Purge of the Manticore Mill Murderers

 

This Week's Team Members

• Chumbawamba the loyal warg and team mascot
• Nimrod Crowguile, esquire. 
• a Corporate Lawyer (i.e. fixer and aspiring consigliere) of Kas Enterprises, 
• a charismatic male Variant Human ("vuman") warlock of Kas the Bloody Handed
• a proud graduate of Kas Enterprise's evil law school

• Devora --she/her,  Valor Bard and Student Intern spending time adventuring between course work at a Strixhaven-like university
• Pugh -- a sometimes very big, green skinned pole arm wielding rune knight.  Is Pugh a Warforged?
• Hootie Hoo -- Devora's owl familiar
• Nimbat: Nimrod's bat familiar and confidant
• introducing the Nimwits: Nimrod's unseen servants, near tireless  doers of nearly mindless repetitive tasks
• Fennix: a very shy, small sized fire druid who is smitten with Nimrod-- even though Nimrod rarely acknowledges Fennix's existence.  Fennix is hairless and his whole body is badly scarred because he burned to death in a forest fire prior to joining the Bad Decisions Guild.  But somehow he continues to "live". His obsession with Nimrod grows stronger daily.  (Perhaps Nimrod is the reason Fennix has not yet surrendered to Death.)
• Sparky the wild fire spirit: Fennix often summons this dog like fire elemental to assist him in his adventures 
• Silvermist Biggins: (she/her) half-elf/half-halfling drunken master monk.
• Faelin Amok the Rogue

This is the second adventure at level 8.

This week's episode: Purge of the Manticore Mill Murderers

Nimrod's Baroque Spectral Stagecoach speeding at the thrilling pace of 10 mph through the moonless Summer night

The team travelled in two groups after leaving Maureen Trask.  The group in this episode was persuaded to travel in luxurious style in a magical spectral stagecoach Nimrod had summoned by casting the phantom steed ritual for 50 minutes followed by the unseen servant and floating disk rituals. This provided an ornate covered carriage drawn by impossibly swift spectral riding horses.  Nimbat helped the unseen servant coachmen handle the reins of the horses in the night so that the stagecoach stayed  on the primitive dirt road.

Our adventurers were travelling on the old  road through the desert west of Djelibeybi because of rumors of murders and mayhem along this road.  They thought these crimes may be related to the Golden Orchid Society.

Around midnight in their nocturnal journey the stagecoach came upon a aged farmer as he was hurriedly shambling from his privy to his boarded up farm house on the other side of this strangely grassy stretch of the road.  As the coach stopped abruptly next to the farmer, Devora called out to him "Kind sir, we come to investigate tales of many recent wicked murders along this road.  Can you tell us where to start?"

The  crusty farmer snarled, "You whipper snappers get off my lawn!  If you want trouble, go ten miles down the proper road to the ruins of the old mill."

Nimrod immediately barked at Nimbat and the two unseen servant coachmen, "You Nimwits!, Get us off this man's lawn and back onto the road. "

Nimbat and the unseen coachmen furiously maneuvered the coach at maximum speed in a circle around the now startled geezer.  The phantom steeds screamed as the coach's steely wheels threw dust and sod into the air surrounding the now coughing oldster.   

Fennix's guilt about the damaged lawn compelled him to "reassure" the farmer by lighting dancing red flames in the ruts left in the lawn by the coach.   The flames formed a tapestry bearing the words "WE WILL BE BACK!" in air above the ruts.  Fennix intended this to help the farmer know he had new protectors who would stand by his side (and fix his lawn).  But the flames actually terrified the farmer, particularly since they were five feet tall and had him surrounded.

The coach quickly left the intimidated farmer shaking his arthritic crutch at the coach's quickly receding sanguine tail lights and briefly flaming wheel rims.

The spectral coach arrived at the abandoned mill at 1 AM.  No one yet knew what to expect.  But all were wary for anything.  There were two main structures upon a rocky plateau: one a partially collapsed two story wooden structure; the other a sturdier multi-story stone tower -- evidently a dilapidated windmill.  A young woman's partially consumed corpse was draped through the lower branches of a sturdy oak tree half way up the base of the plateau cliffs.

