Session 74: Time runs out for Aelos (February 13, 2025)
Last session, our heroes saw, through Karrl, Ash sneaking into the Cedar Sash, the upscale building in the fashion district that Kogar was staying at with his retinue. The party set about planning a way to message her, determine her allegiance, and potentially meet with her if the opportunity arose. Elias worried that maybe she had found someone else, Heph suggested Messaging her, and Maho let Ana dress her up like Ash.
The party put their hands in, said “down with Kogar”, and headed to the Cedar Sash. Along with the Eladrin fighters, they gathered in an empty building nearby. Through the window they learned that Ash was tied up and didn’t seem to be alone. Through a couple Messages, Heph learned that Ash was reluctant to trust a mysterious disembodied voice, and Elias waved at her from the window, startling her but making her ready to help with an escape.
Elias placed a moving image in front of Ash like a looping CCTV feed and, with Maho’s help finding the timeline where the illusion was the most believable, Misty Stepped in, cut Ash’s binds, and climbed with her out the window.
The party regrouped in the building, making all the other Eladrin nervous with the daughter of Kogar Mistwall joining them. Ash insisted on being tied up to make them more at ease, everyone relocated to an empty building a bit further away, and Elias suggested he use his juicy shaft to force her to explain herself. She agreed to the terms, and Maho attempted to shoot her, missing as Ash leapt and caught the arrow behind her back. Elias took the bow himself and shot, piercing Ash in the arm. Heph healed her, and she prepared to speak.
- Ash is still tied to the chair, her eyes dilated from the Juicy
Shaft, and begins to speak
- She asks what we know, and Elias tells her we know Kogar is here to meet up with Sentin
- She asks Elias what he knows about her, and he says not much beyond she’s apparently a princess
- The Eladrin in the room are a bit on edge, but between Ash being tied up and some begrudging trust towards Elias they seem willing to wait to see where it goes
- Ash starts to fill us in on some background, she was in contact with Elias and was feeding information to the resistance
- She isn’t a spy by trade, so eventually she was found out, and the Mistguard tracked her then Elias back to the resistance base
- She disappeared because she was found out, her Father noticed her after the incident and she was kept under closer eye
- She has managed to bribe some guards to retain some of her freedom, because her father rules through fear and doesn’t inspire loyalty
- She mentions she hid Elias’ parents, and we inform her we found them, and Elias tries to give her the book of eco-nomics he grabbed from the cave
- She also met up with Hooded Beth in the tidal dungeons beneath Scythcrest Reef
- Elias knows Hooded Beth is an arch fey and Scythcrest Reef is Kogar’s castle
- Ash met Beth in her cell, and Beth taught her how to fight and move through shadows, as well as taking away her need to sleep
- Beth also gave Ash a trident, which is currently hidden in a glass of water in her bedroom, which is likely going to be important
- In exchange for this, Ash is to be her vengeance, she is bound to Beth to see her father dead, and she must free Beth and enter her service after he’s dead
- Maho asks if Beth plans to take over for Kogar, and Ash isn’t really sure, Beth wasn’t specific
- Eventually Kogar came here and brought Ash, seemingly intending to marry her off
- We learn she was actually in the fog when Elias saw her, but she
ran off because she wasn’t ready to face it
- Heph mentions the pocket watch, and she seems glad Elias has kept it
- She has been sneaking out to gather information and saw us kill Kelner
- Elias asks her what her plan was, she explains she was still mainly in information gathering mode, and has gathered a fair bit of information from snooping
- She hasn’t planned anything yet, it is difficult for her to imagine it actually happening
- Heph asks if she is okay with Kogar dying, and she has an emotional block but knows in her brain it is better if he dies
- The way the pact with Hooded Beth works, she needs to ensure he dies, but
doesn’t seem to need to be personally responsible, but also will not be
punished if she fails
- She just “will see to it he dies”
- Elias pulls Heph aside, seeming to be a bit angry about
Heph grilling Ash
- Heph manages to calm Elias down a bit, explaining he trusts Ash because Elias does
- Elias notices the Silent Image has dropped, and Heph turns to the group and asks if everyone is okay because we need to go
- There is a bit of grumbling and resistance, but Heph explains that she can’t go back to Kogar anyway because she’ll probably be killed, and Wyn seems to acknowledge that it’ll be better to release her
- The group unties Ash, and makes a plan to get away from the area and back to a safe location, finally deciding to go back to Delilas’ crew’s headquarters
- Elias peeks out the front window, Ana starts to
disguise Ash, and the Eladrin start to plan to work their way back
in small groups
- On a nat 20, Elias sees Aelos Zinnan and a few other Mistguard tracking a trail and working their way towards the house
- Coming back to the group, Ana has made Ash look like Maho
- We finalize a plan: Heph, Maho, Elias, Ana and Ash will head out first, and try to draw the Mistguard away
- The Eladrin will stay behind, and if any stray Mistguard enter the house to investigate, will take them out, then follow to their Inn
- Elias transforms into a fox shape, and says he’ll scout ahead to steer us, and Karrl flies up to keep an eye on them
- Elias runs out to try to track the Mistguard, and Heph, Maho, Ana and Ash head out of the house, trying to create an obvious track for the guards to follow
- Ash looks to the group and asks what the plan is, and
Elias tells her to run, and despite wanting to fight she starts to
run
- Heph casts hypnotic pattern, causing Mistguard #1 and #7 to be incapacitated, and runs back 40 feet
