Princes of the Apocalypse Recap 9

Recap 9

Our session picks up with the group assembling in the great hall of the spire for a feast. This great hall’s walls are adorned in overlarge windows and great tapestries depicting scenes of knights riding on hippogriffs, fighting dragons and jousting in the clouds. High up on the walls are assorted heads of griffons, wyverns, manticores, and Owlbears. The long-curved table they saw on their ascent is not laid out for a feast with trays of delicious food laid out in the centre. Whilst the others mingle Cybin stands in the area of the room where he can see the fewest Owlbear heads. On best behaviour he tries to avoid things that may trigger his anger.

The knights in attendance are dressed in fine velvet brocade, donning expensive jewellery and drinking out of fine goblets. Servants carry trays of hors d’oeuvres and jugs of mead and wine to refill the guest’s goblets. There is a great spread of food on the curved table and Bingo immediately wants to dig in and eat some of everything.

Gil waits for Bingo to act like an entitled noble snapping his fingers and calling for a wench to bring him his drink and food but they do not get the chance to see it for they are approached as the enter. Given goblets and offered bites to eat from silver trays they start off on the right foot. Thurl Merroska stands talking to two knights, looking around they see more people here than they had seen earlier in the day, some had flown in for the occasion it seems. Roland takes the opportunity to integrate himself going to make small talk with some of the other knights hanging around. Roland has had much practice in the past talking to big wigs like those found here. Having attended many fundraisers and social events as a representative of the temple of Tyr in Waterdeep, he was taught the best manners and etiquette he could.

Bingo asks about the entertainment, seeing that there are a couple of servant types in one corner playing instruments like a lute and harp. He listens in and is a little disappointed by the blandness of the affair, it’s acceptable but not what he would expect from fancy people such as these. Bingo requests that the musicians play shine tear shine, whilst Cybin suggests something more contemporary like Despacito. Bingo looks for Windharrow, expecting these to be an opening act for the early period of the feast. After all, Windharrow is the only reason they came to the tower. He tries to inquire subtly about windharrow saying that he had heard great things about a bard here and that it clearly isn’t the people they have playing this evening but gets nothing back about him. That is until he asks a servant about it.

“Windharrow was here for a while Sir. He was employed by a noble who came to visit, someone important who he had played for in the past Sir.” She says a little sheepishly not making eye contact.

“Where might I find this person? What’re they called?” He pushes trying to get more concrete information out of the girl. “I was very much looking forward to hearing him play.”

“Her name was Aerisi. Depending on how you look at it if you’re lucky, or unlucky, you may still get to hear him play.” She says now looking afraid as if they’ve said the wrong thing.

“That’s… ominous. I’m going to go talk to someone else I’m getting a weird vibe.” Bingo replies turning and walking away quickly to talk to someone else at the party.

After a while they all move to sit at the table and begin the feasting properly. Cybin chooses not to join them at the table and a servant is instructed to take him a selection of breads and cheeses. Thurl greets all of the guests but focusses on their group “Honoured Guests, tell us of your adventures in the Sumber Hills. I am sure you have great tales to tell.”

Gil jumps in without hesitation speaking with his more refined voice rather than his usual Russian twang “well I think we should start with the most gallant of heroes with us, Bingo my lad single handedly took on a troll and proceeded to foretell his doom if you’d like. Now Bingo go forth and tell your story. It’s quite the cracker.”

“Yes, well… there was a troll… and yeah well we killed it. It’s not the best story I don’t know why he chose that one.” Bingo says a little confused as to why Gil would choose that story.

”Well, tell your most gallant story then. Come on there are so many Bingo.” Gil replies trying to upsell him to the knights.

“I don’t like the limelight.” Bingo says quietly pretending to be humble for a moment “Ok right. Well probably the best of our tales is where we brought down an entire cult on our own”. Bingo and Gil immediately start scanning the room for reactions to Bingo’s bold statement. They search for anything incriminating, surprised at the boldness of Bingo’s statement. Bingo is taking the opportunity to assert dominance in this room of macho men. Gil sees nothing untoward in the knights, they are just waiting eager to see how this story unfolds. Roland on the other hand, is waiting for Gil and Bingo to tell their side of the story, willing to jump in where necessary.

Čadas interrupts Bingo as he goes to begin to tell the story hiccupping loudly a couple of times before disappearing in a puff of cinnamon and applewood scented smoke. The only people unperturbed by this are our adventuring group, they’re kind of used to him popping in and out randomly at this point. Last time it happened it was a rather loud dramatic sneeze.

Thurl’s demeanour darkens and he says that “There are rumours that great evil lurks among these hills; depraved cultists lead by wretched monsters have been known here. We would appreciate any first-hand accounts you can give.”

“Let me paint you a picture Thurl, thank you for asking.” Bingo says winding up towards a dramatic recounting of their deeds. “imagine if you will, a castle overtaken by creepy water demons and foul creatures. We went in as a lone party and knocked down the gates proceeding to battle every foul beast we came across and rid the land from these water demons.”