The team stealthily approached the lifeless form hung suspended through the heart of the ancient oak tree, an eerie tableau that seemed to blur the line between the ethereal and the corporeal. The body appeared as a melancholic ornament of nature, a grim juxtaposition against the tree's enduring vitality.

The limbs of the deceased dangled in a macabre dance, their stillness an unsettling contrast to the swaying branches around them. Like a marionette suspended by invisible strings, the body seemed both a part of the tree and yet starkly separate, a silent observer of the world below.

The crux of the oak tree cradled the form with an almost reverential embrace, as if the tree itself had taken on the role of a solemn guardian. The bark's rough texture provided an unsettling texture against the softness of the fabric that adorned the body, hinting at the harsh realities of mortality that this scene encapsulated.

In this surreal union of life and death, the oak tree stood as a silent witness to the passing of time, an ancient sentinel that now cradled the weight of a single human existence within its enduring arms.  Nimrod floated upward to touch the corpse and recited unholy incantations in a Devil language for ten minutes so he could interrogate to the dead woman.

Nimrod: "Where did you live?"

Her: "I lived on a farm.  I don't know how far from here."

Nimrod: "How were you killed?"

Her: "I went out with a club to protect my livestock animals from a strange roaring beast that was attacking them.  Suddenly something with a mouth full of long fangs and strong claws was upon me.  That is all I saw."

Nimrod asked more questions but no additional useful information.

The team stealthily ascended the bluffs of the plateau to the ruins.  Fennix used pass without trace to help the party approach undetected.  

The party explored the wooden building first.  Nimbat detected a large creature that was partially obscured by rubble on the second floor.  It was cat-like and was torturing a nearly dead man who was pleading in vain to be allowed to escape.  Nimrod flew up and around for a better view as Pugh, Chumba, and Devora prepared to charge in to save the man.

Nimrod's repelling blast threw the creature off the second floor onto the ground by Pugh.  Unfazed by its fall damage, the creature was immediately ready to fight Pugh and Devora.

Pugh, Devora, and Chumba quickly finished it off.  Chumba was seriously hurt by its tails spikes however

As Fennix cured all of the man's wounds the man revealed the many flying cat-like in these buildings had killed many people for miles around.

Meeting the first manticore

Now everyone had seen the creature fully.  All except Nimrod recognized the beast to be a manticore from images they had seen at the Winkieport Museum.  It had a lion's body, a human-ish face, a long spiky tail, large bat-like wings, sharp claws, and a large mouth of big sharp teeth.  Nimrod mistakenly thought it might be a young sphinx.  But the others corrected him.

As the team continued clearing the ground floor of the wooden building, a second manticore charged Devora and Pugh.  They dispatched it quickly with a little help from Nimrod and Fennix's wild fire spirit.

In the final room of the first floor, three ghasts arose from under the floor rubble.  Fennix deployed a flaming sphere where it could burn all three as his wildfire spirit also put itself in the center of the room.  All the ghasts had taken fire damage before Pugh and Devora attacked.  Nimrod rushed around the outside and obliterated a ghast through a window.  Pugh, the wild fire spirit, and Devora quickly destroyed the other two -- though the wildfire spirit took much damage from the ghasts.

Nimrod continued around to the outside of back of the building.  He found another door which led into a small room in which a wild house cat and her litter of kittens lived.  Fennix spoke to mother cat to learn the locations of the remaining creatures.  The cat did not know much since it had survived by hiding from the manticores.  But it thought there were more creatures in the other building.

The team took a short rest.  Then they stealthed to the stone ruins.  Nimbat reconnoitered ahead of the party.  When Nimbat looked through a crack or window at an upper level of the stone building Nimbat saw the silhouettes of goat sized creatures that mewed harmlessly back at Nimbat.

Pugh transformed into a giant before ascending the stairs to the tower door.  Nimrod assumed his dread form.  Pugh and Devora forced open the door as Nimrod, Chumba, Fennix, and the wild fire spirit watched from within spell casting range.

