Session 8 - The Imp
Beginning credits: In This Moment - "In The Air Tonight" [Official Lyric Video]
Title Card: Threshold, Vatermont 27, 1000 AC
Location: The Juggling Ogre, Weather: Partly Cloudy, scattered showers
As the party gathers for another sortie to Mistamere, they notice that Felonious is late. After a few minutes he shows up, looking slightly disheveled, and with him is a young female Guard of the Watch. She looks fairly starstruck, and it isn't hard to figure out what he has been up to. He gives her a little peck on the lips and then runs up to the party, stashing his spellbook in his robes.
The trip back to Mistamere is uneventful, although it is clear that the others are teasing Felonious a bit about his business of the previous night. When they reach Mistatmere, the ruins look abandoned as always.
Fleetwood: "Everybody be careful. Bargle could have replenished his guards by now."
As the party approaches Mistamere, Felonious sees and dodges a thrown pebble. Looking about, he sees no one, but then another pebble clangs off of Fleetwood's armor. There is a scrabbling sound, as though something were running about in the rubble, and a couple of the rocks move, but nothing is there to be seen. A disembodied voice laughs.
Voice: "Ha ha, ho ho, hee hee!"
Fleetwood: "Show yourself!"
The creature does so, appearing right next to him. It clambers up his leg before he can react, and plants a big wet kiss on him a la Bugs Bunny to Elmer Fudd before bouncing off again.
Creature: "MMMMMMMMMWAH!"
Fleetwood: (Disgusted) "Uggh!"
At last they get a good look at the creature - a small, leprechaun like being with pointy ears and an evil smile.
Felonious: "Oh, great. An imp"
Imp: "I love you too, Felonious."
Felonious: "Be careful, these little blighters are tricky."
Fleetwood: "You know this creature?"
Felonious: "If there is a being on Mystara more annoying than Bargle, this is it."
Imp: "But I want to have fun. Master Bargle never lets me play anymore."
Felonious: "Go find someone else to annoy."
Imp: "But if I do that, bad people could get into the castle and steal Master Bargle's treasures. You don't want him to be mad at me do you?"
Felonious: "Better you than me."
Silverleaf: "I kind of like him."
Felonious: "Give it time."
Fleetwood: (Menacingly) "Get out of our way."
Felonious: (sighs) "Here we go."
Imp: "Aww, you're no fun." (Sinister, echoey voice) "Why don't you GO JUMP IN THE LAKE!"
Fleetwood's face goes blank, and he starts to head toward the castle's brackish, moss-choked moat but then he shakes his head and snaps out of it.
Imp: "Not your first rodeo I see." (Wicked laughter)
Greegan tries to hit the creature, but it teleports away suddenly just as his blade is about to strike it.
Silverleaf nocks an arrow and attempts to shoot the creature, but it leaps away.
Imp: "Hotfoot!" She shrieks and leaps away herself as a flash of fire goes up from where she was standing.
Felonious throws a dagger at it, missing it utterly. The creature blows a raspberry at him.
Clarion walks up behind the imp and beans it with her mace. The being tries to teleport away but the power fizzles. The creature seems harmed by the blow.
The imp draws back from Clarion.
Imp: "Aw, phooey. You guys are no fun." It disappears from sight.
Clarion casts about with her mace.
Clarion: "Is it gone?"
Felonious: "You wish."
Silverleaf: "No, he's still here. I can hear him moving around."
Fleetwood: "Maybe we taught it a lesson. Do you want to go on?"
Greegan: "Absolutely. I can't wait to get me mitts on Bargle's treasures." He looks around after saying that, but the imp does not reappear.\
Felonious: "It will take more than an off-brand leprechaun to stop me."
Silverleaf: "Let's go."
Clarion: "The job's not finished." She hefts her mace.
Entrance Hall
Background changes: 4-Hour Dungeon Ambient Music - The Dungeon of the Dark Pyramid
The entrance hall of Mistamere is much as it was before. However, Bargle has left them a new surprise as several ragged-looking humans with dead faces and lifeless eyes shamble out of the darkness to attack them. Fleetwood makes short work of the zombies, hacking them to pieces and then stomping on the remains. Silverleaf hears the imp scuttling along the wall and shoots an arrow at it, but the crafty creature avoids her shaft. She can't tell which way it goes after that.
