04/22/15 Tragidore Session 8: Defeating the Erodaemon and Instrducing a Cleric of Two Gods

Annabeth

The session began in the midst of combat between the five heroes of Tragidore against Annabeth, Shaysera, and Taergan Flinn. The battle raged through the alchemy lab, Annabeth’s gruesome lair, the prison dungeon, as well as a secret passage that linked the lower-level with the spiked-pit trap from the entrance above. While each foe proved to be elusive, summoning aid or calling upon bear-constructs, it was only after the daemons were destroyed and Taergan was given nowhere to run did the alchemist surrender.

In the after math of the battle both Branda and Igneous were released while Taergan was locked up waiting to be extradited to Tragidore for his crimes. But the Tulles were not the only ones remanded to the dungeons; two Caliban experiments (who were later put down) and a human cleric who, after receiving healing, also aided in the fight against Taergan and his accomplices.

Alaric the Valiant

The man’s name was Alaric, a man out of time; he is the only surviving member of ‘the Valiant’ a military unit of clerics highly trained in arcane magic during the Weeping War centuries ago. Many of his unit fell to Annabeth’s lies becoming abandoned ones, but Alaric held to his faith and resisted only to have his soul stolen into a gemstone. Over the untold years his soul was bartered and traded but never consumed until on the night the Time of Troublesended and the old gods and new gods took their respective places in the planes- the soul of Alaric the Valiant was freed from his faceted prison and brought back as an incarnate. This turn of events incensed Annabeth but intrigued Taergan who began his experiments on altering the Caliban’s physicality using Alaric in his twisted processes.

Meanwhile Branda and Igneous relay their time in Taergan’s dungeons and just how much the alchemist had lost his way listening to the lies of the erodaemon, as well as what they understand of the rest of Bitter Manor. Taergan, his apprentices, and the daemons only occupied the first and lower levels. The remaining floors were occupied by other sinister entities. However the battle was harrowing and exhaustive and necessitated a full-nights rest. The rest period was uneventful however faint child-like cries echoes through the old manor house, and upon waking the heroes notice it has started to snow.

 

Refreshed and leveled up, the heroes explored the remaining rooms and secret passages of the first floor then to the second level to find a library, display room, and finally a burned-out master bedroom. Several clues led to a conclusion that dragon-fire was the cause, given the dragon fear and thundering roar heard during the battle with Taergan the previous day. Found among the burned-out remains were blackened draconic iconography as well as the immersion list with a few familiar names among unknowns.

As snow continued to fall, on the third floor the heroes encountered attic whisperers and Caitrin Deveraux another echo of a woman damned because of Annabeth’s lies. After defeating the Bitter Manor dinizens it was decided to hold up until the snow storm broke before making the slow trek back to Tragidore. There was the division of treasure ending with Cadthronn getting the next first pick of loot. We begin next session after a two-week period of downtime with a firm series of knocks at the door.