- Aelos takes a legendary action to move closer to Elias, but not quite reaching him, seeming to be convinced that Maho-Ash is the real Ash
- Elias runs 40 feet, taking a shot at Aelos with his bow, but missing, then hides through the window of a nearby building
- Aelos looks back at the Mistguards, telling them to investigate the house, and activates fighting spirit, approaches Ana and swings at her 3 times; landing all 3 he manages to deal 29 points of damage
- Mistguard #1 is charmed
- Mistguard #2 shakes #7 awake and walks towards #1
- #7 heads into the house, and is kept occupied by the Eladrin in the house
- Maho-Ash uses her bonus action to activate a rune to give herself resistance and swings at Aelos with her sword, but he manages to block the attacks
- Ana, seeming to be less happy to be part of the party now, stabs at Aelos, dealing 23 damage, then says “Okay, Princess, I’m going to leave you to handle this” and then disappears in a puff of smoke and misty steps into a building
- The Eladrin swarm #7 and deal some damage
- Real Ash continues to run away
- Heph pulls out the hourglass and yells out to Aelos, “Hey Aelos, did you lose this?”, hits him with some magic missiles, then taunts him
- Aelos will take a legendary action to misty step 30 feet towards Heph, getting a bit away from Maho-Ash, saying “I’ll be back for you” as he does it
- Elias draws his shadow blade, then jumps out of the window and slashes at Aelos, dealing 34 damage and attempts to poison him, but doesn’t manage it; Elias says “fuck you” to Aelos and runs away to the other side of the street
- Aelos dashes up to Heph, action surging to take a few swings, almost hitting the first but Elias distracts him by telling him his shoes are untied, but lands 3 more solid hits, dealing 34 damage
- Mistguard #2 wakes up #1 and heads inside
- #1 heads inside and joins the fray, but the Eladrin manage to stay alive and keep fighting
- Maho-Ash dashes towards Heph and Aelos, firing a blast at Aelos on the way but missing
- Ana hides, trying to avoid dying
- The Eladrin manage to deal some more damage to #1 and #7
- Real Ash continues to run
- Heph tries to fool Aelos into believing a prestidigitation hourglass is the real one, but it doesn’t work, so Heph tosses the hourglass to Elias
- Elias dunks the hourglass into a potion of growth, and it “drinks” the potion and grows bigger, making a bigger hole for the sand to fall through, causing Aelos to suddenly age rapidly and take 64 damage; then uses his mage hand to try to shove more sand through, causing him to continue to age and dealing another 56 damage; he runs over and hides behind Heph and Maho
- Aelos uses a legendary action to appear behind Heph and Maho, and tells Elias he’s a powerful man and can give Elias anything he wants, and Elias rejects the offer
- Aelos says “so be it, I will take it from you” and lands 3 hits despite Maho’s runic shield, Elias uncanny dodges taking 29 damage
- Aelos action surges, landing 3 more strikes for an additional 32 damage, knocking Elias out, and he grabs the hourglass
- The Mistguards manage to take out 9 of the Eladrin
- Maho-Ash activates giant’s might, confusing Aelos, and wrests the hourglass from his grasp, and starts spinning it, trying to use centripetal force to accelerate the sand, managing to force the sand to quickly run out and dealing 75 damage
- Aelos tries to climb up Maho’s legs to get his hourglass back, but as the sand runs out he pulls back a bit and says “I have chosen poorly”, then collapses to the ground and turns to dust
- Maho runs towards the house where the Eladrin are fighting
- Ana continues to hide
- The Eladrin fight back, dealing some damage to the Mistguard
- Real Ash is still gone from the fight
- Heph heals Elias for 33 health and then runs after Maho
- Elias wakes up, a bit groggy and confused, but with some prodding from Heph and Maho he runs toward the Mistguard that are fighting
- The Mistguard continue to fight the Eladrin, with some help from Elias’ silvery barbs only 8 of them end up dying
- Maho dashes towards the Mistguard and action surges, confusing them as a giant Ash appears in the doorway, and grapples #7 and pulls him out of the room, and grapples #1 and pulls him out of the room as well
- Ana is hiding
- The Eladrin manage to deal a bunch of damage to Mistguard #2
- Real Ash is gone
- Heph catapults a rock at the Mistguards Maho is holding, #1 manages to dodge but #7 is hit for 27 damage and is killed
- Elias runs up to Mistguard #1, and pulling out Jarles stabs #1, dealing a solid 29 damage, and then following it up with a dagger for an additional damage, then tries to hide behind Maho-Ash, but doesn’t quite manage to do it
- Mistguard #1 tries to stab at Maho-Ash but misses
- Mistguard #2 continues to fight the Eladrin, but they manage to hang on with some help from Elias’ silvery barbs
- Maho grapples #2 and yanks him out of the building, turning them away from the door and blocking it with her body, then drops #1 and smacks at him with a handaxe, but misses
- Ana continues hiding
- The Eladrin start licking their wounds and thank giant Maho-Ash, very confused
- Real Ash is gone
- Heph launches some lightning at #1, but misses
- Elias tells Jarles it’s time to blow up another head, which he is excited about, and stabs at #2’s head, dealing 45 damage against his remaining 18 health, stopping just short of his head, flipping open his mask, and then stabs him in the eye, his head exploding, the backs up and mage hand slaps #1 in the face
- #1 fey steps away, then starts running away
- Maho runs after him and uses her katana to launch a ranged attack, then dashes into range
- Real Ash is gone
- The Eladrin and Ana come out, catching their breath
- This has been a huge success, having managed to take out Aelos and 3 additional Mistguard, and having freed Ash from Kogar’s place
- Maho realizes she is no longer holding the hourglass, but rather the bottle of wine she had previously given Tertel, with the writing “the wanderer finds home in others’ hearts”