Thursday, October 6, 2011

Hell's Gambit

This is an incident that occurred in my Dungeons and Dragons game last Friday. It's a dark fantasy/horror game with an empahsis on the supernatural and the influences of Hell. Here's a bit of back story into my game, which is called Hell's Gambit. Hell's Gambit is a continuation of last semester's game, Hell Child, in which the succubus Alianna managed to to seduce, be impregnated by, and get the soul of Gant Arrow, a sociopath high elf who has a strong superiority complex. Besides Gant Arrow, here's the list of characters:

Vladmir Dostoevsky: a male paladin for Bahamut, the god of justice and metallic dragons. Has amnesia. Alianna had been trying to corrupt him, but gave up and went after Gant Arrow as a break from trying to break him. Vladmir's usually been a very reactionary person. Vladmir had an artifact called the Deck of Many Things, an artifact of sheer chaos and power. He had been recently kidnapped, and as of the beginning of this particular D&D session has only returned to the group just now. He remembers a fellow paladin, Sir Sampson, was capture also. Sir Sampson was brought into a room with Alianna, and after a blue light flashed in the room, Sir Sampson vanished. Vladmir escaped in the confusion, without the Deck of Many Things.

Didier: A male elf who is the sniper of the group. His village had been wiped by Alianna just for fun. He's very quiet but extremely good at his job, so everyone lets him be.

Poultrin: Deceased, but a former vessel of the Goddess of Love, who had descended to Hell to steal Alianna's child from her. He named the half devil baby he retrieved Celeste. He died later in a fight with two dragons, dying as a result of Gant Arrow not knowing how to heal him.

Thade and Ila: A dark and high elf married couple who were on the run from Ila's parents, the Merinbornes, who were not happy with her marriage. They had stumbled acrost the rest of the characters, and had been offered a fortune by Alianna to get Celeste back. They told her to "piss off", and that they would raise Celeste to be good and grow beyond her hellish origins. Alianna swore revenge upon these two. Thade has a bear named Ubin, a loyal and much-loved animal companion.

Valenae: A high elf psion. Her husband, who was a powerful mage, and new-born son had been killed by a medusa, whom the other characters killed. She was brought in to the group to be the wetnurse of Celeste. She randomly developed  a vast amount of psionic power, which she learned to control almost immediately. The current theory is that because of her exposure to magic and its intellectual control she is able to control her vast amount of power so well.

Collectively, these heroes are known as the BB Squad. 

The Story
The BB Squad had decided to take down the goblin town Billi, which had slaughtered every elf that lived in a ghetto in the slums of the town. The elves were besieging the town, but had lost 2/3's of their army (10,000!) to the town because Billi's seer was so proficient at his job. Since the BB Squad had locks of a medusa's head they found that  they weren't included in the seer's visions, so they decided they would destroy the town. They grabbed three ingredients: kerosene, bee's wax, and sawdust. All three of these ingredients are the basic make up of medieval napalm. Through a stunning display of tactics and stealth the Squad managed to lace the entire town of Billi with over 600 pounds of napalm. Vladmir brought several catapults within range of the city, and had them ready to go and light the town on fire. It was an almost perfect display of stealth and teamwork.

Almost.

Thade was captured during the operation, and was dragged into the main town hall, where the goblins were celebrating. Gant and Didier followed, hoping to rescue their comrade.

It turns out that the seer had foreseen danger to himself, and so he was gotten out of the city several hours ago. The goblins were celebrating because they had managed to keep their greatest weapon safe. Standing in the middle of them was Alianna, who was holding a dagger to Ila's throat and had Celeste strapped to her back. Alianna grinned at Thade, and said "Watch this".

Ila's blood went all over the goblins, who cheered at the death of another elf.

Right about this moment Thade lost his mind, and he burst out of his ropes. Gant and Didier broke in some of the windows and started sniping into the crowd, aiding to the confusion. Thade charged Alianna, grabbing her and biting into her neck savagely, ripping out a good chunk of her throat, barely missing her jugular vein. As he ripped through Alianna's neck the goblins began to unload countless crossbow bolts into Thade, mortally wounding him.

Valanae, who had been lacing the outside walls with napalm, was finished with her job and lit the walls up as the signal. Vladmir launched the catapults, and the city began to burn in earnest.

Alianna escaped from Thade's grip and started stumbling through the crowd, trying to get away before she lost too much blood. Seizing the moment Didier cocked an arrow, and Alianna fell to the ground. The Squad's primary antagonist was dead.  Thade whistled for Ubin, and started killing goblins with his bare hands. Ubin busted through the doors five minutes later with Valanae in tow. Valanae grabbed Celeste and headed for the exit, barely escaping with Didier and Gant as the fire reached raised temperatures easily 150+ degrees.

But Thade didn't follow. He stayed behind, if only to rip apart and destroy Alianna's body to ensure that nothing could resurrect the succubus.
As he ripped open her stomach a bright blue light blinded him and everyone within miles for a few minutes. When the light died down Alianna's remains were gone, a burn spot being all that remained.

Thade shrugged, and started slaughtering as many goblins as possible with his beloved bear. After killing approximately 40 goblins Thade made a pile, and put his wife's corpse on it. He called his bear over, and talked to his softly one last time, scratching it behind the ears.

Thade slit Ubin's throat.

As the flames built up around him Thade raised his knife and screamed to the Goddess of Death, the Raven Queen. He cried that Alianna had taken the only thing he had ever truly cared for, and that he was finished living. Offering his beloved bear's blood as a sacrifice he swore an oath. Until Alianna and all her kind was extinguished he would forever hunt them, and he asked for the Raven Queen's permission to let him live on as a spirit of vengeance and death in her service. He raised his knife to the heavens and begged the Raven Queen to honor his demand. Lightning lanced down and struck his knife, causing it to burn a fire dark and horrid. Satisfied, Thade laid upon the pile and was consumed.

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