(It's in the bedroom with the sleep trap)
Fleetwood: "Let's go back where we found the way down." The others agree and they enter the northbound hallway, only to find that the hall has been collapsed, and is impassible, choked with large chunks of masonry from above. The masonry has been festooned with Kobold glyphs that contain a very vulgar invitation to go away in Draconic.
Felonious: "This is the work of those nasty little blighters we ran into before. The message is… well… rather impolite."
Fleetwood: "We're not pushing through that. But there must be a way around - even one of those little lizards couldn't climb through there." Looking around the entrance hall, they find that there are stout wooden doors leading to the east and west. "Well, the stairs down were to the west from this hallway, so maybe there's another passage that way."
West Hall
Greegan checks the door to the west. It isn't locked and he doesn't find any obvious traps, but it makes a ton of noise when he opens it. Inside the room, there are three dilapidated wooden chairs and a pair of small tables near an old fireplace on the north wall. The Kobolds have "decorated" this room with more of their graffiti. A few of them are still here, freshly painting more vulgar signs. They are laughing and joking among themselves about the signs.
Fleetwood's fight with the kobolds is short and brutal - they don't stand a chance against him and he eliminates them ruthlessly. During the fight, Silverleaf hears a scuttling sound in the old chimney, and, thinking it is the imp, launches an arrow towards the source. There is a loud screech and the scuttling noise increases as an enormous bat comes screeching out of a hole in the ceiling.
Silverleaf launches another arrow at the giant bat, but she misses it and it barrels directly into her. She stops its slavering jaws from biting her with her bow, but it is now on top of her and snapping at her face. Fleetwood takes a stab at the bat, but it keeps on snapping at her. Clarion attacks the bat with her mace, but it moves away. Greegan stabs the bat while it is distracted by Clarion, but this more angers it than anything. Felonious pulls a small vial from his robe, downs it, and then blows across his finger while casting a Flame Finger cantrip. The result is similar to the old hairspray and lighter trick. FOOM! The bat isn't killed by the attack but is clearly getting annoyed.
Silverleaf successfully pushes the bat off of herself. Fleetwood stabs the bat again, but then it flies in his face, scratching his face before a second sword thrust finishes it off. The tough warrior is unbothered by the scratches.
Fleetwood: "Is everyone all right?"
Greegan takes the opportunity to search the room, and although initially he only comes up with a lot of trash, he discovers that one of the kobolds had a jagged dagger that looks like the fang of some vicious creature. Among the old junk in the room, he discovers three silver spoons, and a small bag. After looking inside, he gives a quizzical look. Silverleaf looks into the bag, and then throws it to Felonious.
Silverleaf: (Grinning) "Peas."
Storage
After giving Silverleaf a couple of minutes to catch her breath, the party moves on through the archway to the west, into an area crammed full of boxes of various sizes. The boxes are dusty, clearly undisturbed for a long while. Greegan tries one of the boxes, but he can't get it open. As soon as he moves it, a deep voice calls out.
Voice: "Who goes there?"
Silverleaf points to a large chest in the corner, indicating this is where the voice is coming from. Again, she thinks it might be the imp and prepares to launch an arrow.
Greegan: (Also thinking it is the imp) "What's it to ya?"
Voice: "Is Bargle with you?"
Greegan: "He bloody well better not be!"
Voice: "Oh, well then never mind."
Greegan: "Baaah." He throws open the chest, but it is empty. "Bollocks! Bloody Bargle!"
After taking some time to search, it becomes obvious that all of the boxes are empty.
Closet
Moving on, they discover a doorway to the northeast, that leads into the closet where Greegan found the decayed hat before. The room is much as it was before, except that now someone has placed some glowing crystals on the floor that pulsate with a reassuring light and take up the lullaby from the bedroom. Felonious picks up a luminous crystal shard and finds it humming with power. Turning it over and over in his hands, he discovers writing on it, but it is in a script he doesn't know. Looking over his shoulder, Clarion examines the inscription.
