Heavy is the Head - Campaign thread

Hemlock is taken completely by surprise as the one called Clarke jumps to his feet and stabs him whilst he is merely trying to ensure the man’s survival.

He is so shocked in fact, that the moment the initial strike hits home, he unleashes a telekinetic reprisal that he wasn’t even aware he was capable of.

Reaction (after first hit): Gift of the Gem Dragon - Telekinetic Reprisal - DC14 Str save or take 10 force damage and be pushed 10 feet away. On a successful save just takes 5 force damage.

As Clark is pulling the sword back from the first jab, whe wave of energy flows from the Gem in Hemlock's amulet, an instinct to self-preservation realized as true power. Clark's already beaten body can not handle the power, and he is thrown 10 feet away, where he crumples bonelessly to the ground, a small trickle of blood coming from his ear. Clark is dead.

https://www.owlbear.app/room/5nRs1L_uFdxM/HeavyistheHeadPBP

Sha-gravis moves 25' close to Eliza, "Stand down and live!"  Ready to attack if Eliza casts a spell.

We are out of initiative.

"Alright, alright." Eliza says as she pants and tries to catch her breath. "I can admit when I'm beaten. This is your score now, I guess. Just please, let me live. We'll go, and try to find an easier bounty. I couldn't get this damn door open, anyway. Does my archer friend still draw breath?"

“What the…where did…how did…oh dear!”, Hemlock exclaims as Clark is flung away from him.

He goes over to the archer’s still body. ”I did not mean…I’m sorry”, he says sadly.

With that he looks over to the others to make sure they are faring ok.

”I am afraid the one with the bow refused to stand down”, he calls across. “And there was an accident”.

"An accident!?" Eliza's face contorts into fury, although she does not reach for her book or her dagger. "You ambushed us, burned Gordon up in his armor, sent a towering goblinoid to cut him in twain, stabbed me multiple times, and killed Clark, and you call it an accident? I submit that you have beaten us, but you don't get to pretend to be the heroes here. You're another ragtag group scrambling for Strixwell's bounty, not some party of saviors from the storybooks."

Sha looks down, makes his way over to Clark is he beyond stabilizing?

Roll a medicine check. He looks beyond stabilizing, at a glance.

Clark is not breathing, and you can not feel a pulse. You have no reason to believe it would be possible to save him - barring some very high-level magic.

“We have not claimed to be heroes”, Hemlock replies.

”You were given many chances to yield. I am not proud of killing your companions, it was not my intention, but what happened, happened. Gordon treated my Bugbear friend like a monster, and maybe he deserved to get what he expected. Maybe he didn’t”.

He walks over to the others, passing Sha on the way.

"He deserved..." Eliza stops, and bites back tears. "Well, it doesn't matter now. You have beaten us. Tell me what you will take from me, or what I must do to go alive and free from you this day."

“I would help you prepare the bodies.  If you would accept my help Eliza.”  Sha-gravis goes to look at the other corpse.

Saoirse has stayed a little apart while Sha and Hemlock speak to Eliza. She's taken aback by the two deaths they have caused and is not feeling all that well about it, but at the same time, she feels this is not the time to show regret. Not that it is going to change what has happened in the least. She would have prefered that the matter had been solved peacefully, but ... have they been even offered the chance? This hasn't happened. It doesn't change the fact that they could have just knocked them out instead of killing them, but it's just too late for that. 

She instead thinks back on what the party has been tasked to do. What they have seen so far. She remembers the collar that now rests on her backpack. The bigger enemies they will have to face some day, probably not too far from this day. More fighting will come, more death that they will surely will not be able to stop and that will certainly come upon them unless they steel themselves. Thinking of all this, she grits her teeth and with her weapons still drawn she approaches Eliza: 

- What my friend says its true: we are not here to be heroes. We have come here because we have a job to do. You could have accepted the many chances we gave you to stop the combat and you didn't. But as you say, it doesn't matter now. So, to answer your question: tell us what you were trying to accomplish here. What that Strixwell's bounty is about. What your ritual was about. Tell us everything, and I suggest you be thorough and true.

Saoirse will let Eliza speak and then will take a look at her belongings and also Gordon and Clark's in search for anything useful, or that gives any insight about their mission here.