“Water demons you say? We haven’t had word of any such water demons.” Thurl replies looking intrigued and a little sceptical.

“Well you know you’re up here in the tower so…” Bingo mumbles.

“We’ve heard some reports of banditry in the area, not near us of course we’d have taken them out long ago if that were the case, but not water demons.” One of the knights interjects before jostling the knight sat next to him jovially.

“Well, I mean, yeah, we could have taken out some bandits like you guys, but we set our sights a little higher.” Bingo says looking down on them in the way only a man of his stature could.

Gil brings the conversation back to the story saying “well if you remember correctly, they weren’t quite water demons but the undead variety. They had some undead rotting things and some witchcraft going on and even a wereboar if memory serves.”

“and a giant kraken” Bingo adds when Gil finishes his list of enemies “that attempted to bring down boats in the harbour.”

“Don’t forget about the water elementals” Roland chimes in looking over to Bingo for a brief moment.

“ah yes those too it was a very exciting couple of days… easy for us though because we are so powerful.” Bingo replies as nonchalantly as he could. Looking at the back of his outstretched hand before turning it over as if to examine his fingernails.

They’ve succeeded in bigging up the heroic deeds of their group, which the knights seem to believe, but they doubt something. Bingo and Gil think it’s the extent of their activities. Bingo notices that they tensed up when they mentioned cults, but they seem to have relaxed a bit from what is seen earlier.

Thurl goes to ask another question but the doors to the feast hall are thrown open and a knight in his armoured riding gear bursts in declaring “Manticore it’s on the move!” All of the Knights drop their food and jump to their feet, silently looking to their commander Thurl Merroska for instruction.

“We should take this opportunity to slay the beast.” He says all eyes on him. From his finger he removes a wing pattered garnet ring holding it aloft and states “A prize for the one who brings me the beasts head. You four stay and set up medical supplies and prepare for veterinarian assistance. This is likely to be a bloody battle.” Bingo assesses the ring now sat on the table, dubious about whether the ring is worth the effort of hunting the manticore and eyes it a little closer. From what he can tell from his past stealing fancy things from rich people that this ring is forth a decent amount.

Roland gets excited about having a proper quest, he feels much more like he is living up to his name with a real quest. Thurl turns to the group after giving instruction to most of the knights. “It looks like you do not need to wait until morning for your flight after all. Are you in?” He askes waiting briefly for a reply. Knowing the ring is expensive Bingo agrees for the whole group and Thurl smiles clapping his hands together. “You there, fetch two hippogriffs to the rooftop.”

They begin their ascent to the rooftop immediately. “Can we not ride the vultures?” Bingo asks a little put out.

“I would recommend the hippogriffs they’re much more likely to listen and not attempt to eat what remains of you if you are thrown off.” He replies as they ascend.

Cybin follows the others as they run out of the room. Thurl suggests that they ride with knights but agrees that they can pair off and fly their own mounts. As they ascend, they pair off into riding pairs, the first pair being Roland and Gil and the second, Cybin and Bingo. When they reach the pinnacle, they see four giant vultures being mounted by the Knights and then diving off the side in a practiced manoeuvre. The moonlight lights up the air around them revealing parts of the canyon below and reflecting off of the misty cloudlike formations turning them into a glittering silver sheet. In the far distance, a single shard of darkness moves in and out of the mist before sinking below it once more.

Two hippogriffs land on the rooftop and they are helped to mount the majestic beasts. They are each given a horn to blow once they sight the Manticore, this will summon the others to assist in taking the beast down. Roland takes the reins of one Hippogriff with Gil’s arm snaking around his waist. The other has Cybin in front with Bingo strapped onto the Hippogriff on shortened stirrups. With a sharp smack to the rump the hippogriffs take off, diving down into the canyon. Unprepared for this Roland panics a little and tries to pull the creature up out of the dive but only succeeds in pulling the reins hard enough to make it wobble. Gil wraps his arms around Roland and steadies his hands. “don’t worry you are always safe with me.” Gil says in Roland’s ears as the Hippogriff regains balance. They hit the updraft from the canyon and level out just below the misty cloudbank which had gathered around the tower.

They strain their eyes looking for the Manticore with no luck but after a while they finally hear a horn in the distance. They try to turn their mounts but end up over correcting them. Where they are trained to go towards the sound of the horn, they were already starting their turn when the riders manually turned them.

Now that things are getting good and they’re headed into combat, Bingo suddenly remembers that he can inspire people and begins to play ride of the Valkyries on his banjo. By the time that they arrive, only one of the two eagles from the patrol party which found the manticore remains in the fight and the other patrol party is visible in the distance. 

