Campaign Journal #9- The Day the Music Died

The party decided that they were done with Bowerstone and were ready to move onto other adventures. I agree, four whole nights of gaming is a long time to spend in one town, even if it is as seedy and filled with adventure as Bowerstone is. However, before leaving there was the small matter of the Association and a certain do-wop group that needed to be taken care of. The group spent about half a day getting some more supplies around town to prepare for their journey back into the mountains and towards the medusas, the goal being to make it to the far off temple that they had seen perched away atop the mountain range. Also, Lela penned a letter to Mrs. Goldborn informing her that she would not be making it to her scheduled performance for the birthday party.

No one likes a bully and the party decided that before leaving they would kill the lead singer of the Dockside Boys, the charming Swooner Simon Schooner. After seeing Simon interact with Abraham at the Squires Club they had pegged the crooner as a rat, since he had seen the party leaving the docks after stealing a package, which then led to the initial encounter with Abraham. Simon had to die, it was that simple. Plus, Glee has had a long standing hatred of the man since first encountering him on the street. Smart enough to realize that murdering the well liked and well connected Schooner will probably spell the end of their time in Bowerstone they planned their assault very carefully.
Some advance scouting by Lela revealed that the Dockside Boys would be performing at the Squires Club that evening, two performances at nine and eleven. Aside from that they did not know where to find him. The hit would have to go down in public. Everyone seemed fine with that.

They waited until the very start of the performance and then put their plan in motion. Henri waited outside the bar, about 200 feet from the door in a little hiding spot. Once he was in place Lela donned the Cape of the Montebank and dimenion doored the group inside, right onto the stage. Before teleporting in everyone was also made invisible by either Lela, Henri, or Mgabwe (some of them had Greater Invisibility so they wound not appear when attacking). They appeared inside, adjacent to the stage and invisible to the entire audience, who were about to be treated to quite a performance. Now, everyone wanted to be the one that killed Simon, he has not made any friends in the party, and I don’t think I ever saw an initiative roll that the party was so eager to make. Glee really wanted to play executioner and was psyched when he got a 24 for initiative, only to wind up second to the 25 rolled by Romulus. It may sound like a backhanded compliment, but no one kills an unaware opponent while invisible quite like Romulus and poor Simon was no exception. Right as he was hitting a high note the longsword and axe combo went to work, blood spraying the crowd from the slice opened in the throat of the singer, his final melody hanging in the air like gallows. He slumped to the ground dead. No more sweet music for the do-wop fans of Bowerstone. With the party crashed, why stop with one death? Looking around Glee saw Abraham, leaned against the bar, a look of horror beginning to creep across his face as he watched the death of Simon unveil. Glee lunged at him, carving him up pretty good but he remained on his feet. The party delivered inside and her job done, the invisible Lela fled for the door and into the night. Mgabwe followed the actions of Glee and went after Abraham, again the dwarf held his ground. Despite both Lela and Romulus fleeing the scene, Glee could not help himself and got one more shot at Abraham. This time it was enough and he sunk to the ground like a dead dwarf in a bar. Mgabwe spent a whole round stuffing his corpse into the Bag of Holding, the bar watched on in amazement as the body seemed to be swallowed up by the air around it. Weird stuff. Now the only one left in the Squires Club, Mgabwe ran for the door only to have it closed before he got there by panicking patrons. He dove for the window and burst through the glass and into the night.

Henri was watching the door to make sure the party all got away safely, however he had no way of knowing this since they were all invisible. Once the window broke he figured they were all out and threw a Wall of Fire around the bar to prevent anyone from following them. The party met up at the designated rendez vous and casually walked out of town, leaving Bowerstone behind them forever. Smiles all around, for nothing tastes as sweet as revenge.

The mysterious temple far off in the mountains has been a siren’s call to the party since they first laid eyes on in at the start of the campaign. Upon leaving Bowerstone it now become their destination. The group headed off into the mountains, unsure of what was ahead of them. They had purchased some mountaineering gear from Up In Arms before exiting town and were eager to use it. After moving for a couple of hours they found themselves deep in the rocky region, not far from the collapsed lair of the giant snake. As they were moving through the area excellent Spot checks from Mgabwe and Lela (I’m pretty sure her only good spot check ever) revealed a pair of cloaked figures waiting to ambush, a third figure was far off perched atop a small rocky ledge. The crew leapt into action and charged as the figures did the same. The far off one hurled fireballs repeatedly at the party and did considerable damage, including the fiery death of the likeable rat familiar of Henri, Gertrude Charlemagne. The shock was devastating to Henri (especially the 1000xp he lost). Mgabwe cast fly on himself and eventually took down the spellcaster, but suffered serious wounds himself. The sword wielding medusas (which was obvious once the cloaks came off) fell to the might of the party, but not before another loss was suffered. As the battle wound down a desperate medusa was able to petrify Romulus as he was carving her up. His massive half orc frame now turned to stone, the party was in a bit of a bind. On the plus side, the spellcaster was wearing a diamond snake necklace, an identical one to the necklace that the party forgot to loot the last time they were in the mountains.

Knowing that they planned to return to an area inhabited by medusas I was curious if they were going to buy an extra Break Enchantment scroll for some insurance. They did not and it came back to haunt them right away. There was only one way to return Romulus back to his normal state, they had to return to Bowerstone. Stuffing Romulus into the bag of holding they began to creep back to town. They had several concerns in returning to Bowerstone. One, they were afraid that they officials in town may want to talk to them concerning the fire that appeared outside the Squires Club the night before. Two, the larger concern was repercussions from the Association. They were invisible when they assassinated Simon and Abraham, but it wouldn’t be too hard to figure out that they were behind it. The goal was to be in and out. Head to the Church of Boccob/Institute of Learning, purchase a scroll of Break Enchantment, and get out of there as quick as possible. Seemed like a good plan, they even decided to use the Cloak of the Montebank to get there faster once they were in town.

They arrived in Bowerstone in the middle of the night and quickly found their way to the Church. Mgabwe purchased a scroll and traded in the magical axe and armor taken from Abraham for another. While there they decided to do a little research on the medusas using the vast library of the Church. Mgabwe rolled a one on his knowledge check, turning up zero bits of useful information. Henri tried next, even though he was not a member of the Church and not permitted to use the research facilities. He turned up some useful information and just as he was reading about the Queen of the medusas, the enigmatic Bride of Nine Snakes, he was caught by the librarian and forced to leave the premises. Mgabwe had his membership revoked and was shown the door. Henri did notice that most of the information on the medusas was contributed by someone named Master Fong.

The party exited the Church and out onto the street. As they looked around they saw gangs walking towards them from each direction, clearly coming right for the party…