Adventures

Serving Beauty

Gurps final round

Serving Beauty is a 2 round tournament event. Two first round adventures and one second round adventure.

Overview:

In the first round adventures, a powerful mage recruits the PC’s to retrieve a magic item. The magic item, when combined with the item the other party retrieved, makes a very powerful combination. The mage tells them that she only wants the items to protect them. They are too powerful to let fall into the wrong hands

This is the second round of this adventure. Lady Elizabeth has obtained both magic items and uses them to summon a demon.

Beginning -

Lady Elizabeth, after getting both magic items she sought, casts the spell to summon a deamon. When cast the demon takes possession of her body. When cast, the players hear an unearthly shriek coming from the direction of Lady Elizabeth’s home.

The town guard rushed to see what was causing the horrible shrieking, and the characters should as well. When they arrive, they will see a shack where her estate used to stand. The house looks like it has sat unoccupied for years, and the lawn is filled with weeds, and open patches of dirt, instead of the beautiful garden, and well kept lawn.

As they enter her once beautiful house, the interior is in shambles. Not only is it dusty, and unkempt, but there are parts of it burning. Some town guard are lying dead in the hallway, and Elrond is laying in the corner, mortally wounded. He looks as though he has been thrown into the wall with a great force. Laying around Elrond is the crystal ball that sat in the corner of the room, shattered.

When they ask what happened, he will recount the tale. Lady Elizabeth, after getting both of the magic items, found the spell to summon a demon. She cast the spell in hopes of controlling the demon. Unfortunately, she did not research the spell far enough to know that it would possess her, and as the demon came into this plane, she was overtaken by it. The town guard showed up and she threw several fireballs before fleeing through the hole in the wall.

Elrond will tell them that he thinks that the demon hasn’t completed its entry into this plane, and needs to cast another powerful spell to complete his entrance into this plane. He knows that it will need to go somewhere private in order to cast this spell. He knows that the demon headed down the road, out of town. He will tell them where it is. Elrond points the characters to a local mage that may know more about how to stop the demon.

Elrond is very seriously injured, and will not be able to travel with the party. He needs to rest in order to heal. If asked to come along, he will decline.

Local Mage

His name is Logar. He is well known among the townspeople, and is well received. He will be able to tell the party a little more about the demon, after they tell him what she used to summon it. He won’t know too much about it however. He will point them to the church of Thikis. He knows that this is a demon from the Rage of Thikis, and they should be able to help. The nearest church is in Theowald.

Church of Thikis

The church is about a half day ride from Vaslick. When the party arrives, they will be able to find the church quite easily. If they stopped at Rowis first, someone here saw them enter the church, and they will not readily let the party in. Bribes will do the trick.

The church does not seem very helpful at first. They will not open up about what they need to do until a significant contribution is made, or the characters promise to return the Rage of Thikis, and the amulet to them.

The church will tell the party that the demon isn’t fully in this plane yet. That is why it took over Lady Elizabeth’s body. It will find some secluded place in order to finish the ceremony to bring itself into this world. In order to do this however it will probably summon smaller minions to assist in the casting of the spell. It will also sacrifice the body it posses at the end of the ceremony to fully bring itself into the world.

They can tell the players that in order to stop the demon, it must be splashed with the holy water of Thikis, and the holy water of Rowis. In times past, these two waters would mix happily, but since the couple is at war, so are their holy waters. If the host body is killed, the demon can move to another body. The holy waters force it out and prevent it from entering a new host.

The church will caution them to keep the two waters separate, until they splash them on the demon’s host, because there is quite a violent reaction when the two waters are mixed.

Church of Rowis

If they come here first, they will have no problems entering the church, and gaining the information. However, if the party goes to the church of Thikis first, the church of Rowis will be against even letting the party into their sanctum. One of the members of the church saw them entering the Church of Thikis, and they are worried about an attack.

The party will have to persuade them, by donation, promise of favors, etc, in order to gain entrance. Once inside, the party may explain the situation, and after several contributions to the church, they will allow them to take some of the holy water of Rowis.

Finding the demon

Lady Elizabeth will be easy to find. There have been reports of odd noises from an abandoned barn a little ways out of town. Locals say that they have heard chanting from there. The barn isn’t far from a main road, and travelers will have seen movement there, and heard noises as well.

The Farm

There is a farmhouse and a barn. Inside the farmhouse they will find a man, woman, and two small children who have been killed by the demons. The bodies have claw marks on them, and are sitting in their own blood. There is nothing else of use, or interest in the house.

They will find that the barn is definitely being occupied. As they draw nearer, they will be able to hear the chanting coming from inside.

There is light coming from the holes in the walls of the barn. It smells of old hay, manure, the terrible stench put forth by the minions themselves, mingled with a cinomonny smell.

They will see that there are some decent sized minions posted at the entrances to keep any unwelcome visitors out. In order to enter, they will have to defeat these minions. They cannot risk waiting long, because the ceremony could be done soon.

There are about 20 minions around Lady Elizabeth chanting. She is in the middle of a large symbol on the ground. The symbol was drawn in the hay and dirt on the floor. Both the minions, and Lady Elizabeth seem oblivious to anything other than the chant. The symbol is glowing. There is an ornate staff lying in her lap. This is probably what created the glow seen from outside.

Inside the barn, they can walk around as much as they want. However, if they attack the minions, or disturb the chant in any way, Lady Elizabeth will look up with glowing red eyes, and a booming voice, and order about 6 of the minions to kill the intruders. Then, she will go back into the chanting, however, she will keep an eye on them during their battle.

When the party kills one of the minions they are battling, another will come to take its place.

If the fight is too easy -

Lady Elizabeth will pick up the ornate staff lying in her lap, and pound it on the ground twice. Lightning will come from the staff, and hit several of the minions that they are fighting. The minions struck by the lightning will become enraged (as per the enrage spell), and be much harder to kill.

Wrap-up

After the demon is forced from Lady Elizabeth’s body, she goes unconscious. After they destroy the demon, and the remaining minions they can wake her up. They will notice that she doesn’t have the powerful aura about her that she had when they first met her.

When she awakes, she will ask what happened when she summoned the demon. She will be very scared. After they explain to her what has happened, she will beg for their mercy. She was only trying to gain some respect, and she knew that having a demon under her control would gain her respect from other mages, as well as the rest of the world. She did not mean for it to get out of control.

They can search for the book and destroy it if they would like, but Lady Elizabeth will be of no help in locating it, as she does not remember anything about when she was possessed. The amulet that Lady Elizabeth is wearing was destroyed when the demon was pushed from her body. It now hangs from her neck, broken, and dull.

They can escort Lady Elizabeth back to her home. When she gets there, she will break down into tears, because her house is destroyed. It is now a shack. Her ‘Artificial Archmage’ was destroyed when the demon threw Elrond into it.