Bingo inspires Cybin by singing “and I’m freeeeeee free fallllllin’” before turning the hippogriff beneath himself invisible. Bingo expected that him and Cybin would also turn invisible, but soon realises his mistake as the riding gear attached to the hippogriff turns invisible but not them and their belongings.  This sudden turn of events has Cybin incredibly confused for he can feel the hippogriff but cannot see it. He uses his magic to be able to communicate with the beast, he wants to make sure it is still there but embuses his spores with energy to protect himself just in case.

Gil pulls out his crossbow and shoots at the manticore as they approach. Not used to the bobbing and weaving of both parties flying around in the air, his shot shoots way off. He takes a deep breath; his frustration getting to him and reloads before loosing another bolt. It almost hits this time flying through the space where the manticore was when he pulled the trigger, not quite adjusting for the movement.

Roland summons a bright spiritual fist to knock it out of the sky and misses spectacularly, the manticore twisting and diving beneath it. Unhappy with his attempt to hit it he refocussed his efforts on manoeuvring the hippogriff to intercept the Manticores path. Cybin’s mount replies to him after a moment, saying that it definitely there confused as to why Cybin thinks it isn’t as it can’t see that it is invisible.

Roland quickly learns that flying to the front of the manticore is a bad idea when the remaining Vulture is viciously attacked by manticore. The beast turns and swoops in to attack the manticore tearing at its wing knocking it a little off balance but in turn receives a devastating claw almost severing the beast’s taloned foot from its body. The Manticore rips itself free of the vulture’s claws and shoots tail spikes at its three assailants. The spike goes wide of the Vulture as it dives in retreat with a screech of pain. The other spikes fly on target though, one sinking into the legs of bingo and Gil respectively.

Bingo inspires Gil singing “Jump! for my lo-ove. Jump in! Feel my touch. Jump if you want to taste my kisses in the night, yeah, juuuuuump for my love.” Then, attempts to blind the manticore but falters in his casting as the pain of the attack clouds his mind.

Cybin manoeuvres their hippogriff closer to the manticore, sweeping alongside it and roars thunderously releasing a wave in the air buffeting the manticore throwing it into a backwards roll towards the other hippogriff. As their hippogriff sweeps closer to the tumbling manticore, Gil makes the most of the broken strap of his seat and lunges to the side of the mount maintaining his seat by gripping his dragonborn friend’s tail. He swipes at the manticore with his shark tooth longsword in hand carving gouges deep into its flesh severing a wing completely from its back, as soon as the roar of pain leaves the beasts mouth it begins to plummet to the ground below at the base of the canyon.

The two vulture riders in the distance get to only witness this last spurt of battle on their final approach and follow the others down as they descend. They keep a close eye on the manticore as it attempts to glide with only one of its wings and it hits the ground hard unable to save itself. One of its legs and its head appear to mostly intact from its plummet hundreds of feet to the valley floor but the rest of its body is a mangled mess.

On their descent the group discuss the possibility of commissioning a painting of this event with Gil having leapt off of the hippogriff descending longsword in hand. Roland aglow with holy light, Bingo rugged and manly looking, shredding on his banjo, and Cybin hands on the reins, more presentably dressed. Then realise they have nowhere to hang said painting if they were to commission it. They briefly discuss purchasing a building or other property and consider buying a pub and sacking off the rest of their adventure.

Here, Bingo lets slip that there are things about his past which he is hiding from the group for now. They know that he has unspoken history with Windharrow but expect that he will come clean about it eventually. Bingo is secretly happy that he hasn’t needed to perform at the party due to this event, there will have been plenty of excitement for one night.

Ignoring the bleeding from his thigh, Gil approaches the dead body of the beast and proceeds to crack open the manticores chest peeling back the flesh and splintered bones retrieving the mostly intact heart. Bingo on the other hand, wants to retrieve a tail spike or tooth to use as a pick. Try as he might to retrieve one intact, they’re all broken, destroyed in the impact with the earth. Roland manages to get a couple of teeth from the Manticore’s mouth intact, one he gives to Bingo to use as a pick, and one he keeps for himself to put on a necklace. Bingo responds gratefully “You’re alright Roland. You’re alright.”

Gil turns his focus to retrieving the manticore’s head, it is only partway through sawing it off with his shark-tooth longsword that he suddenly realises that its head is huge. When the vulture riders land, they offer them some rope and assist in harnessing it to the hippogriff.

“You guys don’t take prisoners, do you?” One of them asks looking impressed. Roland in turn looks at them in awe wondering how they take Manticores prisoner and proceeds to ask them about the logistics of such an operation. They look at him confused as to why he doesn’t know the saying and reply “No. We tend to just kill these things.”

“Next time, we will take one alive how about that?” Gil says half joking but half considering the challenge.

“That, I would pay good money to see.” One says laughing at the thought.

“Bard make it make sandwich.” Cybin says before urging their still invisible hippogriff to take off again, bingo on the back too of course.

With our adventurers taking flight once more, their quest to defeat the manticore and bring back its head complete, our session concluded for the evening.

Thank you for joining us on this leg of our journey. I hope you return for the next one!