something give, but it wasn't whatever allowed him to keep going. I Flame Struck him and he ran toward me, so I cast Wall of Ice to slow him down. He broke out of it immediately, so I cast another, and this time, he did not come out. Whatever allowed him to carry on in this way had a time limit, and we had at last exceeded it.

And while we had been dealing with this killing machine, Aulis's body had disappeared.

We were all vastly discouraged, and while we fetched the authorities, confiscated magic from the prisoners, etc., we discussed our next move. We cannot have such a powerful enemy lurking about, and if he couldn't be removed today, I would have to release most of the party from helping. It is simply too dangerous. But how to keep him from pursuing them? I began to wish we had told him that the book was in League hands and made him their problem.

As I was considering this and explaining matters to the authorities, I realized that Robyn and the elf captain were both missing.

This alarmed me.

I detached myself from the official proceedings as quickly as I could - Drusilia understood what had happened much better than I, in any case - and requested Decimus to take me home to my crystal ball. I'm never traveling without that again! All I could see of Robyn was a bare wooden hallway. Decimus said he was invisibly listening at a door. I told him to teleport us in next to Robyn. He protested that, not having any idea where this bare hall was, he was likely to aim wrong, and this was his last teleport of the day. I sent for a bag of rations and told him to go ahead.

Well, he aimed wrong. I'm disinclined to think this was on purpose, since it hurt him quite a bit. We are guilty of home invasion in some northern town whose name I didn't catch; but the householders were quite understanding when Decimus explained that this was a teleport gone wrong,. There's nothing whatever we can do until tomorrow, except worry. At least I found a bathhouse. The atmosphere was - peculiar - but I'm clean for the first time in days.

At this point, I'm not sure it matters what it is that Robyn is haring off on his own to do, or whether it's successful or not. The fact that he's doing it behind my back says everything that needs saying.

I've tried to treat everyone, friend and foe, with respect; and the result is that no one - with the possible exception of Gaius - respects me.

I've tried to recognize everyone's strengths and bear myself modestly, and the result is that I am taken for granted.

I've tried to keep everyone alive and the result is that no one trusts my judgement.

I've tried to lead by example and trust people to do their jobs properly, and the result is that people go behind my back. I find I'm suspecting Decimus in this case. Did he know about it? Did everyone know about it but me? That isn't fair. He cooperated with me without demur when I asked for the teleports. This time. That business in Skopelos, with the assassination, is a long time ago and he's for the most part behaved well since then. But if they don't trust me, how can I trust them?

I've tried to be flexible, and the result is that I'm accused of being inconsistent. Which, Orus help me, has some truth in it. We had to render Atrigan unconscious before I could teleport with him this morning, and Robyn sneered at me that beating a helpless prisoner was much better than killing him.

I find I cannot sort out when necessity becomes cruelty.

If I'm not the staff's conscience, then I have no function within it.

I do not like where that leaves me.

May 2 - Well, it's done.

First thing this morning we returned to the house in Khmet, where we released the drunk in the cellar, then went to find the others. I Resurrected Manius and Raised Alfredus and Bjorn. They seem far less affected by their deaths than normal - possibly due to the nature of the mission.

Robyn was there, looking smug and happy - after all this time, certain of his expressions are explicable after all. He told me, defiantly, that he'd cut a deal with the elf captain, found out where Aulis was, teleported to him using the demon-possessed sword, and killed him. In the same breath he justified himself in terms of success and on moral grounds, insisting that none of "my rules" were broken, and admitted that he'd sneaked around and consulted no one because he "knew" I'd disapprove. The inherent contradictions were of no moment to him. His thesis, boiled down to its essence and shorn of rhetoric, is that I just want to control people (this stance taken by someone who slits the throats of those he thinks probably won't cooperate with him!),, that "my" rules are ineffectual and encumbering, and that he gets the job done and I have no authority, even in a mission like this one.

So he should be pleased that, instead of arguing with him, I took Gaius, teleported home, and resigned.

I've left them the wands of Cure Light Wounds and the Rod of Comforting the Staff, and returned Decimus's Helm of Teleportation to his room. Since I left before any attempt was made to sort, much less divide, the booty from this raid, they've made a good profit from helping me pay my debt. They'll all be happy enough once the initial shock wears off.

I'm settled, temporarily, in one of the rooms the Church keeps for transient personnel. I've made confession, but the question of what to do next is a complicated one. I'll have to do a lot of praying and considering, and examining the positions available. Meantime, I still have scrolls to make. The odds are poor that my next position will be as exciting as the last one, so when he brings the last of my luggage I will give Gaius the option of leaving my service, making it clear that I am far from displeased with him and will give him a glowing recommendation for any sort of work he cares to undertake. It will sadden me greatly if he leaves me, but it would sadden me more to have him here bound by obligation and not desire.

There probably won't be anything like the amount of incidental profit, either. I'll certainly have to dip into my savings to furnish the villa now, and probably sell some jewelry. Uncle hasn't withdrawn his offer of patronage, but I've had my craw full of nepotism, not that I can put it to him like that.

Uncle tried to talk me out of it and Mater is very upset with me, but that can't be helped. I can't work with people who neither respect nor trust me; and it is not good for them to have a moral leader as apparently inept and confusing as me. As long as I'm one of the Staff, due to my profession, I'm it's conscience, or I'm nothing.

And I won't be nothing. Not even for Uncle Lucius.

Now, I know you're reeling a bit, but don't leap to conclusions about the future. There may be a way out of this, but I'm not the one to find it. Every way I look at it, this is her only viable option. The alternatives are going into all-out interparty war, which I think we're agreed would be worse and out of character, and tamely submitting to the fact that nobody pays any attention to her when it counts, which I can't make her do. And don't want to do, to tell the truth. This is twice in a row I've called retreat, and people ignored me, and characters died. Al, Ben said that the characters who died won't lose their levels by special dispensation of Orus. Read: the prestige class the ogre was using is broken and even he was surprised.

It will be two weeks at least before we can try to play with her again, though if you want to try how it goes without her while I'm in Kansas I have no reason to object, assuming you can actually get everyone into the same room at the same time. The primary problem is that we only have three players most of the time anymore, anyway. The campaign will only be viable for so long if Al and Ryan can't render their schedules more compatible, anyway. But I don't think any of us want to leave it like this.

My next character is going to be a nice normal jolly cold-blooded halfling with no issues at all.