Post by Andy D on Feb 10, 2024 0:33:57 GMT
On Deceit in Matters of Mortal Consequence and the People and Land One Protects
I answered the request of Yaltine Everian, priest at the Temple of Waukeen in Daring Heights. Yaltine informed us of a dangerous moment in the temple’s past, where they had the misfortune to be conned by a demon named Pascal with grave consequences. One result of the demon’s con was the loss of the temple’s paladin, Katherine, who sacrificed herself to the Plane of Hell, attempting to destroy the Eye of Vecna, which Pascal possessed. Pascal had convinced the temple that a sacrifice to Hell was the only way to destroy the Eye. Sadly, this was a falsehood, and the temple lost its defender, Katherine to the ruse.
The incident mentioned above took place a few years ago. Today, I and other adventurers answering the call from the Temple of Waukeen, learned of an undead menace stalking the land, destroying the shrines to Waukeen that are situated around the Dawnlands. The menace’s attacks had resulted in several innocent, civilian casualties.
Priest Yaltine Everian explained to us that the Temple was aware of the undead menace’s identity; it was Katherine their former paladin, but Katherine was, as we later found her, no longer a paladin of Waukeen, but an undead knight who rode a nightmare of Hell. Katherine had changed, and had a grudge against the Temple of Waukeen, for as she felt, the temple and her faith let her down, betrayed her, and allowed her to foolishly sacrifice herself.
We adventurers managed to put an end to the undead Katherine’s rampaging and protect the Temple of Waukeen and its priests from coming to harm, by engaging and defeating Katherine at the sight of the final untouched shrine to Waukeen just outside of Daring Heights - the shrine closest to the city. Unfortunately, said final shrine, though undamaged when we reached it, was destroyed in unholy fire during the offset of battle. The destruction is regretful and tragic, but seeing some optimism in the situation, the carpentry, masonry and other guilds should gain unexpected employment for a while.
We defeated the former paladin, Katherine and her nightmare. Priest Yaltine Everian expressed gratitude for our help and rewarded us handsomely with 250gp each, not to mention my adventuring group today were also gifted Katherine’s longsword by the priests. But, as none amongst us are particularly inclined toward fencing, we will attempt to find a new owner for the longsword, and possibly a new champion of Waukeen?
Separated from the events, upon reflection, I note it to be slightly peculiar that the priests at the Temple of Waukeen did not feel confident in their numbers to deal with the threat that stalked them. The priests’ own radiant, divine magic, one assumes, would have been more than sufficient to combat Katherine…
Once the longsword is rehomed, I should pass by the Temple of Waukeen to inform them, and perhaps enquire a little further into the matter that, one hopes, has been fully dealt with. Although, a horrifying thought has arisen within my mind; though we adventurers collected Katherine’s body (or what remained of the undead, former paladin) and handed them to the temple priests for proper burial; is it possible that Katherine, who was undead, had become a person of Hell, and as such, while her body’s remains are with us on the Material Plane in Daring Heights, has her soul returned to Hell to rise anew?
On Adventurers in Civic Duty to the Temple of Waukeen
Mittens - Young Mr. McKittens has become quite adept at summoning a fey he calls Levkoi to battle, and is equally proficient in riding his figurine summoned large goat in battle, too. I’m not sure if Mittens was inspired by our fellow wizard-adventurer friend, Amble and his favouring of riding a canine mount to battle, but Mittens made great use of his mount to reach our downed compatriot Raine and see to her wounds with a healing potion in the nick of time.
Nessa - Following the nightmare mounted death knight, Katherine, into the Ethereal plane was akin to voluntarily switching from playing on your home ground, to the opponents’. Though the case, when Nessa and our foe rematerialised from the Ethereal realm, we observed that Nessa had struck some significant hits on Katherine, though herself equally quite bloodied, but also additionally on fire.
Summons appeared to unite this adventuring team, as Nessa herself had summoned a Celestial defender to fight for us. It is curious how different magic-users acquire their particular magical summons. Young Mittens has a fey, flying cat summon in the form of Levkoi, which could be said to be appropriate for a feline humanoid, perhaps. Nessa’s celestial summon was a rather flashy, moustachioed celestial whose manner and strikes were full of panache.
Raine - Whilst not really a conjured summoning, Raine’s dancing rapier effectively acted as one, and thankfully took the impact of our foe’s fireball attack rather than ourselves.
Poor Raine was ambushed by our rematerializing, mounted adversary, and almost passed out of existence. Fortunately, Raine was brought back to consciousness by Mittens, and her casting of a Destructive Wave ended the fight, both; vanquishing Katherine, and seeing that I myself did not fall unconscious to the same sequence of sword strikes from the former paladin!
I must say some positive words about Raine outside of adventuring combat. I look forward to more joint research work with Raine. I found her company in Daring Academy’s library equally inspiring as it is out in the field. Wizard Club is a source of great enjoyment for me, but perhaps a monthly inclusion of bards and their inspirational magic wouldn’t go amiss?
Myself - We had much time to prepare for our fight with the undead former paladin that a number of ideas were discussed. Both Raine and Mittens proposed using their illusion magic to misdirect our foe’s first strikes towards illusions of ourselves. I offered the casting of Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion, as an impenetrable base for us to operate out of (the inner comforts of the mansion combined with waiting for our foe to arrive did, to be truthful, also push me towards the suggestion of the aforementioned spell). But, my allies were concerned the powerful spell might rob us of powerful magic during the fight. I agreed with them.
In a similar manner, the option of casting Leomund’s Tiny Hut, and having my Awakened Spellbook’s Manifested Mind operate outside of the dome’s protection, as my powerful attack drone, was rejected as an idea in the conceptual phase. No matter how much I try, even this magic scrivener cannot bend the protective magic of Leomund’s Hut, and cast magic from within the hut to the outside, as the caster of the Hut spell. Even when the summoning of the Manifested Mind precedes the Hut, and the Hut is cast with the Mind outside of the Hut, I still can’t, say, cast the Scorching Ray, or even Magic Missile spell from the Mind. In such an example, the Manifested Mind takes on the appearance of a floating ornamental, magical bust in front of a magical, opaque dome. Not the floating magical canon in front of a magical dome fortress I had imagined.
It had been some time since I last cast Bigby’s Hand (my own summon) and the Mind Sliver Cantrip in combat. I was pleased to see I remain effective with both spells.
On the Contingency Spell and Careful Contingency Preparation to Avoid A Poorly Executed Spell or No Execution at All
I had cast the Contingency spell on myself earlier in the day, when we had been informed by the Yaltine of the danger we would engage in. The contingent-spell I had casted was the Polymorph spell directed at myself to become a Great Ape in the event of my imminent death. Now, I hasten to mention, that taking these magical precautions, does not mean I eagerly anticipate the casting of the contingent-spell. Although, perhaps more concerning, would be the contingent spell not being cast at all when needed, a poorly constructed contingency-trigger would be an awful way to reach one’s mortal demise.
I have once experienced the above spell casting, cast by myself, go as intended. I had confidence it would work again. But, I was relieved that in the end, it was not needed.
