Dungeons and Dragons Day 7: Nihilin
The Necromancer
The tournament continued with the Monk fighting against Rangar the Barbarian. It did not end well for the Monk, who despite his best efforts ended up being defeated by Rangar’s fearsome attacks.
Afterwards the Rogue and Monk went gambling. The Monk won an extraordinary amount of money while the Rogue lost a couple coins. Nothing that could not be salvaged later.
Meanwhile, the Death Knight made money dueling people in Iron’s town square. While there, he encountered a mysterious Necromancer, though the Mage did not reveal himself as one. Asking the Death Knight where he had obtained his Runeblade, he almost forced himself into a duel thanks to his strange curiosity. After some discussion, the Rogue come by to meet this individual. Up to his old tricks, the Rogue offered the Necromancer a drink. Not realizing that this was a foolish idea, despite the warnings of the Death Knight, he drank a concoction that the Rogue gave. He ended up roofied and passed out in his bed.
While this was all going on, the Barbarian Warlock completed a Training Montage.
The Second Tournament
That night, the party minus the Psionic who was still missing in action, the Necromancer who did not have an invitation while also was still passed out, and the Paladin who was no where to be found, ended up at the underground arena.
The Rogue tried once again in vain to reach the nobility that were in the restricted section. When that failed, he drank a bit too much alcohol and became delirious. He tried to cast fireballs at the other end of the arena, notably at the Sorceress Rose. However, being a Rogue, he lacked magical abilities, and in reality did not accomplish anything more than looking silly to the crowd around him. He ended up walking into a wall without noticing, repeatedly.
The Monk, tired of being forced to eat bananas, moved as far from Rose as possible. Unfortunately for him, that put him right near Naked Monk, who was preparing for whatever was to occur in the Under tournament. Fortunately for the Monk, the Naked Monk was not keeping to his namesake. However, he did not say much of anything.
The Death Knight desired to hook up with Rose again, despite the pleas from his companions to stay away from her. However, the Sorceress gave him an ultimatum. She needed the Monkey, or the Monk as everyone else called him as a servant for the night. At first the Monk refused, worried he would be forced to demean himself again. However, after some intimidation on the Death Knight’s part, they came to an agreement. No Magic, and no Banana eating. Luckily, Rose agreed to these terms.
The Barbarian Warlock remained completely ignorant of this exchange, electing to get drunk to his heart’s content.
The Gods
Before the tournament began, the Blacksmith commanded the crowd to honor the three Gods that safeguarded the world: Wylf, patron deity of Chaotic Good; Charice, patron deity of neutral good; Excutchon, patron deity of Lawful Good. The entire room was silent in their own thoughts, despite the obvious fact that some in the room scoffed at the power of such beings.
The Under tournament turned out to have similar but slightly different rules. At least for round one, the combatants were forced to use weapons made of the same material that the Master Blacksmith had presented the night before. Naked Monk and Orengar were forced to fight, with the Rogue defeating his not naked adversary.
The Undead
Afterwards, Rose, the Death Knight, and the Monk retired to the Sorceress’ chambers. She gave the Monk one simple order: Guard the hallway to her room and not let a single thing to enter. She warned that he would suffer greatly if he failed. The Monk was relieved for this simple task.
Once he had left, the Death Knight decided to question Rose again. This time asking her about the connections the woman had to the tournament. She admitted that she was just a participant and that there were other key figures that were the real power players. She also informed the Death Knight that there had been troublemakers causing here problems and there was a chance that the Monk might run into a fight in the halls. They agreed to check on him later in the night. the Death Knight became worried for his companion, but Rose assured the man that any trouble was within the Monk’s ability to handle.
The Monk was both relieved at his easy task, and yet was incredibly bored at his lack of anything to do. This changed for the worse however, when he heard shuffling feet. Moving to the hall to investigate, and remembering Rose’s warning he came upon a shambling corpse and a skeleton. Slaughtering a Zombie first with a flurry of Ki Blasts, he defeated the Skeleton second after managing to catch its arrow attack in his hand. Suddenly wondering how the hell he had ended up on such a strange planet, he began contemplating whether he should flee.
Nihilin
A little bit after this, the Necromancer decided to search around town in an investigation. The reason he had come to Iron in the first place was to find an individual who could teach him new techniques in Necromancy. His search took him inside the building where the Blacksmiths normally gathered. They were all gone and because he had not been invited to the Under Tournament, he was unsure of why. However, a single individual drew his attention. A man who reeked of death.
Realizing there was another Necromancer, he approached immediately. However, when the shady merchant, the same one who had unnerved the other party members in fact revealed his allegiances to a mysterious entity called Nihilinn, the Necromancer reconsidered. His own training had warned that this being was dangerous and uncaring of its servants. It did not help that its alignment was in direct conflict with the Necromancers own. The shopkeeper refused to teach the non Nihilinn Necromancer and so he went on his way. Running into the Rogue and Barbarian Warlock who had been doing some exploring of their own, the three made introductions and decided to hit up a local pub.
Truths
The first one they entered was filled almost completely with women. The two running the place bore the same snake ring as Rose. This however, did not stop the Rogue from trying to cause trouble. After failing to sneak a drink into her hands that was laced, he tried to straight up knife her. This did not work and the Rogue was quickly in over his head. So over his head in fact that he was turned into a chicken!
While standing guard, the Monk was attacked by more Undead, at this point he was very convinced that he needed to escape this planet as soon as possible. When he finished defending himself, Rose and the Death Knight come out of the room and after motioning him to join them in her chambers, the Sorceress shared a harsh truth. That in addition to Ourabaras, there were other powerful beings in this world. The one that had attacked with minions this night was called Nihilinn. And Rose warned that no matter how villainous, the player characters thought she was, this other being was far worse.
Back at the bar, the powerful servant of Ourabaras introduced herself as Thia. She instructed the Death Knight and Necromancer to keep their Rogue friend in check. She also warned that if he attacked her again, she would not let him live. Content with these warnings, the two finished their drinks and headed for bed.
The intrigue in Iron continues to increase. Just what is happening in this world?