Nimrod's devil sight revealed three manticores.  He cast bane on these low charisma creatures as fast as possible.  He felt like maybe he had successfully cursed two out of three of them.  But he could not really know.

Two of the creatures fought back at the door against Pugh and Devora.  One of the creatures was knocked prone by Chumba or Pugh.  Both Pugh and Devora were winning against these manticores so far.  Nimrod saw some of one manticores strikes that should have hit but magically somehow did not, presumably because of the curse Nimrod had cast.

Nimrod, Devora, and Pugh saw the third manticore was bigger, stronger, and more healthy than the others.  This manticore exited through a back door and was coming into view while flying fast from the east wall of the tower.

The team fighting to gain entrance to the stone building.  The manticore alpha has just flown out the back door and will soon be visible to the Fennix and Nimrod.

Reinforcements Arrive

Suddenly, Amok arrived at the tower entrance just as Pugh and Devora moved off towards what they perceived to be a greater emerging threat somewhere else.  Amok took over the fight at the door for both of them.   

Silvermist arrived as well. She immediately ran off toward the manticore alpha and with a stunning blow was able to make it fall out of the sky to the base of the plateau cliff north of the tower.  She was fighting the alpha by herself for now.

Amok killed the two lesser manticores with much help from Nimrod and Fennix.  Then Fennix and his wild fire spirit climbed the interior stair case to the second floor to help Nimrod, Princess, and Nimbat, who had already flown up there from outside the building.  Amok was not there because Amok ran to Silvermist to help fight the manticore alpha.

Fennix immediately cast charm monster the most aggressive looking manticore kitten and then Princess pacified the remaining three of them with her rhythmic purring and face licking. The kittens readily accepted Princess as a new mother figure.

Nimrod was convinced the manticore alpha was some sort of phoenix that could be negotiated with. So he exclaimed in his most baritone barrister voice "We have your children at our mercy! Surrender now and identify your dark lord to us or you shall lose them forever!  We will take them to FAMILY COURT.  You will be a dead beat dad."

The scene after Fennix and Princess took custody of the kittens. The alpha is battling Amok and Silvermist while it is still under Nimrod's bane curse.

The alpha manticore broke free of Silvermist and Amok in spite of the numerous injuries it had taken from them.  It flew high enough to see its offspring in the custody of Fennix and Princess.  It immediately loosed a flurry of tail spike missiles at Nimrod.  

Nimrod was hit.  But the wound was only a little more than needed to cancel the boost he gained from assuming the dread form of Kas.  Nimrod was indignant that his perfectly reasoned threat to the children was seemingly rejected without consideration or a counter offer.  He pointed at the alpha and screamed, "Kas will enslave your dark lord and the world will be as if you never existed!"  The alpha burned through 30 hit points as it was wrapped in the flames of this hellish rebuke.

Nimrod then ducked into the second floor of the tower near Fennix as Nimrod interposed Dormin between himself and the alpha for extra protection.

Seeing the alpha attack and hurt Nimrod enraged Fennix.  So Fennix fully exposed himself to the danger posed by the alpha by selflessly stepping to the lip of the tower's broken wall to cast many upcasted scorching rays at the alpha.  The alpha dodged many of the rays.  But enough hit to burn the alpha to a crisp.  The charred monster fell lifeless out of the sky to the ground.

Amok harvested the bat-like wings and other body parts from the dead manticores.   Devora and Pugh took the kittens into their custody to escort them to the nearest outpost of either the Guild of Bad Decisions or Kas Enterprises.  They took Chumba and Princess with them to help manage the manticore kittens.

The team gathered up all the corpses of manticore victims we could find onto a floating disk.  Then they rode Nimrod's spectral to the nearest village several hours away.  The villagers were able to identify many of the victims and took possession of the remaining corpses.

Nimrod, Amok, and Silvermist spent the night in the village being celebrated and feted.  Then on the advice of a village elder they continued on towards the ocean to do business with his cousin, a master potion maker.