"Oh Gods, you really mean what you say, don't you, Tabaxi? Gordon was a follower of Selŭne. He would probably appreciate a service commending him to the light, for what its worth. I've only lnown him a few weeks. Clark came up with me in the thieves guild in springdawn, and that's not an upbringing that inspires faith. If you'll allow me, I'll take his stuff and his clothes, and drop some of it back in springdawn for friends to remember him by. His body is just a body. Leave it to the harpies, he wouldn't care." If you look up, you can see a couple of harpies circling overhead. One flies back into what looks like the second-highest level of the tower. (Harpies, for the purposes of this campaign, are non-sentient, and almost as happy to scavenge as they are to kill, although the backstory in dndbeyond is a folk story that some of you may have heard.) "You are not like other mercs I've met, to make the offer." She likes and respects Sha-Gravis now.

She reacts less well to Saoirse's demands and claims. "You really have no idea what you're dealing with? Here's the bounty poster. Obviously what I was trying to do is get into the tower, not that i had any luck." She hands over a poster, which offers a 1000 gold piece reward for bringing the gnome artificer "Fitzwhistle Cobblepot" back to a representative of Springdawn alive, or 500 gold pieces for returning with evidence of his death and any notes/diaries/journals found with him. Cobblepot is described as being "in possession of unauthorized magical items, and secrets belonging to the lord of Springdawn (Silvia Strixwell). When Saoirse reaches out to search her or her downed companions, she pushes back. "Hey! Don't touch me with your self-righteous blood-stained hands. I gave you the information, and your Cleric offered to help me with the other's bodies. That includes their stuff."

With your great insight + investigation, you can tell that everything she said is true enough, but also that she or her companions have something that she doesn't want you to find, and that she has at least a little insight into how one might get into the tower.

Lam has been still, and silently staring at his Greataxe. He keeps glancing at Eliza like he wants to speak up, but he does not. What could he say? I didn’t mean to. I lost control. How much of that is even true? He begins to formulate a question, but fails to ask it. It is answered when Eliza pulls out the bounty photo.

He moves just a bit closer to get a look at the poster, and he furrows his brow in concern as he reads the contents. It seems like they’re trying to arrest Cobblepot for the same reason they arrested Tesfaye. And it’s not good that Strixwell has anything to do with this. He takes a step back after looking.

He stares at Eliza, his own mind too full of racing thoughts to come up with a plan of action for either thing he wants to do. After a minute, he settles to say simply: “I am sorry.” He puts his Greataxe away as he says this and resumes staring at the ground, expecting the human not to respond well to him doing much else.

"A remorseful bugbear. Now I've seen everything," Eliza says to no-one in particular.

(We haven't much talked about economy so far, but all of you [except Hemlock] would recognize 1000 gold pieces to be a huge amount of money. This is easily 100 times the reward or bounty for a regular arrest. People buy houses for that amount of money, and it would take a person from poverty straight to middle-class.)

Hemlock looks to Eliza, and shakes his head.

”Do not misinterpret our regret at having killed for being weak willed. What has happened here was for a purpose, and we will fulfil that purpose. If it means searching you and your companions and taking what we need, we will do so”, he says and motions for Saoirse to continue.

Action: Help Saoirse.

- I couldn't have expressed it better - Saoirse says after hearing what Hemlock's words. Then fixes her burning-coal like eyes on Eliza - Look: we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. But it's clear that you know more than you care to express and I dare say that either you or one of your companions know or have something that can help us into this tower. So let me suggest one last time that you give us what you have, that you bury your fallen friends - which is more than any of us would have gotten, had the combat turned the other way round - and then get the hell away from this place.

The genasi takes one single step towards the human, shrughs with a slight move that reminds that she hasn't put her weapons away yet, and adds:

- Or don't. Your choice.

Eliza’s comment about a remorseful bugbear rubs Lam the wrong way. His eyes flare, but he turns away from everyone and walks a few steps away. He takes deep breaths to calm himself as he listens to his friends, who are handling the situation better than he knows how to at the moment. They remind him that it would be good to get whatever Eliza was using to get into the tower. He turns to Saoirse as she talks, and, following her lead, goes to stand behind her. He lifts his chest high to look down at Eliza and puts one hand back on his greataxe, keeping his face as neutral as possible.