Further Adventures in Pathfinding: Session Eight
In which our heroic monk is hustled back into jail with the other prisoners.
The paladin triumphed in his battle with the guard captain, so everybody was cleared of the charges. The guards said they were holding the paladin pending some paperwork. They let the party go free and recover their gear.
Not the monk. They said they'd hold him a few days more for resisting arrest. I thought, OK.
The rest of the party met up. They visited the Archmage and our wizard received a magic staff/sword as a gift. Then they headed back into town for a public execution.
My monk and the guard captain were taken onto a stage. The captain was executed for losing a trial by combat, over my protests at the barbarity. Then my monk was brought forward and charged with resisting arrest, mayhem, and murder! Seems one of the guards I knocked over died of a concussion.
I said I wanted a trial, and I was told this was my trial. I said I wanted trial by combat, and I was promised trial by axe. The rest of the party was ready to stop the execution. I figured I was lawful, so I asked if I could say goodbye to my friends. I was told I had no friends.
At this point with the axe overhead I decided I could pray to my god, Irori, the monk god. The DM told me to go ahead and give the prayer.
"Oh Irori," I said, "I'm the only one out here who worships you, so that should count for something. Also you saw how Iomedae came through for her paladin, so you should step up and deliver."
The DM rolled and didn't like what he got. He told me a bolt of lightning struck the guard with the axe, slaying him.
After that I decided to fight back. The party started casting spells from the crowd, but four mages at the corners of the stage were creating an anti-magic field.
The party rushed the stage. There followed a prolonged melee between four mages, five guards, a wizard, a gunslinger, a sorcerer, a witch, a cleric, a slayer with a crossbow arm, and two monks.
The gunslinger, the slayer, and I couldn't hit a barn with anything we rolled. The witch was the real destroyer in the party, throttling people with her long hair. Magic worked once you got on the stage. She dropped three of the five guards with her hair, one after the other.
One of the mages got thrown off the stage, lucky him. One got taken out with a firebolt to the face, another got hewn with an axe, and a third got beat down with a quarterstaff.
The party had to pull out all the stops, with many dark secrets revealed. The sorcerer owned up to his Abyssal bloodline and started slashing with fiery claws. He used a staff of Vampiric Touch on a guard, disintegrating him in a spray of blood. The wizard had to use his Infernal healing. We all agreed it was good the paladin wasn't there watching.
All through the fight my monk tried to intimidate soldiers into giving up, but it was no good, they refused to surrender.
Finally it was done, the last guard fell down. We were many of us injured and the sorcerer was at 0 hit points. He was healed a bit. There was an argument about what to do next. The DM pulled out a small hourglass and gave us three minutes realtime to decide what to do. The bulk of the party decided to remain in town and rescue the paladin and the fighter.
The cleric of Sarenrae and the sorcerer decided to set fire to the execution stage, I guess out of frustration.
We had to roll for stealth and since everybody beat a 10, nobody ran into the contingent of 10 guards running towards the public square. The jail was abandoned, and we found the paladin in a cell. We loosed him and my monk was freed of his manacles, and then we picked up the fighter drinking in the tavern. We left town to run after the gunslinger and the slayer, who booked for the forest as soon as the fighting was over.
After the battle, I decided my monk is still lawful, since he was resisting a police lynching, but he will offer to surrender to the King only. I think it's a split hair, because he's probably wanted for bounty and is more likely to be facing mercenaries than a royal emissary. I guess he has to work on saving the world first, and then beg for a royal pardon.
It wasn't until I woke up the next morning that I realized we set fire to the stage, but didn't drag off any of the unconscious guards who were lying on top of it...so we're probably wanted for ten murders now.
Should be interesting.