Clarion: "Those runes are ancient Thyatian, from the Celestial Lyceum.
"Bound by light, the hollow sighs,
Unseen truths where shadows lie.
Through glowing shard, the path unveils,
To breach the ward where darkness hails."
Felonious: "But what's it doing here? I haven't heard anything about the Celestial Lyceum in Threshold." He hands the crystal to Clarion. "Regardless, sounds like this is more your bailiwick than mine."
Clarion: "Perhaps we'll find out yet."
Bedroom
The party emerges into the moldy bedroom with the sleep trap. It does not look any different, except that there is now a regal-looking woman lying asleep on the bed. She appears to be wearing the robe of Thyatian royalty.
Fleetwood: "It's a princess…"
Felonious: "No it bloody well isn't." Retrieving the bag of dried peas, he tosses one at the "princess" and it goes right through her. "I know you're here somewhere, you little bugger."
Imp: "Jiggery-pokey" Felonious tries futilely to dodge but he has no idea where the attack is coming from - suddenly his robe is blown by a strong wind, exposing his undergarments and forcing him to cover himself like Marilyn Monroe.
Felonious: "Why you little…"
Imp: "And here I thought Glantrians didn't wear anything under their robe."
Silverleaf nocks and arrow and fires it, not at where the creature is, but where she anticipates that it will blink to. There is a screech of pain from the invisible creature.
Silverleaf: "Shouldn't gloat so much."
Greegan throws the dagger that he took off the kobold corpse at the imp - it clatters to the floor uselessly as the creature blinks away.
Imp: "You're getting warmer."
Greegan: "Yeeeow!" Flames come out from under his leather jerkin. He isn't hurt but is distracted by trying to put them out. Fleetwood attempts to gauge where the creature is at, and, seeing movement out of the corner of his eye, lunges - directly into the bedroom curtains, which come alive and try to strangle him. He manages to keep the animated curtains from choking him, but is still stuck within several yards of fabric. Clarion casts about with her mace in an attempt to find the creature, but suddenly her boots turn to glue and she is stuck to the floor.
Clarion intones the blessing of Chardastes, ringing her chime - There is a loud "Bong" like a church bell in return, and the imp becomes visible. Greegan throws another dagger at it, but the creature teleports away. Likewise, Silverleaf's arrow misses it as it blinks away, and she dives behind the bed as it lobs a fireball at her.
Fleetwood: "Raaaaaaaaah" He tears through the curtains.
Felonious shrugs and tries to cast a magic missile spell at the imp. Unfortunately, he didn't count on the imp's magic resistance, and the missiles go flying wildly. He jumps out of the way and ends up lying on the floor, covering his head. Clarion likewise ducks, Greegan dodges the spell, Fleetwood bats it away with his shield, Silverleaf is struck but is unhurt by the attack.
Greegan: "Bloody hell, mate. Don't do that again."
Fleetwood finally hits the creature. It looks tired, but not hurt by the attack. Silverleaf tries to shoot it again, but her shot goes wild. Greegan and Felonious climb unsteadily to their feet. Silverleaf's shot hits Clarion instead of the creature she was aiming for - and Clarion falls to the floor in a heap.
Fleetwood decides that it is time to end this and presses his attack on the creature. It draws back from him, obviously wounded by the blow.
Imp: "This has been fun, but I gotta run. See you all in hell." It vanishes in a flash of fire.
Fleetwood runs to Clarion, who is badly wounded by Silverleaf's errant arrow. Thinking quickly, he removes the arrow and gives her a draft of the healing potion the druid gave him. The potion bottle is drained. Clarion's eyes flutter open.
Clarion: "That's twice you've saved me." She clings to his cloak for a moment, and then stands up.
Silverleaf: "I'm so sorry. I was trying to hit the creature."
Clarion: "I know, dear one. But I survived. And now we have a wizard to manage."
Fleetwood: (Asks Felonious) "Is it dead?"
Felonious: "I don't know if you *can* kill it. But it's gone… for now."
The party leaves the devastated bedroom, and heads for the stairs going down.
(fade to black)